Living in contentment
“...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances”
(Philippians 4:11, NIV)
TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria
In life, it’s easy to get so focused on our dreams and goals, the things we want, that it consumes us. We can get to the point where we’re not happy, and we’re not going to be happy until it happens. But I’ve found that if we have to have something in order to be happy, our lives are out of balance. When our goals and dreams start to frustrate us, and we lose our peace and we’re not enjoying life, that’s a sure sign that we’re holding on too tightly. What’s the solution? You’ve got to release it. Freedom comes when you say, “God, I’m turning it all over to You. You know my desires, and You know what’s best for me. I’m choosing to trust You and Your timing.”
When we learn to be content whatever the circumstances, the power of the enemy is broken. It takes away his ability to frustrate us. Not only that, but by our actions we are showing our faith in God. When you choose to trust in His timing, you can live in peace, you can live in joy, and you can rest in Him, knowing that He has good things in store for your future!
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, today I choose to trust in You. I release frustration over the dreams and desires in my heart, knowing that You know what’s best for me. I choose to trust in Your timing because You are faithful, and I will bless You in all things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
— Joel & Victoria Osteen
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
The King is right here!
The King is right here!
"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV
This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.
Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.
However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.
Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.
"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV
This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.
Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.
However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.
Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.
The King is right here!
The King is right here!
"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV
This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.
Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.
However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.
Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.
"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV
This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.
Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.
However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.
Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.
The King is right here!
The King is right here!
"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV
This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.
Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.
However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.
Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.
"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV
This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.
Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.
However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!
Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.
Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
The Problem of Patience
The Problem of Patience
Read James 5:7-11
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9 Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (TNIV)
I get so impatient about my lack of patience. I impatiently pray for patience on a regular basis! In a world where we are urged to upgrade computers to save a nanosecond or two, patience is an old-fashioned virtue. Getting somewhere fast, getting what we want now, getting immediate answers or information are the common currency of everyday life. As against this, James in this passage has us look at the farmer who having sown a crop can’t reap it immediately. Waiting is the name of the game, and waiting is never easy. Faith at times is simply about waiting. God will be true to his promises, but when? And how? The old-time prophets knew this waiting game well. So did Job.
God can sometimes act with stunning speed. Other times he takes his time. He knows character can’t be produced instantly, he knows he is working with stubborn and resistant material as he works out his good purposes. He doesn’t tend to take shortcuts either. If we insist God speeds things up, we will get frustrated and James suggests we will start complaining. A grumbling spirit arises out of frustration that things aren’t the way we want them to be.
And yet patience is not passive. The farmer has to sow the crop, the Old Testament prophets had to proclaim God’s word. Job wrestled and prayed. A favourite writer Henri Nouwen reminds me that patience will have us enter fully into the present moment, tasting the here and now rather than fearfully and impatiently craning our heads to see what is going to happen next. We figure the treasure we look for is around the corner, and we are badgering God to make it happen now if not sooner. Nouwen reminds me that the treasure we so often look for is so often hidden in the ground on which we now stand.
Patience allows us to discern God in the present moment rather than missing out on him because we are wondering what the future will bring and when it will come. God is to be found not in our anxious, impatient insistence for a change of circumstances, but rather in the present circumstances. Waiting for God to act in some way in the future must never blind us to his acting in some way in the present. Patience is not inactivity, but is a willingness to wait and embrace the activity of God in the present even as we have our hopes and dreams for the future.
Blessings
David Reay
A
Read James 5:7-11
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9 Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (TNIV)
I get so impatient about my lack of patience. I impatiently pray for patience on a regular basis! In a world where we are urged to upgrade computers to save a nanosecond or two, patience is an old-fashioned virtue. Getting somewhere fast, getting what we want now, getting immediate answers or information are the common currency of everyday life. As against this, James in this passage has us look at the farmer who having sown a crop can’t reap it immediately. Waiting is the name of the game, and waiting is never easy. Faith at times is simply about waiting. God will be true to his promises, but when? And how? The old-time prophets knew this waiting game well. So did Job.
God can sometimes act with stunning speed. Other times he takes his time. He knows character can’t be produced instantly, he knows he is working with stubborn and resistant material as he works out his good purposes. He doesn’t tend to take shortcuts either. If we insist God speeds things up, we will get frustrated and James suggests we will start complaining. A grumbling spirit arises out of frustration that things aren’t the way we want them to be.
And yet patience is not passive. The farmer has to sow the crop, the Old Testament prophets had to proclaim God’s word. Job wrestled and prayed. A favourite writer Henri Nouwen reminds me that patience will have us enter fully into the present moment, tasting the here and now rather than fearfully and impatiently craning our heads to see what is going to happen next. We figure the treasure we look for is around the corner, and we are badgering God to make it happen now if not sooner. Nouwen reminds me that the treasure we so often look for is so often hidden in the ground on which we now stand.
Patience allows us to discern God in the present moment rather than missing out on him because we are wondering what the future will bring and when it will come. God is to be found not in our anxious, impatient insistence for a change of circumstances, but rather in the present circumstances. Waiting for God to act in some way in the future must never blind us to his acting in some way in the present. Patience is not inactivity, but is a willingness to wait and embrace the activity of God in the present even as we have our hopes and dreams for the future.
Blessings
David Reay
A
Hungering for Heroes
Hungering for Heroes
Read 1 Corinthians 3:3-5
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere human beings? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (TNIV)
We have a longing for heroes. Those who will be shining examples of faith and hope and love. We might project these longings onto certain individuals and begin to believe they have the answers, that they have got it together. We start comparing ourselves with them and coming up short. We admire giants of the faith as if they are over and above the mundane troubling realities of our lives.
This leads to some problems. One is that we lose biblical realism. We fail to grasp the fact that the great ones of faith are not perfect, and whatever faith they have has come through hard times. A reading of Hebrews 11 brings us down to earth.
The other problem is that we begin to despair of our own comparative lack of faith or hope or love. We can never measure up and so put ourselves down as inadequate Christians who haven’t made the grade. Compulsive comparison is the death of true contentment. We all fall short of the glory of God, whether we go by the name of Moses, Abraham, or our own names.
And then we might find ourselves falling into the Corinthian error. The Corinthian Christians seemed to exalt individual personalities. They attached themselves to whoever seemed to be the most impressive leader. They fell prey to a guru mentality. Doing this means we unfairly idealise such leaders so when they prove to be only too human our faith is shattered. And doing this means we take our focus off the one person we can truly look up to: Jesus. If we are to have heroes, make Jesus the one.
Blessings
David Reay
Read 1 Corinthians 3:3-5
You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere human beings? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (TNIV)
We have a longing for heroes. Those who will be shining examples of faith and hope and love. We might project these longings onto certain individuals and begin to believe they have the answers, that they have got it together. We start comparing ourselves with them and coming up short. We admire giants of the faith as if they are over and above the mundane troubling realities of our lives.
This leads to some problems. One is that we lose biblical realism. We fail to grasp the fact that the great ones of faith are not perfect, and whatever faith they have has come through hard times. A reading of Hebrews 11 brings us down to earth.
The other problem is that we begin to despair of our own comparative lack of faith or hope or love. We can never measure up and so put ourselves down as inadequate Christians who haven’t made the grade. Compulsive comparison is the death of true contentment. We all fall short of the glory of God, whether we go by the name of Moses, Abraham, or our own names.
And then we might find ourselves falling into the Corinthian error. The Corinthian Christians seemed to exalt individual personalities. They attached themselves to whoever seemed to be the most impressive leader. They fell prey to a guru mentality. Doing this means we unfairly idealise such leaders so when they prove to be only too human our faith is shattered. And doing this means we take our focus off the one person we can truly look up to: Jesus. If we are to have heroes, make Jesus the one.
Blessings
David Reay
Friday, July 6, 2012
GUILT
GUILT
Morning Devotions with Chris Witts
Psalm 32 – re guilt.
If you’ve ever studied something of the 2nd world war, you might know the name Albert Speer. He was Hitler’s chief architect in Nazi Germany and rose to great power within Hitler’s party. At the Nuremberg trial in 1945, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and wrote extensively about that period of his life. He was the only one of the 24 war criminals who admitted his guilt. He acknowledged that he felt "personal guilt" for what had happened and the tragedy of so many lives lost, and he accepted responsibility for it because he had been part of the Nazi regime. Later in life he went to London and the US and was interviewed one day on the ABC ‘s “Good Morning America” TV show.
The interviewer referred to a passage in one of Speer’s earlier writings and said to him: “You have said the guilt can never be forgiven, or shouldn’t be. Do you still feel that way?” The look of pathos on Speer’s face was wrenching as he responded, “I served a sentence of twenty years, and I could say, “I’m a free man, my conscience has been cleared by serving the whole time as punishment.” But I can’t do that. I still carry the burden of what happened to millions of people during Hitler’s lifetime, and I can’t get rid of it. This new book is part of my atoning, of clearing my conscience.” The interviewer pressed the point. “You really don’t think you’ll be able to clear it totally?” Speer shook his head. “I don’t think it will be possible.”
For thirty-five years Speer had accepted complete responsibility for his crime. His writings were filled with contrition and warnings to others to avoid his moral sin. He desperately sought a way to make amends for his sin. All to no avail. He died an old man in 1981.
Anne Graham Lotz wrote, “ God has built into each of us an alarm system to warn us of the unwanted entry of sin into our lives. The alarm system is called guilt. In our pleasure-seeking, anything-goes, feel-good society, guilt is a problem We run from it.” Do people feel guilt today? I’m sure they do. But we try to not to think about it, ignoring those feelings, hoping they will go away. When the movie “The Passion of the Christ” was showing in theatres across the nation, more than 70,000 reports came in of the film helping people. At least 4 criminals confessed to crimes they had committed including bombings, robberies, and one murder.
In Arizona, Turner Lee Bingham, 20, walked up to a store about eight minutes after the alarm sounded and apologized to police for taking $80 from the register before confessing to five or six burglaries at other places. Bingham had seen “The Passion” with his mother, and he felt guilty, the store owner, Tobias Bright, said police told him. “I’ve seen the movie myself,” Bright said. “I think it’s the kind of movie that makes you stop and think about things for a minute.” The store owner, who identified himself as a Christian, said he wished Bingham would have felt guilty “20 minutes earlier, before he took a baseball bat to one of my windows.”
Guilt plagues everyone to some degree, for we all have to lay our heads on our pillow at night and accept the fact that we have not done as well as we could have done. One Christian psychologist recently stated that "Guilt is the most difficult problem in the whole realm of psychological therapy." One little boy was asked to define guilt. He said he wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he thought it had something to do with feeling bad when he kicked girls!
David said in Psalm 40:12 “Problems far too big for me to solve are piled higher than my head. Meanwhile my sins, too many to count, have caught up with me, and I’m ashamed to look up.” (LB)
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt ashamed to look up?
Our guilt can make us ashamed to ask God for help. But God knows all about your sins and your failures, and he loves you anyway. He is ready to forgive all of them if you will just humble yourself and ask him to forgive you.
Is there any sin that God cannot forgive?
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9 (NKJV).
Getting back to David, he made a tremendous decision as he prayed to God.. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32:5 (NLT)
In I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away”.
Morning Devotions with Chris Witts
Psalm 32 – re guilt.
If you’ve ever studied something of the 2nd world war, you might know the name Albert Speer. He was Hitler’s chief architect in Nazi Germany and rose to great power within Hitler’s party. At the Nuremberg trial in 1945, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and wrote extensively about that period of his life. He was the only one of the 24 war criminals who admitted his guilt. He acknowledged that he felt "personal guilt" for what had happened and the tragedy of so many lives lost, and he accepted responsibility for it because he had been part of the Nazi regime. Later in life he went to London and the US and was interviewed one day on the ABC ‘s “Good Morning America” TV show.
The interviewer referred to a passage in one of Speer’s earlier writings and said to him: “You have said the guilt can never be forgiven, or shouldn’t be. Do you still feel that way?” The look of pathos on Speer’s face was wrenching as he responded, “I served a sentence of twenty years, and I could say, “I’m a free man, my conscience has been cleared by serving the whole time as punishment.” But I can’t do that. I still carry the burden of what happened to millions of people during Hitler’s lifetime, and I can’t get rid of it. This new book is part of my atoning, of clearing my conscience.” The interviewer pressed the point. “You really don’t think you’ll be able to clear it totally?” Speer shook his head. “I don’t think it will be possible.”
For thirty-five years Speer had accepted complete responsibility for his crime. His writings were filled with contrition and warnings to others to avoid his moral sin. He desperately sought a way to make amends for his sin. All to no avail. He died an old man in 1981.
Anne Graham Lotz wrote, “ God has built into each of us an alarm system to warn us of the unwanted entry of sin into our lives. The alarm system is called guilt. In our pleasure-seeking, anything-goes, feel-good society, guilt is a problem We run from it.” Do people feel guilt today? I’m sure they do. But we try to not to think about it, ignoring those feelings, hoping they will go away. When the movie “The Passion of the Christ” was showing in theatres across the nation, more than 70,000 reports came in of the film helping people. At least 4 criminals confessed to crimes they had committed including bombings, robberies, and one murder.
In Arizona, Turner Lee Bingham, 20, walked up to a store about eight minutes after the alarm sounded and apologized to police for taking $80 from the register before confessing to five or six burglaries at other places. Bingham had seen “The Passion” with his mother, and he felt guilty, the store owner, Tobias Bright, said police told him. “I’ve seen the movie myself,” Bright said. “I think it’s the kind of movie that makes you stop and think about things for a minute.” The store owner, who identified himself as a Christian, said he wished Bingham would have felt guilty “20 minutes earlier, before he took a baseball bat to one of my windows.”
Guilt plagues everyone to some degree, for we all have to lay our heads on our pillow at night and accept the fact that we have not done as well as we could have done. One Christian psychologist recently stated that "Guilt is the most difficult problem in the whole realm of psychological therapy." One little boy was asked to define guilt. He said he wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he thought it had something to do with feeling bad when he kicked girls!
David said in Psalm 40:12 “Problems far too big for me to solve are piled higher than my head. Meanwhile my sins, too many to count, have caught up with me, and I’m ashamed to look up.” (LB)
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt ashamed to look up?
Our guilt can make us ashamed to ask God for help. But God knows all about your sins and your failures, and he loves you anyway. He is ready to forgive all of them if you will just humble yourself and ask him to forgive you.
Is there any sin that God cannot forgive?
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9 (NKJV).
Getting back to David, he made a tremendous decision as he prayed to God.. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32:5 (NLT)
In I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away”.
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