Many things in life are transient, here today, gone tommorrow, but in the life of a christian the most important things are everlasting. God's love and His words of truth are always with us and as long as we honestly seek Him He will not abandon us but when we stubbornly insist on doing things our own way for too long there can be consequences for ourselves, mind, body and soul that are not always apparent. Many people down this road continue on through life believing they are in control and that they can turn back when they want but often on the way to that point they do not realize they have forgotten about the real depth of the bountiful love and grace of God. In such a dog eat dog, every man for himself cynical world the recognition of traits such as love, forgiveness and grace can slowly erode away becoming unrealistic in the minds of some as the perception of their relevance begins to wane and then all but disappear. Such is the trouble for some when they finally need God's help once again. It must be a wrenching gut check to reach that point running from God then come under conviction faced with the false perception of their own unforgiveable self. We should pray that people reaching such a point, the young with illness or the old near life's end, do not harden their hearts but instead realize again God's love, relent and humble their hearts toward God and ask His forgiveness.
At such a time asking forgiveness, for some, can tragically seem to be insufficient because the evil one has spent much time telling people that it is an eye for an eye, that God's grace no longer applies to them, that the debt is now stacked too high for them, that they must atone proportionately for what they have done because they have become caught up in the natural physical world where things must be balanced according to the natual mind or fallen mind state and thusly in such a mind state the logical conclusion, the evil one has worked so hard to achieve in you, is that there is nothing one could do to atone for continued waywardness and so pursuing God again must be futile. If you have been around many of these people, especially the elderly, you see some that have almost completely lost their perception of forgiveness and not only for themselves but for others as well. Many forget God's love. It is amazing how the awareness of the grace of God's love leaves the mind of those who leave God or think they leave God. But it is a lie. God's love never leaves you. What leaves you is your own realization of it. You forget the abounding grace, forgiveness and love of God. The danger is in your forgeting, not God abandoning you. The trouble is your mind can be very influenced by the spiritual state of your heart and soul. You think you are in control, that you can wander out away from God, all the time saying to yourself you are only wandering out a little way but the deteriorating condition of your spiritual state begins to effect your mind causing you to forget prayer and the ways of God. You forget the benefit of His love then you forget His love for you.
The evil one plays guilt like a tenor drum set on your head causing you to believe you must make some colossal sacrifice to ever find approval from God again, or that you are different, that you have been put aside for special punishment because you have really blown it this time but you must look back to the cross and the sacrifice Jesus made there for you. He did not make it to hold against you in your time of trouble, He made it for you to bridge your way back to God, to break the spell that this world would have over you. That is how much He loves you and He does not give up on you. It is said that it is the doom of men that they forget and since the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, what could be more true.
Your first steps back are the steps that love would take, the steps that love would take in each facet of the situation you now face as you re-learn the heart of love. One step at a time we rediscover and re-establish the reality of God's love in our lives as Jesus carefully heals our spirit and heart allowing us to rest and abide in the warmth of God's reality and God's kingdom. Once again our hearts can humbly yield to God's love, wisdom and direction.
For some it can be difficult to realize the hope of bringing the heart and spirit back into fellowship with God but the sacrifice of Jesus's blood on the cross overcomes the strongest chains of darkness and sometimes one of those strongest chains is a falsely perceived irrevocable condition caused by self-condeming guilt which stems from simply forgetting the real power of God's love. The truth is if you are concerned or worried about any of this the spell you have been under is already beginning to crumble so reach out now and begin again by embracing His love and grace bought by Jesus with the ultimate price so that no scheme of darkness should prevail over you. May we all find and retain the realization of God's love for us. May we all find our way back home.
1 comment :
"not dark yet, but it's gettin' there," says Bob, and then, "if the rain don't stop the levee's gonna break," and there are sure enough big changes coming Doug, no doubt about it, Barack looks positive to me though, even my Republican friends say he is the next president, maybe a healing touch for y'all, I hope so
but as for me I am losing it, both personally and every other way, just managing to tread water and having trouble making any kind of sense whatsoever, more and more like a refugee in my own country ... and everywhere else too for that matter (duh! logical eh?!)
"every heart to love will come, but like a refugee," says Leonard Cohen, not much comfort there really, but some I guess
nothing here since March?
be well.
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