I'll never forget the moment I opened my heart to Jesus. I poured out my heart and soul to Him, confessed my sinfullness and laid before Him my trespasses up to that point in my life and the ones to come.
Moments later I felt light. All of the burden of my sin had been lifted.
Then one day I was overcome with guilt. Satan had tricked me into believing that I had not been forgiven and I found myself asking for forgiveness again. Like Beth, I didn't feel any better. The more I confessed this sin, the worse I felt. Finally I realized what I was doing.
I was doubting God.
That sin was worse than the one I'd already received forgiveness for.
For whatever reason, sometimes we doubt God. We shouldn't. Satan has a way of reminding us that we are unworthy of the promises of God. Not just reminding us because I think maybe we should never forget that, but he makes us dwell in that unworthiness. When we dwell in that place for very long, we begin to doubt. Doubt causes us to become faithless in what God has already done.
God is the only one we can depend on. God always keeps His promises.
We should always accept His forgiveness even though we know we are undeserving. We should never forget we are undeserving as that can make us prideful and undermine God's authority.
Let us walk with heads held high. He has provided a way for us to be free of our sin. Praise God!
God is such a loving God. I'm so thankful for that, because when I feel unworthy he is right there to lift my chin. It is amazing how he uses people around me to show his love for me. I have dealt with not being able to forgive myself and struggled for many years by not letting Him forgive me. As I grow stronger as a Christian it is so much easier to just let him take it off my shoulders. However, the devil is always sneaking around trying to weasel his way in to causing self doubt, but by the grace of God I can stay strong. On a completely different note I've been missing you all at church. Hope all is well. Please let me know if I can do anything for you.
ReplyDeleteI have struggled a lot with forgiving myself even when I know God forgives me and Satan wants to keep us stuck in that. But when we do that we are doubting God. We have to let go and accept God's forgiveness and when we do there is such freedom in that. I really liked today's chapter.
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