Yeah...yeah, I know... we've already talked about repentance. What I want to talk about is grief. Today, particularly grief over our sins that can cause us pain - even after we've repented and turned away from those sins and made amends to whoever we had to, if we had to.
Most times when focusing on this verse I've seen 'ok, if I have sorrow over my sin than that leads me to repentance' - and I get it. If I feel some discomfort about something, I want to get rid of it. Sometimes the Lord will let us feel uncomfortable until we do something about it.
But what I believe the Lord wants us to focus on today is that after we've repented, turned away, removed ourselves from any association with the sin, made amends - it's done. It leaves no regret... eventually.
In the Lord's eyes it IS a done deal. Gone - "lock, stock and barrel" -great, now I'll have to look up to see where saying came from ;)
But in OUR eyes, it's not so completely a done deal. We may still 'feel' guilty over what we've done in the past - we may see all those years we've 'wasted' and 'feel' saddened by the loss - we may 'feel' like it's still all our fault when we go to make amends and that person doesn't accept our repentance - we may 'feel' sadness over any number of things. But we do not have to accept those feelings as truth. I realize at least in my own life... that my emotions sometimes need to catch up with the truth. They tend to lag behind - like I did on my first marathon ;) - The winner finished and I was 3 1/2 hours behind - but I did finish. That's the kind of 'lag' I'm talking about - just like me in the marathon, our emotions will eventually catch up... if we turn our eyes to the truth.
It is grief and it's real and it feels crummy, but remember that train picture (fact first, faith second, feelings last)? We don't need to stay in that place of grief! If we do decide to stay there, we will slowly die inside, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and it can even affect us physically.
We don't put our faith in our emotions, we put our faith in the facts - The Truth.
Tune in tomorrow.... for the rest of the story....
Blessings to you today!
Most times when focusing on this verse I've seen 'ok, if I have sorrow over my sin than that leads me to repentance' - and I get it. If I feel some discomfort about something, I want to get rid of it. Sometimes the Lord will let us feel uncomfortable until we do something about it.
But what I believe the Lord wants us to focus on today is that after we've repented, turned away, removed ourselves from any association with the sin, made amends - it's done. It leaves no regret... eventually.
In the Lord's eyes it IS a done deal. Gone - "lock, stock and barrel" -great, now I'll have to look up to see where saying came from ;)
But in OUR eyes, it's not so completely a done deal. We may still 'feel' guilty over what we've done in the past - we may see all those years we've 'wasted' and 'feel' saddened by the loss - we may 'feel' like it's still all our fault when we go to make amends and that person doesn't accept our repentance - we may 'feel' sadness over any number of things. But we do not have to accept those feelings as truth. I realize at least in my own life... that my emotions sometimes need to catch up with the truth. They tend to lag behind - like I did on my first marathon ;) - The winner finished and I was 3 1/2 hours behind - but I did finish. That's the kind of 'lag' I'm talking about - just like me in the marathon, our emotions will eventually catch up... if we turn our eyes to the truth.
It is grief and it's real and it feels crummy, but remember that train picture (fact first, faith second, feelings last)? We don't need to stay in that place of grief! If we do decide to stay there, we will slowly die inside, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and it can even affect us physically.
We don't put our faith in our emotions, we put our faith in the facts - The Truth.
Tune in tomorrow.... for the rest of the story....
Blessings to you today!
Sometimes I have seen and heard the truth but the impact God wanted for me wasn't there...yet.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it takes time for the truth to sink in when all we've believed are lies. Wish there was an automatic button to push that would just put the truth in there and voila, no more lies.... but that's where faith comes in.
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