March 15, 2009

Mar 15, 2009 13:54

I was reading my journal at church today and came upon this entry which is amazingly good, and obviously not something that's of me. My putting it here the lesson become more ingrained in my mind, and maybe someone else could use this lesson that I needed to learn.

When we sin we might feel worthless and terrible. We may feel inclined to give up even, yet that is not of God. It is self-centered, focusing on us. When I beat myself up for my sin, and speak of giving up, I am pleasing myself and my flesh, not God. God wants me to get back up on my feet and stop sinning, not sit and tear myself down. By doing so, I am serving myself. If I truly want to serve and please God, then I shouldn't hurt myself, but move on. I must not judge and condemn myself, but leave that to God. To be hateful to myself is to be ungrateful and unChristlike. Christ died for me that I may live. Not tha I may die. To give up is to make his sacrifice of no effect i this life. Worse is when I force this mood/emotion/attitude on myself. In this it becoms a sort of false humility that is really pride. That pride that holds my judgement of myself to be more important than Gods. It says that because I don't feel bad enough, because I haven't been punished by God, I must punish myself. Yet this is no better than deciding to sin because I haven't been punished. If I do not suffer wrath for my sin, then it is because God showed me mercy. If then God shows me mercy, should I then turn around and punish myself? No, I should instead rejoice and be grateful that I haven't suffered what I've due. Likewise, should I then shrug and continue to sin thinking that if I am not punished i is okay? By no means! I should b grateful to God and whatever I feel - I ought nought sin, not for fear of punishment, but out of a pure love for God and a desire to please Him. To hate myself is to forget his mercy, to ignore the sin is to forget his mercy. We instead ought love him more because he has not punished us and our love for him should lead us to flee from sin.
Previous post Next post
Up