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From Prayer to Purpose …
After you cried, poured out your heart and soul and prayed to God there are 3 things God wants you to remember:
1. Don’t give up! This life with Christ is a marathon not a sprint. During this race you WILL hit a spiritual wall but God will not pull you over it. You must choose to push through it! Stop running through life trying to be the fastest or the first to ‘Get it’. An all out sprint during a marathon only makes you too tired to finish what you have started. Pace yourself accordingly with patience, longsuffering and self control. The race is not given to the swift nor the strong but to they who endure to the end.
2. Don’t forget to forgive yourself! If God, in His righteousness has forgiven your sins of the past, present and future and has thrown them into the sea of forgetfulness, then stop trying to carry the guilt and shame of something which no longer exists! To say you are forgiven yet still hold onto who you used to be is a direct insult to the Face of God. You are effectively telling Him and the world He isn’t really capable of forgetting and forgiving sins! Live your life knowing the slate is wiped clean when you ask for, repent from and receive forgiveness from God. He is not a man that He should lie nor the son of a man that He should repent. If He said the old you is dead and behold, you are a new creature in Him, THEN BELIEVE HIM AND LIVE FREE!
3. Don’t confuse condemnation with conviction. Condemnation is the feeling of guiltiness and unworthiness which come AFTER you ask for forgiveness from God. It will make you feel like you are still filthy and don’t have the right to be in the Presence of God because of your ‘dirty deeds’. Self-condemnation is even worse! You tell yourself you aren’t good enough for God and you will run from Him when He comes near you. Adam and Eve both suffered from self-condemnation in Eden… they had already self judged themselves to be guilty therefore they ran and hid from God. (Sound familiar?) satan is a liar and condemnation comes from the pit of hell! There is no condemnation in Christ. However there is conviction of Holy Spirit. When you know you have sinned against God and fallen short of His Word, you will feel the prick of Godly sorrow in your heart and feel shame before the Father. These feelings aren’t to make you feel unworthy but to make you feel uncomfortable in your place of disobedience. Conviction and Godly sorrow are there to make you WANT TO RUN to The Throne of Grace quickly and repent for sinning against God. When you do this, anyone who has ever thrown themselves at the feet of The Mercy Seat and begged God for forgiveness will tell you Father will pick you up, say “I forgive you, I love you, just don’t do it anymore.” and will send you out to try it again. All WITHOUT CONDEMNATION. You will never feel less than the greatest love in the universe directed towards you AFTER you ask for forgiveness and repent! Be naked and unashamed before the Father. There is no condemnation in Christ. Come boldly but humbly before the Throne.
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