God forgave you, now forgive yourself

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 KJV

"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever,because he delighteth in lovingkindness. 19 He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Micah 7:18-19 ASV

Thoughts:
For a long time, I lived in regret. Regret for the things I have done in my past. Many times, while I was out of the will of God, I thought I was not hurting anyone with the things I was doing. I have come to realize, two people did get hurt; God and myself. I love that God is a loving and forgiving God. He tells us in 1 John 1:9 that we can confess and repent and He will forgive us. Yet, many people skip over the second and equally important part of that passage, which tells us that He will "clease us from all unrighteousness". The dictionary defines cleanse as to make clean, and defines clean as being free from, as in unsoiled and unstained. This gives me hope and peace in the fact that when God forgave me, He also cleaned my sin from me and made me new again. The memories of my past will always be there, but now I can look at the past and be thankful that God brought me out of sin and made me a new creature once again.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for life and the freedom to live it blemish free. God I thank you that you loved me enough to cleanse me of my sin and lead me into your forgiving light. God I thank you, not only for your forgiveness, but also for the ability to forgive myself. Thank you for helping me set down the baggage I carried around by not forgiving myself for my past. Father, I ask that you bless the others in my life who have this same issue. God I ask that you help them see that when you forgive us, you cast our sin out and trample them underfoot. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Where do you dwell?

I took a break from writing this blog for a short while to gather my thoughts. In the interim, I have pondered many things, learned a few things about myself, and listened to God redirecting me. On this side of things, I have found a wonderful Bible passage to stand on, as well as to meditate on. Over the next few days I will be meditating further on Psalms 91 and concentrating on what the Lord is telling us through this chapter.


"1He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 
2I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler." Psalms 91:1-4


Thoughts: I've read the first verse of the scriture seveal time i nmy life, but somehow I kept missing the message. As I read the entire chapter it finally dawned on me what it all means. To dwell in the secret place of God is to be make the choice every day to be His and to follow His commandments. It is not easy walking in this world and remain apart from it. Yet, it is so much easier to walk when God is walking with you. Dwelling with Him means He is with you always, keeping you safe, sane, happy, uplifted, and on the other end of this, holding you up when you can't hold yourself. Most importantly, dwelling with Him means you are constantly seeking Him. This is important because you will not always feel God and sometimes you can't see Him through all your problems and trial, however if we "diligently seek Him" we will always find Him and be able to dwell in His presence. As a result He will be anything and everything we need.
Prayers: Father, in the name of Jesus I just thank you and praise your name because you know how to keep us on the right path in this life. Lord I thank you for comforting us your children with the knowledge that you will be with us and walk this had life everyday. Thank you for holding onto us in all times and teaching us to seek you in all things. Thank you again for your love, in Jesus's name I pray, Amen.

Beyond the Veil for Faith

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Hebrews 11: 6

Thoughts: Faith is talked about so often that it can sometimes become redundant. Lately I have been thinking, how many of us take faith and run with it? I have guilty of living in "surface faith" instead of living in faith. Surface faith is when you trust God in small things but you fail to go deeper and exercise real faith in God, limiting Him. To combat this I have found that going beyond the veil allows me to place my complete faith in God. Beyond the veil is when I close everything and everybody out and concentrate on worshiping God with the only objective is getting to know Him better. When we know God for who is and allow Him to be our everything, walking by faith is easier. It will never stop being an issue because we are human, however, the more we seek God, the stronger our faith will be.


Prayer: God, thank you for being faithful to us and allowing us to come beyond the veil into your presence. Lord I ask that you continue to strengthen my faith in you no matter how uncomfortable I am. I ask that you touch the lives of my earthly family and heavenly family and help them put their faith in you. Thank you God for always being there for me and allowing me to seek your face. In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.

Willingly bound

"¹⁰Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

   ¹¹Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:

   ¹²Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.

   ¹³Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.

   ¹⁴He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.

   ¹⁵Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

   ¹⁶For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder" Psalms 107:10-16

Thoughts: In life, we get ourselves into situations and places we should never be. Most people blame God for the bad things in life when we position ourselves for these negatives. After looking back over my life, I have realized that the majority of the bad situations I endured were of my own making. God allowed me to go through these tough situations and periods in my life and I always wondered why and frankly at times I blamed God. A few of them were to teach me a lesson and make me grow up. However, most of them were times when I lived outside of God's light because I couldn't face my problem, my issues, or myself. I could have ended any of these situations if I had just cried out to Him, admitted my wrong doing, and accepted His forgiveness or admitted I needed Him to guide me through life's tough areas instead of relying on myself. In being stubborn and/or relying on myself, I lost time with God and delayed blessings e had for me. Thank God for infinite chances.


Prayer: Dear God, thank you for your grace and mercy for your children. We often rely on ourselves instead of you when we should. But thank you God that you are patient with us when we need it and thank you that you love us enough to let us go through but not stay in our mess in life. Lord I thank you for forgiveness and your willingness to pick us up and dust us off when we fall. Lord I pray that everyone connected with my life realize that you are the only Master of our fate because only you can bring us where we need to be. In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.

Listening for His Voice

"And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice." Genesis 22: 18 KJV

Thoughts: Obeying God has been one of the hardest hurdles to jump in my life. Not because I don't want to obey Him, but because He always wants me to do things, be a certain way, or go places I am not ready to move into. I know He only has my best interests in mind so why do I resist? As humans we resist God sometimes because He is pushing us toward a future we feel unprepared for or not ready to face because we feel inadequate. However, He knows what and when is best for us. All my life I have been running away from God or running to Him, depending on the phase I was in. I am finally in a place where running away from Him is not an option and it feels good to know I'm ready for anything He has in mind. In my running to Him I have learned to hear God's voice and follow His direction in my life. This is in no way easier than before, in fact it is sometimes harder. It is one of the sweetest sounds to hear God speaking to you and know that He does everything for us out of love. He can take the worst situation we can put ourselves into and change it to benefit us or teach us a lesson to better us. Yet it all begins with listening to, learning from, and obeying His voice.

Prayer: God, thank you for allowing me to hear your voice. Thank you for always knowing when I need a word from you and using songs I love, people I know and some I don't to speak a word to me. I appreciate that you let me into your intimate circle and love me unconditionally because I know nothing I did or will do can change your love for me. Lord, strengthen me in my walk and help me to know your voice without doubt and yearn after your heart. In Jesus's Holy name I pray, Amen.