HAPPY TUESDAY!
I pray all is well with everyone, and you enjoyed this “terrific Tuesday”! I’m doing well, excited about the fact that we’re about to enter into another Lenten season. Today is Fat Tuesday [or Mardi Gras in French], which falls the day before the beginning of the Lenten season, also known as Ash Wednesday. It’s said that today we're permitted to overindulge in the things we're committing to give up throughout our fasting period. My friend sent me this last year, and I wanted to share it with you again: Lent is a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a season for reflection and taking stock. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. By observing the forty days of Lent, the individual Christian imitates Jesus’ withdrawal into the wilderness for forty days. Are you ready to start your fasting process? Fasting doesn't necessarily mean you have to give up food, but something that's near and dear to you, which requires sacrifice on your part. I haven’t given it much thought, because it snuck up on me this year, so I’ll pray on it tonight. I’m so grateful for the love of Christ, and pledge to do my best to follow in His footsteps. Enjoy the remainder of your day, and be blessed family!
Today’s scriptures are about the mercy of God. Sin is the cause of the fall of any man who has and will walk this earth, but one. He was the son of God, and the Savior of all mankind— His Name is Jesus Christ. Because of the merciful heart of our Creator, God the Father, He sacrificed His Son, so that we can be free from sin—the downfall of men. When we’re covered with the blood of Jesus, we have the privilege, and the right, to go to God, in the Name of Jesus, and confess our sins, He’ll quickly forgive us. However, the penalty of sin is death, so we will reap the consequences of that sin, because we in fact went against God, but He’ll never be angry for long, and will always continue to love us, no matter what.
Yesterday I wrote about God loving us as a Bridegroom loves His bride, well today I want to talk about another facet of His love—how He loves us as a parent loves a child. There isn’t too much a child could do to their parents that will make them stop loving them. In some cases it’s a given, you love this child because you gave birth to them, and you have a permanent bond with them. You raise them, and teach them the ways of life, and offer them every opportunity to do the right things, but the child will sometimes fall short, because they’re human. This is how they grow, and learn from their mistakes. The parents also learn and grow from these experiences— there’s the times when the children stop becoming cute little babies, and start terrorizing the house. I’ve experienced the “terrible twos”, when the toddler just learns how to walk on their own, and sets out on their path of discovery. The time when your favorite lamp is broken, or the finger paint is all over your favorite shirt, you’re a bit angry at this precious little baby. What about adolescence and puberty, when so many other things start changing in them. They pick up a little sass, and start pushing the boundaries of the rules, and it takes everything for you not to kill them. God experiences times like these with us, within our Spiritual growth.
We expect most of these things when we become parents, but there are plenty other things that we don’t prepare for. When we live life one day at a time, and we punish the children when they do bad, and reward them when they do well, they’ll be fine. As well as do our best by setting good examples for them to follow, and teaching them the ways and love of God. Everything is a choice for them, and It hurts when they choose not to obey our rules, because we only put them in place to keep them from harm, and from experiencing the past hurts and disappointments we’ve had to face. However, when the fall, we’ll be angry for a moment, but we’ll still welcome them back with open arms, because we love them. We’ll do our best to make the hurt go away, but most importantly, we’ll be there for them whenever they need us.
Jesus said it best: If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11-13) God’s love goes deeper than anything we could ever imagine, so He will have mercy on us, more so than we could ever be merciful to our children. He created us for a purpose, and His main reason for granting us salvation through Christ, is so that we can stay in close fellowship with Him forever. He understands our weakness, and He wants us to understand that He’s there for us no matter what. He lives inside of us, so He knows what we’ve done, how we’ve done it, and even why we’ve done it. All He requires of us is a confession and repentance, and forgiveness is granted. What if you crashed your mom’s car and try to hide it, and when she finds out about it, you lie to her and say that you didn’t do it. Or, if you crash the car and immediately go to her and say, “mom I’m sorry, it was an accident, I was trying to follow the rules, but I somehow I became distracted, it won’t happen again”. Which scenario do you think would receive mercy and forgiveness quicker?
God already knew everything about us, before we were formed in our mother’s womb, so why try to hide anything from Him? I still struggle with times when I blatantly sin, and am so convicted the next day, that I find it hard to talk to God. I truly struggle with the enemy’s attacks of guilt and shame, so I confess and ask for forgiveness of that sin several times a day, because I’m convinced that God is just way too angry with me to even talk to me. However, that is far from the truth, God has an “Open heart” policy, where He eagerly awaits our prayer, so He could be gracious to us. He anointed us with His Holy Spirit, just so that we can quickly and easily repent, and come back into perfect fellowship with Him, through Christ. Please, don’t ever allow the enemy to place false shame or guilt in your heart, because God already has it in His heart to forgive you; He’s just waiting on you to ask. He’s a gracious, wonderful, and merciful God, and He’s that way to everyone to seeks Him, whether Saint or Sinner.
Nobody’s perfect, but does that give us an excuse not to try our best to make God proud? The most rewarding thing we could ever do for Him is to humble ourselves, and allow Him to be Lord of our life. I can testify that life is so much easier with Him. Some people may think its harder living righteously, however, when we turn to Jesus, we take His Yoke upon us, and He gives us rest for our souls. In all actuality, it may seem harder, but Jesus makes it so easy for us when we trust Him. If you don’t know Jesus as Lord, please take a moment to confess to God that you’re a sinner, and ask Him to renew you, by coming into your heart as Lord. The only thing standing between you and freedom is your willingness to just ask—once you ask, consider yourself a sanctified child of God, through Christ, and you never have to worry about that again. If you are saved, but don’t know where you stand with God, He’s been waiting on you to confess and repent, so that you can get to know each other better. For more information, take a few moments to take the God Quiz today. My favorite verses today are: Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. (Micah 1:18-19)
ENJOY! http://www.bible.com/scripture-detail.php?juli=2455629&dtype=Scripture
http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/today-on-radio
http://www.joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/Broadcast/
I love you!
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