Hello, friends. I hope all is well. See my comments
at the end :) BK

"Christians...Rise!" (by Jeanne, as posted in Words
For Life, a once-per-week devotional.)

"For though a righteous man falls seven times, he
rises again, but the wicked are brought down by
calamity." Prov. 24:16

This is one of my favorite scriptures. I came across
it last year in a Bible study class and have brought
it out again and again. Why do I like it so much?
Simple...I fall. I fall today, I fell yesterday, and
I will most likely fall again tomorrow. Oh, I don't
set out to make mistakes or sin. It just happens. I
feel like Paul when he said in his letter to the
Romans, "I do not understand what I do. For what I
want to do I do not, but what I hate, I do." (Rom.
7:15) I just don't understand why I can't make myself
act like I know I should. As a parent, I want my kids
to see me in the best possible light, but that
doesn't alway happen. Sometimes I blow it. I yell, I
don't listen, or I just make the wrong choice in plain
view of the whole family. It's good to know even Paul
struggled with his flesh and sinful nature. If Paul,
who was used so mightily of God, struggled, why should
I expect that I won't?

As Christians, I think we can sometimes be our own
worst critics. We know Christ, we know scripture, we
know what is right, so why do we still sin? We sin
because we have a sinful nature and live in a sinful
world. We were born into it. We will not escape the
temptations of the world until the day we come face to
face with our Creator and Savior. It just ain't gonna
happen.

That's not to say that we can't overcome temptation.
God has given us all the tools we need to overcome.
But we must realize that we are not yet perfected,
that sometimes we will fail and sin. And that is
why I love this scripture.

It doesn't give me an excuse to sin, but it tells me
that when I do sin I can get back up and start over
fresh and forgiven. God will forgive me over and over
again. He knows my struggles, He knows my heart. He
will forgive. The Holy Spirit will convict us to bring
us to repentance, but He will not condemn us. We don't
have to beat ourselves up over our failures and walk
around feeling guilty. Jesus paid for all my sin on
the cross and I am no longer condemned. Once I
accepted His sacrifice, God marked my debt PAID IN
FULL. So next time you fall (and you will fall)
remember that you can rise again! Your debt to God was
already paid. Pick yourself up, ask for forgiveness,
and start walking again with renewed determination.


Brenna Kate here. This really struck me because I'm
currently preparing a talk on Forgiveness. Often, we
allow sin to bog us down and make us feel like a
failure, even after we've asked God for His
forgiveness. Well, He already forgot about it! Let
me leave you with these Scriptures:

Colossians 2:14: "having canceled out the certificate
of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was
hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way,
having nailed it to the cross."
Psalm 103:12: "as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us."
Micah 7:18-19: "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin
and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his
inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight
to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our
iniquities into the depths of the sea."

Psalm 130:3-4: "If you, O LORD , kept a record of
sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is
forgiveness; therefore you are feared."

=====
"No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his
love has been brought to full expression through us." 1 John 4:12

www.brennakate.com
www.livejournal.com/~brennakate

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