It’s been a while. Maybe the stress of work and its demands is having a bit of a toll on the creative literary part of some of us, or it might just be what we call “the writer’s block”. Whatever, it may be, some inspiration still lingers and the gates to the penitentiary that held the inspirations to write in custody have opened. The shackles have been removed, and once again, I’ve been set free to string a few words into a piece.
…”And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Bemused? The very first ever answer man could give to God’s first ever question. Adams answer, as bewildering as it was back then, still permeates through the mindsets of many Christians. Being the first of the kind of men, I would say Adam was not so much of a lucky man. He would be a man to have come in contact with God but knew the least about Him, his ways, his love, his anger. How would you react to a person who you know the least about? Adam had sinned, and realized he had done so, his best instinctive will was to stay away from God.
It is more apparent in our day, that most people stay away from fellowship with God when they sin or the same in one way or the other comes their way. Is it because of fear or is this act one due to the guilt associated with sin? It is very upsetting in itself that a Christian sets a target for themselves but with all humanly possible means implemented, they find themselves doing the very same thing they’ve vowed not to. It can be a very debilitating situation and may carry with it a perplexing, polarizing, protruding, pan-paralyzing guilt. That is what sin feeds on. Guilt! Guilt!! Guilt!!!
In a bit, guilt sets you thinking how unfaithful, how filthy, how betraying, how weak, how unappreciative, how sinful, how forgetful, how radical you are and that drains you a lot, makes you feel not worthy of the presence of God, makes you want to be on your own, makes you feel undeserving, makes you feel unloved, makes you feel unappreciated, makes you want to find your own new ways of getting back to God without being in his presence, in fellowship with him. That is what guilt does. It drains your energy, pushes you from the very source of your strength and sets you on the path to continuously pour into waste the remainder of what you hang on to.
That is not the will of God for you. That is not what he wants for you. God is Love. It isn’t that He only has love, He expresses Love unendingly and that makes Him Love.
The most wonderful revelation of a lifetime God has given me has been that concerning his mercy. I used to wonder, and for a very long time. If a particular addiction that had clung on to me, a very bad one, would ever be forgiven. The wonderful thing is, God by his own divine works, took it away, even before revealing to me the extent of his mercy. Several years after accepting Christ Jesus, I always felt my addictions which I was battling, were making me less off before God, and that there is a point ahead of me when God will be fed up with me and wouldn’t forgive me any longer. There always lingered in me that guilt when I happened to track back into that very act. Thank God for that salvation.
This is it, the revelation. Most Christians get it wrong right from the onset.
a. Whatever good things we are able to do, are by the ability, provision and grace of God himself.
b. The blood of Christ has already atoned in totality for all our sins, past, present, future.
c. That means, we have been forgiven all our sins, past, present, future.
d. Then it means, just as scripture says “that we know not how to pray as we ought,” we pray without understanding “asking” God for forgiveness of our sins when the forgiveness has already been granted and hence we should rather be “confessing our sins” that is to say we are acknowledging that we’ve sinned and go ahead to accept that we have been forgiven.
e. Though sin brings along an inherent feeling of guilt, it is not constant that forgiveness brings an opposite feeling contrary to that of guilt. Forgiveness has to be believed to have been given and accepted to have taken place without waiting to return to the pre-sin state of feeling.
f. Don’t wait to feel good before you re-establish the fellowship with God. Whenever you sin, know that is when you need God the most. It may not be the best feeling going before a pure man with your dirty retched garment, in utter infamy. But that’s what he seeks, to surrender all to him, to trade it all for Him. Letting time past will not reestablish the fellowship on its own.
So I sort to find out the end of Gods mercy, His forgiveness.
He led me to Matthew 18:22 “Jesus said unto him, I say unto you, not until seven times: but until seventy times seven.” If even men, who are of no regard with patience, are expected by God to forgive 70*7 times, how much more God himself.
But that is not to say we have the liberty to keep waddling in sinful acts. The mercy God rains on us as His children bestows on us the responsibility of making sure we become more like Christ.
Don’t let guilt take you away from fellowship with God. There is no end to his mercy. Notwithstanding, know that he is a consuming fire.
God bless you.
Very encouraging. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Definitely….we cannot be self righteous