I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 32:5
The story is told of a little girl who broke one of her mom's favourite demitasse cups. The little girl came to her mom sobbing: "O Mama," she said," I'm sorry I broke your beautiful cup."
The mother said. "I know you're sorry, and I forgive you. Now don't cry anymore." The mother then swept up the pieces of the broken cup and placed them in the trash can.
But the little girl apparently enjoyed the guilty feeling. She went to the trash can and retrieved some of the pieces. She brought them to her mother and sobbed, "I'm so sorry that I broke your pretty cup."
This time the mother spoke firmly to her: Take those pieces and put them back in the trash, and don't take them out again. I told you I forgive you, so don't cry anymore."
Do you find, yourself dredging up things from the past that the Lord has already forgiven? Do you beat yourself up about them...again? Re-read the verse above, and remember that God has put them behind Him. They are forgiven, and He choses to remember them against us no longer. "...their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:12). He wants us to move on. When we re-focus on them, we give them life again, which is not good.
Jesus said to the woman who had been caught in adultery: "Jesus said unto her neither do I, condemn thee: go and sin no more." (John 8:11). When God forgives us, we are forgiven and freed to live a new life in Christ. May we stop carrying around guilt for things that are washed away in the blood of Christ. If they've been confessed, let us move on. L.L. (Daily Devotions).
N.J. Hiebert - 10162
December 20
I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. Luke 7:8
"Arise, Go." (Jonah 1:2) Not only was Jonah to arise, but he had the very same orders that we have, "Go!" This centurion Luke 7:8 understood authority. When the Lord said "Go!" to Jonah, Jonah decided he would not go. The soldier did not dream of complaining that the way was too long, or to rough, or too dangerous, or the time was not convenient; he did not suggest that he did not want to go, or that he was too busy with other work. No, the soldier understood authority, and went. When the captain says, "Go!" he goes.
The same word is used of the prodigal in Luke 15. "I will arise and go to my father." He may have often said, "I ought to go to my father," or, "I must go to my father," but it was not until he did finally arise that he ever reached his father. It took the energy of faith to arise. A believer understands and experiences what it means to arise and go to their Father. May God help us to understand what it means for us arise and go to them that sit in darkness!
How many there are of us to whom the Lord has said "GO!" and we have been like Jonah and refused. It may be that we have been so busy with our own affairs, that we have hardly heard Him say "GO," or it may be that we know so little of authority, that we decide that there is no need to obey, but think we may chose our own will instead. May the Lord give us each one to hear His voice, speaking with Divine authority, that we dare not question, saying to us, "ARISE! GO!" ARISE, GO TO NINEVEH."
Not only did the Lord tell Jonah to "Arise, Go," but He told him just where he was to go. He did not say, "Arise, go anywhere you like"; but he told him just where to go. The Lord will tell us where to go. It may be that the Lord will send us to someone in our own family, or to our neighbours, or it may be to those of a different nation, and language, at the other end of the earth. C. Willis - Jonah
N.J. Hiebert - 10163
December 21
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.
(2 Corinthians 2:14)
There is one other thing which we would do well to note, namely, that a fragrance is the same everywhere. "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you."
(2 Corinthians 2:4)
A rose smells as sweetly in the kitchen as in the living room; in the house of business as in the prayer meeting or on the playground.
Lord Jesus, in the busy mart, the hurrying crowd, the anxious strife,
Maintain Thy throne within my heart, be thou to me my very life.
The wild pursuit of paltry wealth, the craze and lure of wrong desires,
The world that lives without Thyself, and all for self alone aspires--
Let these all leave me undismayed, untouched, unstained, by sin or shame,
Calm, and at all times unafraid, indifferent quite, to worldly fame.
But filled alone with Thee, my Lord, and all of Heaven's joy beside,
Thus walk with Thee in glad accord, and find my Heaven at Thy side.
One look of love from Thy kind eyes, one pressure of Thy nail-scarred hand,
Are more than earth's most thrilling prize, acclaimed abroad in every land.
Winsome Christianity - Henry Durbanville
N.J. Hiebert - 10164
December 22
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