ARE PAST FAILURES DRAGGING YOU DOWN?
BIBLE PASSAGE:
I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like
the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
(Isaiah 44:22)
MEDITATION:
Have you ever thought about why we have a memory?
Some would say that our memory of previous failures
is what helps us to be successful in the future. We can
recall the things that didn’t work, and look for other
options in the future.
Others might say that whenever we recall good times of
the past, it brightens our day. We can remember the joy
and happiness we experienced, and those feelings can
override unpleasant things currently going on in our lives.
Still others may say it is a curse that causes us to drag around
bad things which have happened to us, and the bad choices we
have made. We become like a boat trying to move forward but
our anchor is still dragging the bottom. We want to forget the
bad things, but our memory will not allow that to happen.
God created each individual with an amazing capacity to store
and recall past events. Isn’t it astounding how He gave us the
ability to preserve things in our brain, and to be able to bring
back those memories again and again?
Memories can be blessings that are full of comfort, assurance,
and joy. As we grow older, we recall things that happened many,
many years ago. When we are distraught, we can find comfort in
remembering God’s promises that have been permanently stored
away in our minds. Promises such as:
Keep your lives free from the love of money and
be content with what you have, because God has
said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
(Hebrews 13:5)
Many can be tormented by memories of past sins which continue
to haunt them. When reviewing the mistakes of our past, and when
we consider the certainty of stepping into eternity, many would be
willing to trade all their possessions to erase their past mistakes.
Think about this, when the Lord saves us, Satan knows that we
have escaped his grip on us, and he is not happy about it. There
is a phrase in a Christian song that says, “Hell lost another one!”
that sums up what happens when we receive salvation from the
Lord.
We can all attest that Satan has many ‘weapons’ that he can use
on us. Before we were saved, he didn’t need to use any of them,
because we ‘belonged’ to him. It’s after we’ve been saved that he
unleashes all of his weapons in an effort to discourage and make
us miserable.
One of his weapons is our memory. He knows that if he can cause
us to keep remembering our failures, then we will have less focus
on the goodness of God and His forgiveness. Why would he want
to do that? Because he wants us to remain discouraged, ashamed,
and focused on things that are not Godly, so we will be ineffective
in serving the Lord.
The more Christians he can cause to be useless in serving the Lord,
the more he can negatively impact the lives of believers. His goal is
to cause us to miss out on the joy of our relationship with the Lord,
and to have doubts about our salvation (even though God’s Word
tells us that when we are saved, we have been ‘sealed’ for redemption).
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off
your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be
made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self,
created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore
each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor,
for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not
let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a
foothold. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must
work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have
something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk
come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up
according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day
of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and
slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate
to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
(Ephesians 4:22-32)
Satan wants us to forget how the scriptures remind us of the depth of
God’s love for us. He wants us to forget how much God desires for all
to come to Him for redemption. God wants us to enjoy our prayer and
fellowship with Him now, and for us to look forward to spending an
eternity with Him.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble
or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger
or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all
day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:35-39)
Conversely, Satan wants us to be miserable now (after we have been
saved), and for us to remain destined for eternal punishment (if we
have not been saved). Why? Because that’s his destiny for thinking
he was God’s equal and for not repenting. The phrase we have all
heard, “misery loves company” is applicable to Satan, isn’t it?
We need to be aware that Satan will use scriptures to ‘plant’
sinful ideas in our mind, which will cause us to be ineffective
in serving the Lord. Thought like,
“The scriptures say that nothing can separate me from
God’s love, so that means I can continue to sin after
He has saved me, but I just won’t sin as much”.
The problem with this kind of thinking is:
The scriptures tell of God’s love, but that doesn’t mean
we are immune to His punishment for sins. Sinning ‘just
a little’ is kind of like being ‘just a little pregnant’, isn’t it.
A woman is either pregnant or she is not, and we are either
sinning, or we are not.
As an example, let’s assume a person has an addiction to
alcohol and after they have been saved, they decide to drink
‘just a little’. How long will it be before they are addicted to
alcohol once again?
In addition, we should be comparing ourselves to Jesus and
not to worldly standards. How can any alcoholic consumption
contribute to our becoming more righteous? How does it help
us to grow in our salvation? Is it a spiritual sacrifice that is
acceptable to Jesus?
We can be sure that Satan will look for every opportunity to use
our minds for cleverly controlling us. That’s why we should spend
time reading the bible in order to fill our minds with the things of
God, which will make us effective as servants of the Lord. Satan
gives us ‘snippets’ of scriptures in order to influence our thoughts,
but he omits the ‘whole’ scripture, which tells us how to live as
God wants us to live.
So, how does a person remove the stress of remembering these
previous failures which continue to plague their lives? We can
take them to the One who is able to forgive and blot out those
memories forever. As long as they ‘hang around’ in our minds,
the potential for remembering the momentary pleasures will
remain and cause us to be susceptible to committing them again.
Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless
acts I will remember no more.”
(Hebrews 10:17)
When we read the scripture in Hebrews 10, we can see that the
promise God made to Jacob in the book of Isaiah, is the same
promise He has made to us today. We worship an unchanging
God who does not show favoritism, but offers us all the same
opportunities for receiving His redemption and His blessings.
Just as He reminded Jacob that He was the One who redeemed
him, we should have the same remembrance and return to our
redeeming God. Rather remaining ‘beaten down’ by memories
of our past sins, we need to recall the time when we went to God
and He redeemed us. When we focus on His goodness instead of
our disappointments, we can discover (or rediscover) the joy of
our salvation.
ACTION:
How is your memory impacting your life? Are you bogged down
with previous sins and how you have offended God, or have you
believed that He has swept away your sins ‘like the morning mist’?
Maybe you cannot recall how He redeemed you, because it hasn’t
happened yet. Don’t allow this separation from God to continue
any longer. Go to Him today; He is waiting for you and is ready
to redeem you too!
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, thank You for Your promise to redeem
those who come to you. Thank You for giving me a memory
so I can recall the time when You redeemed me. Teach me
to focus on You and Your goodness, instead of allowing my
past sins to have a negative impact on my attitudes and the
happiness I should be enjoying. Help me to realize that my
faith is strengthened by believing that You have redeemed
me. Show me how to serve You, so I can look to the future
with anticipation, as opposed to being controlled by my past
failures and disappointments. Thank You Jesus for dying for
me on the cross, which made my redemption possible.”
DO YOU EVER FEEL YOU ARE IN FRUSTRATING CYCLE?
BIBLE PASSAGE:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will
not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
(Galatians 5:16)
MEDITATION:
Do you have a struggle with some sins that had a grip on you before
you received salvation from the Lord? Are there times when you
feel like you have distanced yourself from those sins and suddenly,
often without warning, the attraction to them has returned. Are you
disappointed in yourself because you feel a strong attraction to them
once again?
It can be very discouraging, can’t it? You ‘bow our neck’ and ‘set
your jaw’ with a determined attitude that those sins will never be a
part of your life again. But, before you know it, you are blindsided
once again and you yield to the temptation. You know what happens
each time you give in, because it has happened to you way too often.
It creates in you an uneasy feeling to come before the Lord in prayer,
because you know you have disappointed Him (again). The fellowship
you had with the Lord prior to your failure, is not as close now. The
guilt you feel is overwhelming once again, and you find yourself
feeling uncomfortable with anything related to the Lord, or church.
Even while sitting in church, your joy is not what it was in the past.
You sing songs and listen to sermons, but you feel something is
missing. There are times when you almost feel as if you are in
the wrong place and would have been better off if you had stayed
home instead of going to church. Your enthusiasm and zest for
serving the Lord has diminished.
You have a greater understanding of Paul’s plight and his struggles.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want
to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
(Romans 7:15)
You can relate to Paul’s personal frustration with himself.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is
sin living in me. For I know that good itself does
not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For
I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot
carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do,
but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I
who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
(Romans 7:17-20)
Paul knew that the source of his failures was the sin within himself.
He continues to express his frustration with his inner spiritual warfare.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good,
evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight
in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging
war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner
of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man
I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to
death?
(Romans 7:21-24)
You can sense the desperation of Paul in his words, can’t you?
He realized that He did not have the capacity to stop the cycle
of failures in his life, so he struggled with viewing himself as a
servant of God. Although he was a servant, his regret had caused
him to view himself as a “wretched man”.
While expressing his disappointment with his own weaknesses,
he still knew where the power to break this cycle could be found.
Thanks be to God, who delivers me
through Jesus Christ our Lord!
(Romans 7:25)
The same source that was available to Paul for overcoming the
temptations of Satan, has been given to us as well. Whenever
we focus on living by the Spirit (giving Him control of our lives),
we will discover that we can’t find the gratification we expected
to have when we succumb to the temptations to sin again.
When we are gratified by yielding to temptations, we will chase
after them even more. But when we become less satisfied, we find
it is easier to break the vicious cycle. The Holy Spirit is our friend
with the power to redirect our attention to the things that please
the Lord (which in turn, pleases us). He gives us the determination
and confidence to walk away from temptations.
ACTION:
Do you feel you are in a vicious cycle of being close to the Lord,
then yielding to temptation, then experiencing guilt, then feeling
ashamed, then returning to the Lord, then sinning again, etc?
Are you trying to break the cycle in your own strength? Have you
forgotten that when you were saved, you were given the Holy Spirit
to live within you? Make a conscious effort to invite Him into your
daily life and call on His assistance to help you with your struggles.
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, You know the struggles I have with temptations.
I feel like Paul at times as I do the things I don’t want to do and fail
to do the things I want to do. It frustrates me when I am drawn away
from You, because I know how my fellowship with You is diminished.
I also know that the forces of evil are stronger than I am, so I call on
the Holy Spirit to help me resist the temptations whenever they appear
suddenly. Thank You for Your gift of the Holy Spirit to help me become
more pleasing to You, and less susceptible to the temptations of Satan.”
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