The forgiveness that God gives us is full and complete. Unlike most humans, he never holds our past sins over our heads, reminding us again and again of how badly we failed. People tend to do that, but not God. God remembers our sins against us no more but many times we just don’t and […]

You know, when the enemy of your soul can’t keep you from confessing your sins to your forgiving God, he’ll try to keep you from enjoying the truth that when God forgives you, he remembers it against you no more.

But of course, first you have to confess whatever sin is in your life, forsake it, and ask God to forgive you. And the good news is that he is always willing to forgive us. First John 1:9 makes that very clear. It says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

I believe that a Christian who is refusing to confess known sin and keeps hanging on—even if it seems small and not important—that person is more miserable than a person who is not a follower of Jesus Christ and indulging in the same sin. It’s the Holy Spirit within us that becomes very uncomfortable—or offended or grieved—when we harbor unconfessed sin.

The first thing is to make sure you have confessed your sin, turned from it, and you know God has forgiven you. Make sure of that. But maybe you’re thinking that you have done that and yet you keep asking God again and again to forgive you for what he has already forgiven. Does that describe you?  

If so, I would remind you that God has chosen to remember your sins no more once they are forgiven and forsaken. Therefore, who are you to keep bringing them up, living in regret, and refusing to enjoy the forgiveness you have received?

I understand that God is probably the only one who can truly erase his memory if he chooses to. You and I in these earthly bodies with our sin natures, we just don’t have that miraculous power to totally forget. I get that.

But we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, so it is possible to enjoy your forgiveness instead of letting your past hang over you like a dark cloud, robbing you of peace and joy.

You know, when the enemy of your soul can’t keep you from confessing your sins to your forgiving God, he’ll try to keep you from enjoying the truth that when God forgives you, he remembers it against you no more. But of course, first you have to confess whatever sin is in your life, forsake […]

Do you find it difficult to believe that God has truly forgiven you? I think there are just too many people carrying around guilt even after they’ve asked God to forgive them. They still live in the “if onlys” of life and imagine what their lives would have been “if only” they had not made a wrong choice.

I want us to look on the other side of forgiveness—when we have personally been forgiven and yet we don’t seem to enjoy that forgiveness. This thought came to me in one of my daily prayer zoom meetings which we’ve been having with the women in my church since COVID shut us down, and this dear woman asked God to forgive her because she knew she was forgiven by him, yet she wasn’t enjoying her forgiveness. And I immediately thought of many people I know who would fall into that category—including myself at times.

I remember a time many years ago now, when I had come back to full fellowship with the Lord after a long period of chasing my dreams and living my life my way. I was truly sorry for my wayward ways and had confessed them. I knew that God had forgiven me, but one day as I was praying, some of those past sins just came flooding back into my mind. And I was once again ashamed and embarrassed and so regretful that I had allowed those sins into my life. So, I started asking God once again for forgiveness, specifically confessing them. And honestly, the voice of God’s Spirit to me that day was almost audible, as I heard him say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Isaiah 43:25 says: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” Have you ever tried to erase something from your memory? We all have things we would like to forget but we just can’t totally erase things from our memories—at least not the things we’d like to erase.

Have you discovered that the things you’d like to forget are the things that hang around your mind, and at the same time you forget lots of good things that you should remember? It’s a common human problem; we remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember. And who do you think aids and abets us in that process? The enemy of our soul, Satan himself. If he can keep us mired in the regrets from yesterday, in the guilt we insist on carrying with us even though God has forgiven us, then he steals our joy, robs our peace, and keeps us in bondage to the past.

That’s why I want to encourage you to enjoy your forgiveness.

Do you find it difficult to believe that God has truly forgiven you? I think there are just too many people carrying around guilt even after they’ve asked God to forgive them. They still live in the “if onlys” of life and imagine what their lives would have been “if only” they had not made […]

Our witness for Jesus is first and foremost displayed in the quality of our lifestyle. And sometimes we can spoil our witness for Jesus because we make bad choices. So, believe it or not, I have a story about rattlesnakes to help us remember how important it is to avoid bad choices.

A young girl was walking through the woods one day when she almost stepped on a snake. When she saw the snake, she pulled back in horror, but to her amazement, the snake cried out to her, "Oh, I'm so glad you came along. I'm so cold and need a friend. Will you please pick me up and put me under your coat so I can get warm, and will you be my friend?"

In fear, the girl replied, "Oh, no, I can't possibly do that. You're a rattlesnake and you will bite me. I can't pick you up.”

"No," the rattlesnake answered, "that's not true. I promise I won't bite you. I really want to be your friend, and after all, am I not a creature of God's, just like you? I'm so cold; please pick me up."

She began to feel sorry for the snake and sat down to think it over. As she looked at the snake, it became more beautiful to her with its many colors. She noticed its graceful lines and movement, and gradually it began to look harmless to her.

She thought, "Well, he's right after all. God created him. And just because most rattlesnakes bite doesn't mean this one will. It seems like a very nice snake, and shouldn't I be willing to be a friend when someone asks me?"

So, she said, "Yes, I will be your friend," and she picked up the snake and put it under her warm coat. Immediately the snake bit her, and the pain and poison flooded her body. She cried out in pain, "Why did you do that? Why did you bite me? You said you wanted to be my friend."

As the snake wiggled away from her, it turned and with a smirk, said, "Hey, you knew what I was when you picked me up."

It's a fairy tale; snakes don't talk. But there's a most important lesson for us in that simple story. How easy it is for us to rationalize away the dangers that we know exist when something looks attractive to us. How easily we are deceived into lowering our standards and going down the wrong path because our human reasoning tells us it will be all right.

I remember talking with a lovely woman who had allowed herself to be deceived into a sexual relationship with a man. He had treated her kindly, and at that point in her life she was very vulnerable to kind treatment. It felt good. Then, when he invited her to spend a weekend with him and purchased the airline tickets, it seemed exciting and flattering to her. She chose to ignore the obvious dangers that lay in following this path.

She never intended for the relationship to become immoral; she thought they could simply enjoy a weekend together—alone. But she had picked up a rattlesnake, though, of course, she wanted to believe it was a harmless friendly animal. But it wouldn't take an expert to know that she was playing with a rattlesnake. The signs were obvious; she chose to ignore them because at the time it appealed to her. But later on she had to deal with the pain and the poison that were the aftermath of that relationship.

Well, I'm sure we've all done things that we really knew were taking us into dangerous territory, playing with rattlesnakes so to speak, but it looked so inviting at the time that we chose to ignore the obvious, and then had to deal with the poison which infected us as a result. I surely have, and I can tell you that rattlesnakes never change their nature. If it looks like a rattlesnake, acts like a rattlesnake, talks like a rattlesnake, you can count on it, it will bite like a rattlesnake, with no respect for persons, no exceptions.

In Proverbs 4:25-27 we read "Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.

Our witness for Jesus is first and foremost displayed in the quality of our lifestyle. And sometimes we can spoil our witness for Jesus because we make bad choices. So, believe it or not, I have a story about rattlesnakes to help us remember how important it is to avoid bad choices. A young girl […]

What is your one word for 2021? I urge you to take the challenge of choosing one word as your focus for the new year—one word you pray into your life and by God’s grace, you make it more of a reality in your life than ever before. Some examples of what that one word might be are words like wisdom, pause, integrity, and purity. Let me share my one word for 2021.

That word is transition. A rather strange choice, I admit, but one thing 2020 has taught me is to be prepared for transition. Things are going to change this year for all of us. Church will be different; work will be different; it will be necessary for us to adjust to some new normal in many areas of our lives.

As I thought about that, I realized that I’m not always ready for change; it can be hard for me to see the good that change can bring. So, I’m asking the Lord to prepare my heart and mind for whatever transitions we will face this new year. And there are two verses that I’m adopting.

Proverbs 27:1: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.

Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

I want to focus on being ready for whatever tomorrow brings, while knowing that one thing—one Person will never change, and that is my Savior Jesus Christ.

Also, a good idea is to keep a journal focused on your one word. You’ll be surprised how often, as you read your Bible, your one word will jump off the page and remind you to keep that word in your mind. Putting it in writing is such a good way to remember what God has shown you, what has inspired you and encouraged you.

What is your one word for 2021? I urge you to take the challenge of choosing one word as your focus for the new year—one word you pray into your life and by God’s grace, you make it more of a reality in your life than ever before. Some examples of what that one word […]

What kind of person do you want to become? What is your vision for the new year ahead—what would you like to be more true about you at the end of 2021 than is so now?

Choosing one word to focus on for the entire year could change you in 2021. And your one word might be a word of vision—a word that sets a goal and a vision for you to work toward. For example, from the book My One Word, here is an example of how one woman chose the word integrity, her word of vision for the year. She wrote:

I am a radio personality, a writer, director, and producer. My one word is INTEGRITY. Integrity refers to the quality of a person’s character at the core of their being. Integrity, for me, is one of the hardest words to live by, especially in the entertainment business. Striving for integrity reminds me to live by God’s standards, not the media’s. I want to live every day by my one word.

Living every day by her one word is the vision God gave her as she chose one word for the year. That’s the way this practice of choosing one word for the year can truly make a difference in your life—when you sincerely desire to live every day by that one word.

For example, a visionary word might be purity, where you choose to live every day by God’s standards of purity. That would affect many parts of your life—including purity of speech, purity of lifestyle, purity of motivations.

Psalm 119:9 says, “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word." Maybe this is an area where you struggle—to have purity of thoughts and lifestyle. If so, can you see how choosing this one word could help you attain your goal of living a pure life in 2021? It can be a life-changing word.