I once asked my sister, Luci, to name the emotion she considered the most powerful and enjoyable of all. She surprised me with her answer: relief. After thinking for a moment, I had to agree. Relief is everyone’s favorite feeling! David’s song about forgiveness begins with a celebration of relief, which he found in God’s forgiveness of his transgression.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Failure
Living under the Cloud of Guilt
Your conscience may be invisible but it is certainly not inactive! Who hasn’t been kept awake by its pleadings? With incredible regularity, an unforgiven conscience can rob us of an appetite, steal our sleep, and drive us to distraction. Do you remember Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting short story “The Tell-Tale Heart”? The main character has committed murder.
Read MoreFailure to Yield
Solomon pleaded with his son—and, by extension, with all of us—to heed the warning voice of wisdom. A good question is, why? Why must Solomon plead? Why do we ignore God’s reproofs, those in Scripture as well as those that come through other means? Looking back at the sayings preserved for us in Proverbs 1, I discover at least four reasons we do not heed reproof.
Read MoreOut of the Mouths of Babes
Divine reproofs aren’t limited to Scripture. While Scripture is God’s primary instrument of communication, He will use any means necessary to get our attention when we’re headed in the wrong direction. On other occasions, reproofs come verbally from those who care about us, including parents, friends, children, mates, employers, neighbors, a policeman, a teacher, a coach . . . any number of people.
Read MoreDanger Signs
Author and pastor Andy Stanley tells of a time when he and a friend drove from Birmingham to Atlanta and, to shave an hour off their trip, decided to use an unfinished section of Interstate 20. Impulsive teenagers, they felt a rush of adrenaline as they eased their car between the words “Road” and “Closed” and then gunned it. They had the entire highway to themselves, so they made great time . . . for a while.
Read MoreReproofs
Let’s face it: we are a wayward flock of sheep! It’s not so much that we are ignorant, but rather that we are disobedient. More often than not, we know what we ought to do. Put plainly, we simply do not put what we know into practice. So we spend our days enduring the irksome and painful consequences of going our own way. The grind of disobedience is neither easy nor new.
Read MoreCompromise and Erosion
The Hebrews’ ancient hymnal begins with a song that addresses one of life’s most common grinds: compromise. Please understand, I’m not referring to those give-and-take times so necessary for living in harmony with one another. Without that healthy kind of compromise, nations could never find a meeting ground for peaceful coexistence and family members would forever be at each other’s throats.
Read MoreFor a Fresh Start
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51:1–2) Our Father, in a dry and barren world, where sin is so rampant and society is so filthy, we need a fountain of fresh, clean water full of blessing, truth, and strength.
Read MoreOvercoming Rebellion
“How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sin.” (Job 13:23) Lord, You know that the human heart is rebellious. You are fully aware that this is a fallen world. We see evidence of it before our very eyes on every evening news broadcast. We witness again and again the ugly realities of stubbornness and resistance and selfishness.
Read MoreFighting Against Self-Focus
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3–4) Our Father, we who operate in such selfish realms often find ourselves preoccupied with stuff of our own.
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