Catchy title, hey? I am not writing about physical inflicted wounds so I hope you will not be disappointed if you thought the article would be about those. The wounds I am addressing come from "self" but impact us emotionally and spiritually. As you well know I have had the opportunity afforded to me by God to talk to lots of people who are in crisis situations over the past years. In the beginning I was overwhelmed by the problems that people face and the critical decisions they had to make in order to bring resolve. I have learned from experience that life 101 does not always have fairy tale endings. The best we can expect sometimes is to survive and live another day. Some of the problems we face are not of our own making of course. Some of them are. Hopefully and prayerfully we learn which is which.
It seems that we are quicker to forgive people their trespasses than we are to forgive our own. There is a big difference between the Holy Spirit bringing conviction upon our hearts and our own convictions we bring upon ourselves, or even worse, the attacks the enemy brings against us. The Holy Spirit has one goal in mind for us, to be of one mind and one accord with Christ. To allow Him to mold us into the person He created us to be. When we veer off track He will convict us in order to get us back on track. He does not excuse us but He does forgive us if we are willing to accept His instruction. He does not give up on us and does not "kick us" when we are down but always extends the Spiritual hand of Christ to lift us back up.
When it comes to our self conviction we are harder on ourselves than the Lord is! I think it comes from our desire to be a "good Christian" and somehow we get caught up in the illusion that we can do it. When we fail we blame ourselves for being a "bad person" or nothing but a hypocrite. We feel that we have failed Christ and we try to work harder to make up for the failure. Promising ourselves that we will "do better next time" and promising God that we will not fail again. If we were able to keep those promises we would not need Christ in our lives. If we could live a Christian life without Christ there would be no need to have Him in our hearts! We begin to fail over and over and each time we do we inflict wounds to our spirits and our emotions and therefore we find it more comfortable to just quit trying and not have all the pressure of trying to be a Christian; and we give up. Which pleases the enemy of our souls because he is always ready to tell us how much of a failure we are and that we should just accept that fact and not worry about it.
Here are some Words of Encouragement for you today; God does not expect you to live a Christian life. He expects you to allow Him to live through you. With Christ in your heart you do not have to fear failure. He will guide you, instruct you, forgive you, and love you unconditionally. As long as you are willing to receive His guidance, instruction, and forgiveness He is willing to abide with you; forever. Pride is the biggest reason for our self inflicted wounds. Once we realize that our righteousness is as filthy rags and therefore we have to allow Christ to put His robe of righteousness upon us, He will be able to heal our self inflicted wounds.
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed is Your name; help us this day by searching our hearts and healing our self inflicted wounds. Remove our pride by humbling us in Your presence. Thank You for not giving up on us and loving us unconditionally. Thank You for accepting us as we are but loving us to much to leave us that way! We ask this in Your name Jesus; Amen.
It seems that we are quicker to forgive people their trespasses than we are to forgive our own. There is a big difference between the Holy Spirit bringing conviction upon our hearts and our own convictions we bring upon ourselves, or even worse, the attacks the enemy brings against us. The Holy Spirit has one goal in mind for us, to be of one mind and one accord with Christ. To allow Him to mold us into the person He created us to be. When we veer off track He will convict us in order to get us back on track. He does not excuse us but He does forgive us if we are willing to accept His instruction. He does not give up on us and does not "kick us" when we are down but always extends the Spiritual hand of Christ to lift us back up.
Here are some Words of Encouragement for you today; God does not expect you to live a Christian life. He expects you to allow Him to live through you. With Christ in your heart you do not have to fear failure. He will guide you, instruct you, forgive you, and love you unconditionally. As long as you are willing to receive His guidance, instruction, and forgiveness He is willing to abide with you; forever. Pride is the biggest reason for our self inflicted wounds. Once we realize that our righteousness is as filthy rags and therefore we have to allow Christ to put His robe of righteousness upon us, He will be able to heal our self inflicted wounds.
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed is Your name; help us this day by searching our hearts and healing our self inflicted wounds. Remove our pride by humbling us in Your presence. Thank You for not giving up on us and loving us unconditionally. Thank You for accepting us as we are but loving us to much to leave us that way! We ask this in Your name Jesus; Amen.
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