How Did I Get Here Again?!

--"Submit yourselves to the Lord resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7"   'God laid it on my heart to share that with you'--

Yep . . . that's the tough-to-swallow text I got from a friend at 11:35 PM tonight (on a side note, I thank God for Godly friends who will tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear).  I sent one a little over an hour eariler asking for prayer from a brother whom I knew I could count on and true to his colors he did pray for me, God answering swiftly and powerfully.  Please remember that everyone has battles (especially those you look up to), and often the people with more Godly knowledge and faith face even stronger attacks from satan.  The specifics here aren't nearly as important as the situation which we all find ourselves in from time to time, a state of utter disappointment or maybe even disgust in self to the point of needing a friend to pray for us so God will guide our words as we approach Him.

The better question for Christians is not, Do you believe in God? It's, do you believe the God you believe in?  That verse at the top is a claim, do you believe it?  Somehow, even though I have claimed belief in it so many times, I have so often failed to apply it.  Whatever we are struggling with, a battle with gluttony for one person, hatred for another, and still lust for another, if we will submit to God and trust his strength to protect us and not our own while resisting the devil, victory is certain. Why do we insist on allowing satan these petty victories when he has already been defeated and condemned on that glorious day when Christ crucified sin?

If you have been on a losing streak like me, whether a long streak or a short one, or maybe you are still in it . . . choose God now.  Trust Him and kick satan to the curb.  If the battle is already over and you're down and out--

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ 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.  (WWW.Biblegateway.COM)

Rise, knowing that if you make it to tomorrow it will be a new day with new opportunity to serve God and others!  This dark time you just went through will likely be a future opportunity to reach out to someone going through something similar; God hasn't stopped loving you, so take back your joy in the Lord!  You are going to stop running away and staying away when you mess up, and start turning quicker, running faster, clinging tighter, and trusting with more and more of yourself until you can't give anything else to God!  Attack tomorrow knowing sin has no hold on you and when it gets close you will only get closer to your God!  There's no turning back for us now, where else would we go? Who could ever love us like our Father does?

The Turn-Around

Acts 2:38
"Repent," Peter said to them, "and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus the Messiah for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It seems to me that many people, Christian or not, do not really understand repentance at all.  This is a problem, seeing how repentance is required in order to trust Jesus.

Imagine you and I are about to take a trip to a well known town about an hour away from where we are now.  You are going to drive, but are not completely sure about how to get there so you bring along a GPS just for backup.  As soon as we pull out of the driveway I fall asleep; I wake up later and notice that the scenery doesn't look quite right. When I glance at the GPS screen I see that we have been traveling the exact opposite direction and are now almost to the wrong town.  I point out the problem to you and tell you we need to turn around.

You now have a few options:
1. tell me I'm wrong and you know what you are doing
2. admit you are heading the wrong way but keep doing so for pride's sake
3. admit you are heading the wrong way, stop going that direction, and turn around, heading now in the right direction

This new info poses a few good questions:
Can we go towards Jesus and another direction at the same time?
What if one asked Jesus "into their heart", but never actually repented?
Does simply knowing the right way to go and believing it is the right way take me to Jesus?

Comments!!