When I was a junior in high school I was playing in one of my first varsity football games. We were losing by less than a touchdown with not much time left. The coach put me in at receiver and the call was a deep route to me. As I was running my route the ball was thrown to me, and the defender guarding me pulled on my jersey to slow me down. Obviously this is illegal, so I stopped and threw up my hands to get the call. The ref never made the call. Looking at it on film the next day, if I would have kept running I might could have caught the ball and gotten yards to help us get closer, or even score a touchdown. Instead I stopped my route and complained. This is a play that I run in my head every now and then and I regret that I stopped my route. I might not have scored, I might not have even caught the ball, but I will never know because I didn't even try.
Many Christians today are paralyzed by things they have done and decisions they have made that they regret. We get so caught up in the things that we haven't done or the things that we have done and miss the big picture. Christ is not concerned with mistakes we made after the fact, he is concerned with what we are doing for him at this very moment. I am not saying that we shouldn't feel guilty about the sins we commit from God, but we shouldn't let that guilt control our lives. It is more about how we respond to our screw ups.
One of my favorite screw ups in the Bible is David. I can look at David and say, "I've never killed a man, and I've never slept with another man's wife." (I guess that makes me feel good about myself) Most of us know the story of David, slept with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed in battle by putting him in the front lines. It took David awhile to repent of what he did, it took Nathan to come to him and shine light on what David had done. Once David saw the wretchedness of what he had done, he was filled with sorrow and regret.
We have all felt like David at one point in our lives. Where it feels as if we can't do anything right and all we do is disappoint God. All God cares about is that we are following him with everything that we have. In turn that should give us a greater desire to please God in everything we do. Are we going to mess up on the way? Of course, but if we stay on the path with God a few bumps and bruises along the way are no big deal. We must follow him so passionately that no set back can knock us from our course.
Many Christians today are paralyzed by things they have done and decisions they have made that they regret. We get so caught up in the things that we haven't done or the things that we have done and miss the big picture. Christ is not concerned with mistakes we made after the fact, he is concerned with what we are doing for him at this very moment. I am not saying that we shouldn't feel guilty about the sins we commit from God, but we shouldn't let that guilt control our lives. It is more about how we respond to our screw ups.
One of my favorite screw ups in the Bible is David. I can look at David and say, "I've never killed a man, and I've never slept with another man's wife." (I guess that makes me feel good about myself) Most of us know the story of David, slept with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed in battle by putting him in the front lines. It took David awhile to repent of what he did, it took Nathan to come to him and shine light on what David had done. Once David saw the wretchedness of what he had done, he was filled with sorrow and regret.
We have all felt like David at one point in our lives. Where it feels as if we can't do anything right and all we do is disappoint God. All God cares about is that we are following him with everything that we have. In turn that should give us a greater desire to please God in everything we do. Are we going to mess up on the way? Of course, but if we stay on the path with God a few bumps and bruises along the way are no big deal. We must follow him so passionately that no set back can knock us from our course.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1
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