Tuesday

Thank You

Gratitude:
1: the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful
2: a feeling or thankfulness or appreciation.

God has taught me so much through my children. What unconditional love looks like. A willingness to be forgiving. How simple faith can really be and how we weigh it down with our religious expectations and pompous.

I have been reading through a book and it has really made me dig deeper into the core of what I believe and why. Several years ago, I was doing some amazing studies that helped God's Word come alive to me and opened the door to what it really meant to breath in the Living Word! I realized,  God revealed to me that in understanding His forgiveness through Christ, and before I could even begin to allow forgiveness to overflow into all areas of my life I had to first be willing to forgive myself. This was life altering for me. God revealed that although I was working on forgiving others, I hadn't released myself of guilt. And until YOU are willing to accept God's gift of forgiveness, it is not something you can give to others.

It is this very understanding that God unleashed into my life that I understood but was never able to articulate, until I began reading through The Rest of the Gospel. As I finished "Chapter 9: The Real You," I wanted to jump up and down in the air!!! And then I stopped and realized that I was raising my own children to live with condemnation and I didn't want to build that path for them to walk down. And you just might be placing this path before your children, stone by stone as well and not even realize it.

See we are free from sin, through Christ and yet once our children become believes we use The Law to condemn them instead of teaching them to rejoice that they are now free from it!!! Think about the last time your or your child did something that was wrong. What was your first and chances are, only reaction? Once I have humbled my heart I usually go into a quiet space with God and grovel for his forgiveness. Pour out how unworthy I am, and leave with a heart that is defeated. Or at times, to be perfectly honest, I check that box because I've asked forgiveness so I'm good. But do you see the condemnation in ALL of this!!!!

Do you see that it goes A-G-A-I-N-S-T God's Word 100%  

Romans 8:1-2 Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the 
Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.


What if we simply developed a heartfelt "Thank You, Father that I am forgiven" reaction to the next time we sinned? What kind of freedom do you think that would unleash in your life or do you feel like it would develop a "free pass" attitude? Let me know your thoughts and I look forward to continuing this discussion next week.............

1 comment:

Eileen Marie Miller said...

We are all unworthy and we all must be grateful. Try not to pound your head against the wall because of this. There have been times in my life when I couldn't forgive myself but through prayer and love of God and neighbor the spirit will bestow graces. The Lord loves you because you are a believer!