BY LARALOVE
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
One day I fell down. Hard. Flat on my face. Ouch. Right onto the hard pavement. Ugh. Not literally. Sinfully. That’s right. I fell right back into old sin. I shouldn’t have been surprised. In fact, I wasn’t surprised. I should have seen it coming. The Lord had warned me. Over and again. For ever so long. Moving too fast. Not slowing down. Trying to get too much done. Trying to do a good job. Not resting when I needed to rest. Too tired. Too worn. Too much to do. Not trusting in Him. Trusting in me. Not being led by Him. Being led by me. Long day. With yucky results. One of them anyway. Lost my temper. Lost my patience. Lost my cool. Not in a monumental way. But in an old way. The kind of way I desperately wanted to leave behind. The kind of way that is still wrong. Still needing repentance. And so I did. I did what I’ve long since learned is the only right thing to do when we fall downward.
We need to look upward. Instead of keeping our faces downward toward the grit and grime of the pavement we’ve fallen into sin upon, we need to turn our hearts and faces upward to the Lord and cry out to Him in true sorrow over our sins with a true desire for His forgiveness and a genuine commitment to learn to obey Him rather than to carry on in our sins. When we keep our hearts and heads downward, we wallow in shame, condemnation, self-pity, anger, pride, the awful consequences of sin, etc. When we turn away from our sins and turn to the Lord, we surrender to Him with humble hearts knowing He is the only way out of our sins, the only way to freedom, the only way to learning how to live the right way instead of to continue on the wrong way. His way.
If you’re facing downward ’cause you’ve fallen into sin, turn, turn, turn to the Lord. Turn upward to Christ Jesus and leave your sin behind. Grab hold of the Lord and His Word and get up off the pavement. Walk on. Walk forward. Walk in His mercy. Walk in His forgiveness. Walk in His love. Walk with Him. Hallelujah, AMEN!
Courtesy of DAILY INSPIRATION
