Getting Over Our Wrongs

Devotional writer Randy Kilgore asks “How should we handle moments of faith-failure,…?”¹ This question hits home with me because I can’t count the number of times that I am not even out of bed in the morning when sinful thoughts pop into my head. As an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, I know I dishonor God by these thoughts and actions. Likewise I am trained to believe God forgives my confessed sins and remembers them no more (Isaiah 43:35). But…

“But” is a three-letter word that carries more punch than its sparse number of letters. If I am trained to believe this then why can’t I forget my forgiven wrongs and move on? Kilgore supplies the much needed answer by simply saying “Satan not only delights in the moment of our failure but also in the spiritual inactivity that sometimes snares us in our remorse.”¹ He warns us not to get stuck. I still need to take personal responsibility for the “consequences” of my sins. But, I don’t have to let Satan “multiply the damage by retreating into silence and obscurity as ambassadors of Christ.”¹

Kilgore sends us to two Bible verses for comfort and support: Proverbs 24:16² and
1 John 1:9. ²

Proverbs 24:16

^{16 l}For a righteous man may fall seven times

And rise again,

^mBut the wicked shall fall by calamity.

1 John 1:9

⁹ If we ^qconfess our sins, He is ^rfaithful and just to forgive us our sins and to ^scleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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¹ Our Daily Bread. April 21, 2011. (Vol. 55, No. 12; Vol. 56, Nos. 1&2). RBC Ministries. USA. [http://odb.org/2011/04/21/moving-past-sinful-failure/]

² http://biblia.com/bible/nkjv