Eliminating Frustration, Aggravation and Irritation

 

Are you frequently aggravated, frustrated, annoyed, or irritated when things don’t go the way you’ve planned?  We must realize that no matter how carefully we may plan out our daily schedule we are not in control of ANY of our circumstances in this life. There will be times when our sovereign Creator chooses to make unexpected changes in our day.  When those upredictable events come, will our reaction be one of thankfulness in understanding that God has distinct intentions for those changes, or will we become angry because our will is not being accomplished?  When our agenda is altered by unforseen situations, how should we respond?

There are numerous things we all strive to get accomplished during our day, however, quite often we find ourselves stalled by an interruption, delay or cancellation of our plans.  All of these unpredictable events can cause us frustration because we are not accomplishing what we had originally set out to do. Sometimes we may bring these irritations upon ourselves through the choices we make, or our dilemma may be totally unsolicited.  I have had my share of unanticipated circumstances that weren’t scheduled in my calendar. 

One such incident occurred last Saturday evening when I accidently pumped more than 10 gallons of “unleaded” fuel into the gas tank of our “diesel” truck.  Sitting for over two hours at a gas station waiting for a tow truck wasn’t at all what I had planned for my evening, but the Lord turned a seemingly frustrating incident into an opportunity to demonstrate to our three teens that we needed to spend some time in prayer, trust God to help us and be flexible.  If we look close enough, we will find the benefits and blessings God has for us through the situation.  If I hadn’t gotten the wrong fuel, I wouldn’t have taken the time to talk with the gas station attendant about how God answers prayer. God also used the gracious reaction of my husband to my absent mindedness, to demonstrate to our children that we all should be forbearing and merciful to others who make mistakes.  I also witnessed the great love my husband has for me because of his patience and willingness to spend several hours fixing the problem I had created.   It would not have accomplished anything good for us all to have become frustrated. God is in complete control and always has a purpose for every unexpected situation.  It is good to have goals and make plans but we must realize that God may have a far different agenda for us.  Proverbs 20:24, “A man’s steps are of the Lord, How then can man understand his own way?”  It’s beyond our comprehension to fully understand God’s sovereign ways.  He desires for us to rest in the peace of knowing He works all things together for our good (Romans 8:28).  We must look above the obvious circumstances we face and gain deeper spiritual insight, so that we develop a more intimate relationship with Him.  

 

When we become frustrated we are actually elevating our own will above God’s eternal purposes. We do not share the same perspective that God has.  We’re told in Isaiah 55:8, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.  We must remind ourselves that our sinful human tendency is to focus on the here and now, but God’s perspective is ALWAYS eternal!  God’s intent is not to spare us from every disappointment or dilemma in this life.  God’s will for us is to place our dependence on Him, trust Him and give Him the honor and glory through our responses in every situation we face.  We must realize that we will never be in control of anything, so our faith and trust must be firmly secured in the only One who is in authority over ALL things.

 If we resist God’s control and stubbornly rebel against His all-knowing plan and intent for us, we will be frustrated, irritated, angry bitter people. Furthermore, God will persist in chiseling away at our selfishness by bringing more of those unexpected predicaments into our lives because His mission for us is holiness.  We choose to become angry because our expectations are not being fulfilled and question God’s goodness in allowing those disappointments into our lives.   

 It is imperative that we understand that no matter how we justify our frustrations, irritations or annoyances, they are all terms we use to describe our root sin of anger.  Anger is an indicator that we care more about what pleases us than what pleases and glorifies God.  If we’d like to live a more frustration free life, we must confess every form of anger that is in our hearts.  The sin of anger or frustration not only breaks our communion and fellowship with God but it also destroys relationships with our family and friends. There are devastating effects on our loved ones because a frustrated, angry person tends to be quite difficult to live with.  Proverbs 29:22 “A man of wrath
stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression.”

 Whether our frustration is inward or outwardly manifested, the physical effects on our body have been medically proven.  Angry people experience some forms of heart problems, the tendency to suffer from high blood pressure and even strokes.  Before I bowed my stubborn will to my sovereign Creator, I could’ve died in the Critical Care Unit because of my sin of anger.  I was frequently irritated, offended, bothered, frustrated, and silently angry when things didn’t turn out my way, when people didn’t meet up to my expectations, or when I wasn’t treated the way I thought I deserved to be treated.  Does this sound like a joy filled existence?  A few years later I read that there are some heart problems that can be caused by anger and I realized I’d been placing my will and desires above God’s. I finally repented of my anger and asked God to forgive me.  I then was led to write about how His power had radically changed me, which I included in my first blog “Saved from the road to destruction”.        

In examining your own heart, do you become frustrated, irritated and angry when things don’t go the way you thought they should?  Have you ever realized that frustration and irritation are really anger?   God’s desire for us to live the abundant life does not include being enslaved to the sin of anger.  We waste precious time in this life when wrapped up in our petty annoyances.  We must humble ourselves, and seek forgiveness from the Lord.   We will then be free to live a life filled with joy and abundance, trusting in our sovereign Savior who is in authority over ALL things and desires only our best.  2 Samuel 22:31 shows us “As for God, His way is perfect.”   

Freedom or Bondage, Which Will You Choose?

Are you a person who struggles with forgiving those who have hurt you?  Forgiveness is not always easy to extend to those who have willingly chosen to bring us or our loved ones harm. By forgiving our offenders, it seems as if we are simply letting them "off the hook" for what they've done. We think that we can somehow punish those who have hurt us by refusing to forgive and holding a grudge toward them.  We believe that if we ignore them, treat them badly or even seek revenge, we are making our offenders pay for the pain they have caused.  I am extremely and utterly humbled and grateful for the fact that God does not have our same sinful perspective about our offenses toward Him. 

 

If God is in control of everything that happens, why would He allow those hurtful situations to come into our lives?  We must realize that those offenses, hurts and misunderstandings all must first be filtered through the hands of our loving Lord before they are even allowed to happen to us.  God's greatest desire for us is not to be untouched by the hurts of this world, but for us to be conformed more and more into the image of His dear Son, Jesus.  Everything we endure has eternal purposes and is being orchestrated for our good and for God's glory.   Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that ALL things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."  HOW we respond to the wounds we receive is a direct indication of WHAT we believe to be true about our heavenly Father. If we doubt His goodness, His wisdom, and His love for us we will become bitter. No one has any right, for even a moment, to question the goodness of our God! Instead of questioning, we need to TRUST the One who sees all, who knows all and is working to fulfill His sovereign purposes in and through us. God desires to pour out His mercy, love and grace upon us through the process of transforming us to be more like His Son. We can also chose to resist God's mercy, love and grace because of our pride and allow the root of bitterness to take hold in our hearts.  Hebrews 12:15 tells us how our bitterness will then defile many others in our lives.  "Looking diligently unless anyone fall short of the grace of God; unless any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled."  Satan will use our bitterness to bring about our destruction and cause devastion to all of those around us. Our bitterness never punishes those who have hurt us, it simply places us in chains and holds US hostage in a nasty prison that wreaks from the poison in our hearts. Being in bondage to bitterness steals all the joy, peace and contentment that we can savor in this earthly life.  It's a lie straight from the master deceiver that our bitterness will ever hurt our offender more than it damages us.
 

In reality, the prison we think we are holding our offender in, is the very prison WE are being held captive in! Having spent 20 years in the prison of bitterness myself, I’ve seen the destruction that it causes. It almost destroyed my health and my relationships. It consumed my thoughts and stole my joy! I was so blinded by my sin, until I humbled myself and finally realized that if I wanted God to forgive me, I needed to forgive others. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you REFUSE to forgive others your Father will not forgive your sins.”  God has shown me that HE is the righteous judge and it is HE "Who will render to every man according to his deeds." Romans 2: 6.  It's never our job to retaliate or punish our offender because God is perfectly capable of handling the problem Himself. 

I’ve also learned that forgiveness is not always a “one time” event. Sometimes Jesus calls us to forgive the same person over and over and over again.  This is the same kind of forgiveness that God grants to us, over and over on a daily basis for ALL of the things we do to offend Him. God’s ultimate forgiveness is offered through Jesus on the cross and has set us free from the eternal penalty of our sin. May each of us continually humble ourselves and choose to forgive others as Christ has forgiven us. Ephesians 4:32 says, “…forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” 

 So have we fulfilled our spiritual duty by simply forgiving others, or would God desire us to even go the extra mile to bring Him more honor and glory? Taking offenses one step further beyond forgiveness involves us "seeing" our offender as Christ sees them. Maybe the person who hurt us has a need? Maybe God allowed the situation to come into our life so that we could have mercy on our offender and meet their needs. The grace that God grants us during this situation is quite amazing! We could never humanly muster up enough pity toward those who've wounded us, it's a demonstration of God's grace that enables us minister to them. 

 

When Jesus Christ arose from the grave, He could have emerged with a perfect body with no visible traces of the torture and suffering He endured on the cross.  Instead, Jesus CHOSE to keep the scars from the nails in His hands as a reminder of His amazing love for us.  It is crucial that each of us  have this same perspective of the wounds and hurts we've received from others. Once we have forgiven our offenders, the scars that are left behind by their wounds can remind us of God's forgiveness to us and the mercy we must also extend to others by forgiving them.  This may seem like a foreign concept to most of us, but that is exactly how our God works.  Our natural human inclination to hold a grudge and make our offenders pay for what they've done can be supernaturally transformed through the power of the forgiveness of the cross.   

 

 God's ways are higher than our ways and bring us joy, freedom and blessing. Bitterness will lead us into bondage EVERY SINGLE TIME and puts us on the road to destruction. Choosing to forgive will keep us on the road to blessing and ALWAYS set us free! Have you been harboring unconfessed sin that you need to make right with God or others you may have offended?  Are there people in your life that you need to extend forgiveness to?  Today is the day to make things right and determine what choice you will make the next time someone offends you.  Freedom through forgiveness or bitterness through bondage, which one will you chose?

Breaking Up The Dirt

Learning everyday tasks involved with living on a farm has given me greater insight to a few spiritual truths found in God’s Word.  I had never given soil or dirt too much thought before moving to our farm, other than the fact that I’ve never enjoyed getting dirty.  As we’ve learned about preparing the soil in the garden each spring before planting, I now see the importance of tilling the dirt, and breaking up the ground to eliminate any hard, dry soil that may have been matted down over the winter. By plowing up the tough, brittle ground, our goal is to prepare the surface to become soft and fertile so it will ready to accept the seeds.  We will then plant those seeds and water them so that strong, healthy plants will grow, providing us with food in which to feed our family. 

If we were to go out and attempt to plant seeds in our garden on that hard, dry ground, it would not be a successful endeavor.  It would be a futile waste of time, because there would be no growth, no healthy food and the ground would simply remain in its brittle useless state. Soil that has been unplowed is sometimes referred to as “fallow” ground and simply cannot be used for any productive purposes. 

In God’s Word we often see the analogy between our mind and hearts in comparison with the soil of the ground.   At times our hearts become hardened and brittle from unconfessed sin, and like fallow ground, we become useless to carry out God’s purposes for us.  God told Judah and Jerusalem in Jeremiah 4:3 to, “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.”  The Lord desires for His children to make sure we are continually breaking up any unplowed soil in our hearts.  When our hearts are in need of spiritual tilling, we will exhibit the tell tale attitudes of apathy, indifference, unresponsiveness, carelessness, insensitivity, stubbornness and resistance to readily receiving the seed of God’s Word.  These attitudes are displayed when we have a lack of interest or involvement in ministering to other people’s needs, no longer have a burden to see the lost come to the Savior, or when we choose to rebel against God given authority in our lives.  Neglecting to continually till up the soil of our hearts is used by Satan to cause hard heartedness, stubbornness and rebellion to set in and create hard, matted ground where we can’t receive the seed of God’s Truth.  In this unplowed condition, we also cannot bear godly fruit. Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord…”  Refusing to break up fallow soil caused by unconfessed sin in our hearts leads to destruction and we simply will not prosper in our lives.  We are warned of the contrasting results of how we choose to deal with our sin in Proverbs 28:13, “He that covers his sins will NOT prosper: but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”        

I know the toil and hard labor that comes from living with a heart full of soil that I rarely tilled.  It’s hard work being selfish and prideful.  It’s hard work being bitter and holding onto all of those grudges.  It’s hard work being frustrated and irritated over petty offenses.  It’s no wonder I was always exhausted!  Please listen to someone who knows the heartache of choosing to live in disobedience and rebellion to the God of the universe!  Whether it’s inward or outward sin that leads you to the road of rebellion, you will never find the freedom, joy and peace you are searching for by indulging in the empty pleasures of this world.  I can’t even explain the peace and joy that has filled my life now that I’ve surrendered my will to live in submission to the authority of my Savior.  The difference between a life FULL of heartache, and an ABUNDANT life FULL of blessing, is our willingness to humble ourselves and break up the hard soil in our hearts by confessing our sin.  Unconfessed sin is the tool that our Enemy uses in an attempt to bring about our destruction!  If Satan can’t destroy us, he’ll steal precious time from us fulfilling God’s purposes in our lives by getting us to believe the empty deceptive promises of sin.  We must humbly examine our thoughts, attitudes, speech and actions under the microscope of God’s Word if we are to break up the hard, fallow ground in our hearts.  How about you?  In close examination of the soil of your heart, have you found hardness, indifference, rebellion, insensitivity or apathy?  Is it time for you to do some spiritual tilling?  I John 1: 9 says that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL our unrighteousness.”

Shooting Our Wounded

When we find out someone we know is enduring devastating trials do we automatically assume God allowed it to happen because they’re living in sin?  In the back of our minds maybe we believe that God is punishing them for making wrong choices?  The fact is that we don't have all the facts and we don’t ever need all of the facts about their situation.  What Christians truly need to be is an extension of Christ’s love and compassion to those hurting people, not their judge.

It’s sad when wounded people come to the body of Christ for compassion, love and healing but what they find many times is judgmental, prideful, critical eyes who would rather shun them than minister to them.  They are blinded by the enemy and don't even realize the fact that there WILL come a day when God will allow some of those same trials in their own lives.  During those difficulties they will also need the love, support and mercy from other Christians but they should not expect to receive it.  Jesus says Himself in Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful for THEY will be shown mercy.”  God also tells us in Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap.” We cannot count on receiving help when we are hurting if we have not been willing to reach out and help other people going through trials.

It’s a far too common occurrence to see Christians shooting our own wounded!  In military terms this is called “friendly fire”.  We need to be on guard and watchful for enemy attacks, planning strategies to block any victories for our enemy’s kingdom.  Instead we CHOOSE to do damage to the kingdom of God by discouraging, ignoring, shunning or shooting our own soldiers.  If we were soldiers of war, we would never even fathom the thought of wounding our own comrades or refusing medical treatment to those who had been hit by enemy fire.  We would never dream of leaving that wounded soldier there to die without trying to do whatever we could to see that they would recover.  The truth is that we ARE in a battle. The battle we fight is not physical but spiritual. 
     
Christians need to put away our pointing judgmental fingers and stop pulling the trigger to shoot our own wounded.  What hurting people desperately NEED is a refuge in which they can come to find love, compassion and help.  It is in this atmosphere where situations are handled Biblically in love that those hurting people can also see how God might be working to change their hearts in some sin areas as well.  In Psalm 46:1 we see that “God is our refuge and help, our very present help in times of trouble.”  This means He will come to our aid in times of trouble.   If Christians are supposed to be exactly like Christ, then why aren’t we faithfully coming to the aid of hurting people who desperately need our help?

It's heartbreaking, but there are also Christians who take the shunning and judging of those going through trials even one step further.  Putting on the disguise of a concerned saint they like to gather as much information as they can, mostly negative, so that they can “pray” for the wounded.  They haven’t gone out of their way to respond in love personally to help treat the hurting person’s wounds.  Instead they take it upon themselves to “appear” to be helping by spreading information to others which was none of their business to begin with.   Satan uses those gossips as tools to infiltrate the church with misconceptions and lies in an attempt to further rub salt into the wounds of the hurting by destroying their reputations.  Throughout the Bible we see how nosy busybodies or talebearers cause harm by spreading information. The talebearers 'words' are compared to causing internal wounds to people in Proverbs 26:22, “The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.”

If Christians are to be known by our love but choose not to demonstrate it to the hurting, it’s no wonder that so many people are turning away from the church.  Whether it’s the innocent party of a marital separation or divorce, victims of abuse or those who have repented of past sin and seek to start over in their Christian walk, they need our help.  When we fail to reach out to the wounded to lovingly meet their needs we grieve the heart of our Savior who willing left glory to suffer and die on the cross to meet OUR spiritual needs.  This is blatant hypocrisy and there’s no difference between the Pharisees of Jesus day and Christians today who choose to turn their back in arrogance to a wounded neighbor.  The Pharisees proudly claimed to follow the letter of the law perfectly, even questioning Jesus about His obedience to it.  We Christians claim to love Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength which is the first and great commandment mentioned in Matthew 22: 7-8, but miserably fall short in obeying the second commandment to “Love our neighbor as ourselves”.  We CANNOT talk about how much we love God and also refuse to show love by turning a blind eye to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of others.

This situation of friendly fire among the body of Christ should not continue.  Every single one of us has sin areas that we need to humbly acknowledge and confess before God.  We each have the responsibility and privilege to love God and serve Him by loving others and serving them.  In examining your life, how do you measure up in this area?  When you know someone who has been wounded do you automatically play judge and jury and quickly dismiss yourself from any involvement in meeting their needs?  God is faithful because where we’ve failed before, with His help we can obey in the future.  Imagine what our churches would be like and what kind of impact we could make for Christ on a lost and dying world if we’d simply follow God’s Word and show His love to the wounded He brings across our path every single day.
 

It's Not My Fault!

When you have conflict in your life, do you try to determine the cause of the problem, even if that means YOU may be at fault? OR do you just shift the blame to avoid humbling yourself and admitting you’re wrong? Maybe you even think all of the controversy and strife in your life are somehow God’s fault?  Because controversy and contention leave no room for peace in our lives, it is crucial that we examine our hearts to identify and pull out the “root” cause of that contention. God’s Powerful Word gives us all the answers we need to live a godly, prosperous life.  Proverbs 13:10 says, “Only by pride comes contention.”  I have learned that pride is the MOST destructive root sin that a person can have and is the sin that God judges the most severely.  Pride causes us put ourselves above others and is the root cause of ALL contention and problems we struggle with in our lives.

There are quite a few examples in Scripture of how destructive the sin of pride is and how it is at the “root” of all contention we have in relationships but especially in our fellowship with God. 
Obviously pride was the first sin ever committed. We see in Isaiah 14:13-14, Satan’s prideful attitude caused himself and one-third of the angels to rebel against God. He and those angels were punished because of their pride and were removed from heaven and have been condemned for all eternity.
 
We also see the example of King Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament who had pride about all of his achievements in building Babylon in Daniel 4:30.  Because of the king’s pride and boasting, God gave him the heart of an animal. Nebuchadnezzar was driven out of his kingdom and forced to live in fields until he repented of his pride and recognized that it was God that was in control of everything. This approach was very effective because we see in Daniel 4:37 that the king gives praise and honor to God and NOT himself.
 
In God's Word we some of the destructive effects of pride in our lives: 
1) When we have pride, we will have shame.  Proverbs 11:2
2) Because of pride, we have contention.  Proverbs 13:10
3) Our pride causes us to fall and causes destruction.  Proverbs 16:18
4) God hates pride and it is an abomination to Him.  Proverbs 6:16    
5) Having a proud heart won't go unpunished.  Proverbs 16:5
6) Having a proud heart causes strife and problems.  Proverbs 28:25
7) Having a proud heart is sin.  Proverbs 21:4

We can see CLEARLY in Scripture that our pride is sin! NONE of these things God’s Word mentions about pride are blessings to us, so why do we continue in this sin?  We hold onto our pride because we believe Satan’s lies that this is “OUR” life and we are in control of it. We think we can do a better job at handling our situations than God can, and believe that WE are more important than God!

I know a lot about how destructive pride can be in a person’s life.  Just a few years ago, my life was FULL of contention, and it was ALL due to my prideful sinful heart.  I rarely asked God or anyone else to forgive me for anything!  I thought that all of the conflict in my life was someone else’s fault. I had absolutely NO peace!  Satan tried to ruin my health, my marriage, my family, and my relationships and wanted my destruction.  Satan’s goal for us is three-fold; it’s to steal, kill and destroy and he knows what to tempt us with.  Pride is a destructive condition of the heart and is not easily conquered. 

To conquer the sin of pride in our hearts we MUST confess our sin and declare to God that we are humbly bowing our selfish stubborn will to His authority.  MANY of us will even admit that we struggle with pride, but are not willing to humble ourselves under God’s authority. God DOES have MANY ways He could humble us if we insist on it, but God wants US to take the initiative and humble ourselves in His sight.

How do we humble ourselves before God?  

1)    Fall down at the foot of the cross of Christ. 

2)    Cry out to God to help us humble ourselves - when we see that we cannot handle things on our own, God wants to hear us cry out to Him for help.

3)    Confess our faults to one another- we usually want to hide our faults from others so that they will think highly of us. We are told in James 5:16 to confess our faults to others so we can pray for one another.   

4)    Confess our sins to God - Proverbs 28:13 talks about the person who tries to cover their sins and not confess them. 

5)    Serve others with the attitude of Jesus-  Jesus continually showed His servants heart by placing others above Himself by serving.

6)   Let ALL praise and glory be given to God, not to take the credit ourselves.

7)   Mourn over our sin and realize that we are beggars before God.

8)    Submit to authority - We can never expect to be blessed by our God if we are not willing to submit to God's authority or the leadership of those God has placed in authority over us in our lives (husbands, parents, pastors...)

James 4:6 talks about how God resists us when our hearts are full of pride, but He gives grace to us when we are humble.  Just as God resists us when we are prideful, we resist others in our lives that are prideful because we sense that they don’t really love us, but only love themselves. When we are prideful, people around us sense that we’re lacking genuine love for them so they will resist us. 
 

When we replace our pride with a spirit of humility, the controversy and contentions in our lives will greatly decrease.  Our marriages, families, and ALL of our relationships will improve when we begin to humble ourselves.  We need to learn to focus on the confessing the sin of pride in our own hearts instead of being consumed with all of the conflict and how we think others need to change. Our purpose is to honor and glorify God in all of our thoughts, attitudes and actions. Imagine what this world would be like if all Christians confessed their pride and were focused on glorifying God and not themselves. Imagine what kind of shining light Christians could be to the lost and dying world around us if we were more humble.   
 

Oh, the contention that we could avoid in our lives if we would only humble ourselves as God tells us to do!  God is waiting to extend His grace to those who will obey His Word.  “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of GOd, that He may exalt you in due time."

Have You Been Washed In The Fountain?

Songwriter William Cowper was tortured for years by a deep, dark suicidal depression. After years of suffering and anguish, he finally came to the realization that Christ’s shed blood on the cross could wash away ALL of the guilt from our sin.  I John 1:7 says “…and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”   All we need to do is humble ourselves at the foot of the cross and ask forgiveness from God and He will remove our sin as far as the east is from the west. After crying out to God to forgive his sin, William Cowper was finally freed from all of the guilt and shame he had held onto for far too long. He was no longer plagued by suicidal depression and darkness, but found the joy and peace he had been longing for in his life.  Once he had experienced this new found freedom in Christ, he then sat down and wrote my favorite song:

 “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose ALL their guilty stains.

 The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; And there may I, though vile as he, Wash ALL my sins away.

 Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood will NEVER lose its power. Till all the ransomed church of God, Be saved to sin no more.

 Ever since, by faith, I saw the stream, Your flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

 Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Your power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue, lies silent in the grave.”

I can identify personally with William Cowper because I was plagued by the guilt from my unconfessed sin for many years.  I had been saved since a young age, but rarely dealt with problems and stress in my life Biblically which caused me to suffer needlessly from depression and serious health problems. Since God's law is written on each one of our hearts, each time we sin, we KNOW we are violating God's law. When we violate God's law by sinning and do not confess it right away, we will have guilt.  That guilt causes many horrible problems for us mentally, physically and spiritually.  The ONLY way to get rid of guilt is to confess it! No amount of medication will solve our problem, only mask it and numb it.  We have to solve the problem by eliminating the root, which is guilt! It is imperative that we don't allow the guilt to come through daily confession.   

Even though I had trusted in Christ's blood to save me for eternity, I was not cleansing myself from my sin daily. Praise God I finally realized that Christ's blood was enough to pay for my sins, no matter how great or small.

 

 I John 1:9 says that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL of our unrighteousness.” Once our sin is truly confessed, and we are forgiven by God and others, then we are able to have the peace and joy that allows us to live the abundant life free from guilt that Christ died to give us.

 

The song “There is A Fountain” has been used by God in a great way to impact thousands of lives over the years and bring many hurting people to the cross of Christ.  What AMAZING things God will accomplish in and through us when we humble ourselves and confess our sin at the foot of the cross!  NOTHING we can do on our own will ever cleanse us from our guilty sin stains. Have you humbled yourself and come to the Fountain filled with blood for cleansing of your sin for salvation? If you are already a Christian, do you humble yourself before God daily through confession of sin and allow the blood of Christ to cleanse you?

Are We Substituting Praying for Obeying?

                                            

How many of us truly have the desire to see revival in our day?  I’m talking about a spiritual awakening that spreads like fire throughout our churches and cities, where people’s lives are radically changed because of the awesome power of Jesus shed blood on the cross!   
This spiritual awakening will involve:

1) Dying to our selfish, sinful worldly desires
2) Seeing our sin just as our Holy God sees it
3) Mourning over and confessing the sin we've been harboring
4) Loving God with ALL of our heart, soul, mind and strength
5) Bowing our will to the will of Our Creator God and HIS sovereign purposes for creating us
6) Getting busy doing what God has called us to do in this vaporous, earthly life   
                                                                                                   
If we truly desire revival, how many of us have been diligently, fervently praying for it? BUT is prayer the ONLY thing we need to do for revival to come?   A.W. Tozer wisely said, “Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late- and how little revival has resulted?   I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute “praying” for “obeying” and it simply WILL NOT WORK.”
Revival is NOT just something that happens out there in the world.  We Christians can’t just sit and pray, waiting for God to answer our prayers for revival.  Revival takes place in the church first!  Who is the church?  That’s you and that’s me!!!  As a whole, the church today is apathetic, indifferent, unconcerned, unloving, unresponsive, careless, insensitive, resistant or stubborn?  Do we see some of these same attitudes of sin even in our own church?  Do we see some of these sinful attitudes in our own hearts?  When we see evidences of these sin attitudes, we are really dealing with a “disobedience” issue, not a “God’s not answering our prayer for revival” issue! 

In the past, God has brought revival to people’s hearts through hard economic times, through heartbreaking circumstances or personal trials. Sometimes God must use those methods to bring us to our knees because we refuse to humble ourselves and realize that we are absolutely NOTHING without Him.  We do not have to wait for trials to come for God to bring us to our knees in brokenness before Him.  In Matthew 5, Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, where He describes the characteristics that will be evident in every believer’s life.  In verse 4 Jesus says, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted.”  I used to think this meant people who were mourning or suffering a loss.  With deeper study of this passage I came to realize that Jesus is saying that those who mourn over their sin  will be blessed and comforted by God. 

It is when each of us is TRULY mourning over our sin that brings repentance and revival.  Genuine repentance will involve each of us having the attitude of a beggar, humbly grieving over our sin, and then asking forgiveness from God and others we have sinned against.  God shows us our example of how to mourn over our sin in Psalm 51.  King David was devastated by his broken relationship with God, humbled himself and deeply mourned over his sin with a beggar’s attitude.  David acknowledge his sin and pleaded with God for forgiveness and cleansing from his sin in Psalm 51:1-3, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.”   When we think of David’s sins of adultery and murder, we quickly excuse ourselves from those sin categories or that degree of sin, but we are OFTEN blinded to our own sin of pride, anger, unforgiveness, bitterness, envy, or greed.   We MUST be aware that Satan uses our “inner private” sin to destroy us just as he uses the “outward public” sin.  If left unconfessed, our “inner private” sin WILL eventually lead to “outward public” sin.  We can see where David’s pride, greed, envy and guilt led him in this instance with Bathsheba that left him distraught, devastated and almost destroyed.   David’s repentance of his sin led to an amazing revival in his heart!

 If we are praying for revival to come, the first place we need to look is at our own personal spiritual condition.  God’s will and desire for us is to have a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  He wants to use us in a mighty way to fulfill His purposes in and through us, but our sin hinders that work.  We will experience personal spiritual revival, but we must plead for forgiveness of our sin, and confess our guilt from harboring sin just as David did.   When we experience God’s forgiveness, our joy will return and God will use us in a mighty way to testify to others who need to experience revival in their hearts. 

Should we pray for revival?  Most definitely!   BUT if we truly desire revival, we CANNOT substitute prayer for our obedience to God by confessing our sin.  Others WILL notice when we’ve experienced revival in our heart because our countenance will change, and the joy of the Lord will radiate through us because our heart is pure.  When we experience personal spiritual revival it will be evident in our conversation, our attitudes, our desires, and our goals in this earthly life.  God desires the same revival that took place in David’s heart to take place in our hearts, but it’s ONLY possible through humbly mourning over and confessing our sin. 

“Search Me, O God, and know my heart today.  Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.  See if there be some wicked way in me.  Cleanse me from EVERY sin and set me free.

I praise You Lord, for cleansing me from sin.  Fulfill Your Word and make me PURE within.  Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame.  Grant my desire to magnify Your name.

Lord, take my life and make it wholly Thine.  Fill my poor heart with Your great love divine.  Take ALL MY WILL, my PASSION, SELF and PRIDE.  I now SURRENDER, Lord, in me abide.

O, Holy Spirit, revival comes from Thee.  Send a revival, start the work in ME.  Your Word declares, You will supply our need.  For blessing now, O lord, I humbly plead.”