God’s Love

God’s love for His children, those who trust in His Son, and have received Christ as Lord and Savior, is unchanging and eternal.

God is for us (Romans 8:31).

Christ Jesus intercedes for us (Romans 8:34).

NOTHING can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35-39).

While God’s love for His children is steadfast, we can grieve Him or please Him.

Grieving God

Do not quench the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

Paul gives examples of how we can grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:25-29), all of which are illustrations of sin.

Even though we can grieve the Holy Spirit, we are sealed by Him and cannot lose our salvation.

But! As long as He is grieved, we have lost fellowship with Him, and therefore direction and joy. The remedy is to confess your (my) sin, knowing that God will “forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9)

Pleasing God

On the other hand, we can please God. Amazing isn’t it? We, mortal humans, but children of God, can please Almighty God! Woohoo!

And we can learn to please Him.

Learn what is pleasing to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:10)

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

God Helps Us Please Himself

Determine to please Him in all respects (Colossians 1:10), and know that God is working in you both to want to please Him and to actually work to please Him.

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13)

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6)

God is helping us please Him!

Set Your Mind

Resolve to increasingly know Him and know what He wants you to do. Determine to live your life His way. You’ll please Him!

Don’t Think About It!

Have you ever been told not to think about something? Or, maybe, you’ve told yourself to stop thinking about something.

You may have done this exercise as a party game or in corporate training. “Picture an elephant.” ………… “Now stop thinking about the elephant.”

How did that work for you?

Probably not well, unless…

The Bible Tells Us How to Stop

Remember a time you were stuck in some unwanted thought. How long were you trapped? What enabled you to focus on something else?

It doesn’t work just to try to stop.

In fact, if you focus on trying to stop thinking about something in particular, you are more likely to keep remembering it.

What does work is to substitute a different thought.

Put Off. Put On.

Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:12)

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. (Romans 13:14)

Lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:22–24)

Don’t Do It!

This principle also works for behavior. Do you want to stop doing something? Find a godly substitute and do that instead.

I wanted to stop being so angry at certain behaviors in my company I thought were outrageous. One day I read a story about how to tell a true southerner: “A true Southerner knows you don’t scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 mph on the freeway. You just say, ‘Bless her heart’ and go your own way.” I laughed, but immediately saw how to apply this to my situation. So, when I saw or heard something that made my angry, I deliberately said: “Bless her/his heart.” The thought made me laugh and provoked me to bless and not curse. (When Storms Come: Will You Be Ready? page 214.)

Apply this to yourself

What do you want to stop thinking about? What do you want to stop doing?

Plan a substitute thought or a substitute action.

Think the godly substitute.

Perform the godly substitute.

This is how to not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

Practice! Press on!

This post describes HOW to stop thinking or doing something, but is the intellectual “how.” Conceptually, this is not difficult. However, we still must learn HOW to apply this to our lives, reliably and well. Actually employing this learning takes our best effort in the power of God. We are to “labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Colossians 1:29)

Let’s press on!

Uh-Oh. Someone is on the wrong side!

When someone asks for forgiveness, I’ve sometimes said: “There is nothing to forgive.” And a friend recently said that to me for something I felt bad about.

I wonder if that is right.

For some reason the person and I asked for forgiveness. It could be a mis-directed conscience. It could be a genuine mis-step. It could be sin. It could genuinely be nothing.

But the person is troubled

Even if you aren’t troubled by whatever happened, the person was troubled enough to ask for forgiveness.

After thinking about when I’ve used the phrase or been the recipient of the phrase, I will never again say it.

Instead, I plan to ask about what prompted the request for forgiveness, explore, if appropriate, what the person thinks about the issue and, if there is an issue, how I can help.

Possible questions

What’s going on?

Why did you ask?

What do you think was wrong?

A possible opportunity

Maybe this is an opportunity to help the person move forward in his/her Christian life. Help them understand if there really was nothing amiss. Or help them understand how to tackle, with God’s help, an issue.

If there really was no issue at all, the person wouldn’t have asked for forgiveness!

Things to think about

If there really is something awry, you don’t want to condone a problem.

If the person needs some help, you don’t want to ignore it.

facebook.com/harry-mouse+durgin

God knows everything. He is omniscient.

OLord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. (Psalm 139:1–6)

His understanding is infinite. (Psalm 147:5)

Your Father… sees what is done in secret… (Matthew 6:6)

Lord, You know all things… (John 21:17)

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:13)

Awesome. Scary.

God knows everything about everything and everybody all the time.

God knows everything about you—and me–all the time. He knows everything you—and I—think, feel, say, do. There is nothing you or I can hide.

Simultaneously, God’s omniscience is comforting and fearful.

He knows all our sins, which should lead us to confession and repentance, thereby receiving His forgiveness (1 John 1:9).

He knows all our sins—past, present, and future—and saved us anyway, which should lead us to worship Him and give us confidence.

For unbelievers, though, God’s omniscience is a frightful reality since God, when He judges, knows everything the person did. Everything.

For unbelievers, this truth should help them know they need a Savior.

Praise the Omniscient

God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—I praise Your Omniscience. You know the end from the beginning. You know everything about everything and everybody all the time, and knit everything all together to accomplish Your glorious will. Help me relax in light of this truth, resting on You.

Too often I will pray for something God has already given me.

My problem isn’t that I lack God’s resources but that I don’t apply His provision in my life.

Don’t Pray to Receive What You Already Have

If I pray for strength to cope with something, or the ability to do what He told me, I’m praying for the wrong thing. I’ve been told that I “can do all things through Him who strengthens” me (Phil. 4:13).

If I pray for His guidance, I’m ignoring that He always guides me (John 16:13).

If I pray for His grace, I overlook that He has freely and richly given me His grace (Ephesians 1:6-7).

If I pray for joy, I discount Jesus’ promise: “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full” (John 15:11).

I have been given “everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).

But I Don’t Always Use What I’ve Been Given

But I am not always joyful.

I too often believe I am not able to do what I know the Lord wants me to do.

I pray for the wrong things.

Pray to Apply What You Already Have

Instead of praying for peace, or joy, or guidance, or strength, which you’ve already been given as a child of God, pray that the Lord will help you understand and apply His gifts in your life, in your situation.

Lord, thank You that You have given me the ability to accomplish Your direction. Thank You that You will guide me as I work in this situation. Please help me clearly understand what to do. Please help me get started and keep going.

Lord, thank You that You given me Your Word, help me understand what You would have me do. Thank You that You are with me now and will be with me as I, in Your strength, go about my day. Help me stay alert to You (Luke 21:36).

Lord, thank You that You already have given me everything pertaining to life and godliness. I am determined to use Your gifts in the life You have given me. Help me continually look to You for the guidance You’ve promised. Help me demonstrate Your power and love today.

Question

How are you going to pray—right now?

God is sovereign over everything and everybody all the time. Period. (See Chapters 2-5 in When Storms Come: Will You Be Ready?)

Does that mean God is sovereign over our sins?

Yes.

God is sovereign over our sins, but we are entirely responsible for them.

God does not cause evil, He is not tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone (James 1:13). We are responsible for our own behavior.

God can prevent our sins (Genesis 20:6), but, clearly, He often does not.

When we sin, as children of God we are responsible to confess our sins. Our faithful and righteous God then forgives us our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Even though we are forgiven if we confess, most likely there are consequences from our sins.

The good news out of this bad news is that God, in His providence, uses our sins for His purposes. (For example, Proverbs 19:21; Lamentations 3:37.)

Since He is sovereign, eternal, and omniscient, He not only knows what “will” happen, but whatever happened—whatever He allowed—was/is part of His plan. He works all things in accordance with His will.

This explains the familiar promise: God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

So…what bad thing just happened to you? God knew about it from before the foundation of the world (He is eternal). He allowed it (He is sovereign). If you’re a believer, He will use it for good.

SO!

If you’ve sinned, confess it, and seek to walk in His way.

But whatever the circumstance:

Trust Him.

Praise Him.

Obey Him.

Regret

We all have past actions—past sins—we regret.

We may have spent considerable time reprimanding ourselves.

We may still be stuck in that past sin.

Regretting sin is a good thing if it leads to godly sorrow, repentance, and determination to follow the Lord. (See, for example, 2 Corinthians 7).

But it is not a good thing to be stuck.

What to do

Clean up the mess as best you can.

Try to resolve the hurt you caused someone else.

Correct, with the Lord’s help, your underlying issues that led to the sin.

Resolve to not repeat the sin.

Determine, going forward, to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Press on.

Next time

There is a wonderful story by Arthur Gordon about the roadblock of regret. He writes of seeing a dear friend, an eminent psychiatrist, and telling him about causing the failure of an important project. The dear friend, whom he called the Old Man, told him he was using the poison phrase: “If only.” “If only I hadn’t…”

            “The trouble with if only,” [the Old Man] said, “is that it doesn’t change anything. If keeps the person facing the wrong way—backward instead of forward. It wastes time. In the end, if you let it become a habit, it can become a real roadblock—an excuse for not trying anymore…

            [The remedy is to] “shift the focus…Change the key words and substitute a phrase that supplies lift instead of creating drag…Strike out the words ‘if only’; substitute the phrase next time….

            “As long as a patient keeps saying if only to me, he’s in trouble. But when he looks me in the eye and says next time, I know he is on the way to overcoming his problem. It means he has decided to apply the lessons he has learned from his experience, however grim or painful it may have been. It means he’s going to push aside the roadblock of regret, move forward, take action, resume living.”

Questions for you (and me)

Are you—am I—stuck in the past because of a failure, a sin?

Have you—have I—repented? Tried to make it right? Worked not to repeat the sin?

Are you—am I—looking forward to what God has for us, determined to walk in His way?

Are you—am I—thinking “Next time?”

~~~

Arthur Gordon, “The Roadblock of Regret,” in A Touch of Wonder: Staying in Love with Life (Grand Rapids, Michigan. Fleming H. Revell, 1974 77-78

In Kristin Snyder, When Storms Come: Will You Be Ready?

See also: If only; I Blew It.