What can I say, Father, yesterday was surely not one of my best days. But I am truly grateful for Your love. May my fortitude be strengthened as I carry on in following You. I find that strength only in You. And I cling to the fact that You will never leave me nor forsake me. Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:6
Okay, I was going to move on to the next verse in James 4 but, Lord, You are leading me to share. That is not an easy thing to do but obedience is a major factor in our relationship…so here goes!
Yesterday I ______________. I don’t need to fill in the blank because every one of us can fill in the blank with something with which we struggle spiritually. We all have things we fight against, things that we can stand strong against day after day… as long as we walk close to You, Lord. Without You, we are done for. We cannot stand.
But there are times (and I am so grateful for Your strength in my life that those times are few and far between)… there are times when we sneak in little self-indulgence – just a glimpse, just sticking a toe into the very utmost edge of the lake. We’re not jumping; we’re not even just wading in a little – just the toe. Usually, we come to our spiritual senses and we ask forgiveness for the “toe” incident after we have scampered far, far away from the water’s edge. But on occasion, the lapping of the water on the shore lures us far too quickly to stick our toe in once again.
Your words of caution can be heard but we allow the lapping of the water to drown our Your words. The toe becomes an ankle, the ankle becomes a knee and then we’re in over our heads…ugh!
But here’s the part I want to stress. We all get in over our own heads. We painfully realize our sin (for that’s what it is!) but we can’t let it erase all the progress we’ve made up to that point!
Lord, you never leave us nor forsake us. Your hand is extended even as we are looking up to the surface. You want us to grasp Your hand. You want to pull us out. You want us to be overcomers. You don’t want us to fail. Your heart’s desire is to see us thrive!
Lord, help me to listen. Help me to obey. Help me to stay close to Your side. And help me to keep my toes from the water.
Sept 29th, Thurs, 7:00 am
