A Question Lingers

Have you ever swallowed a pill that became lodged halfway down your throat until you coughed it back up?  Scary, isn’t it?  For me, after this happens, it’s almost impossible when trying to re-swallow the same pill with water…Psychological hang up, I guess.

Sometimes there is a lingering aftertaste that won’t go away until I rinse out the bitterness.  This unwelcome experience reminds me of a question that, at times, lingers on the tip of my tongue until an answer, like water, eliminates the bitter taste.

The question leaves a bad taste in my spirit like a pill stuck in my throat.  I don’t know if it’s just me, or if other Christians experience the same distasteful question pertaining to forgiveness that assaults the mind.  This narrative sometimes bombards my subconscious, while troubling my soul.

The lingering question is this: “What happens if I unwittingly sin or stumble and sin now that I’m a Christian?”  I certainly know and trust the Bible of what it says about confessing our sins, and that God is faithful to forgive those sins, but on occasion, there is a ‘what if’ that lingers and wants to taunt my thinking.  It troubles me that the question is there at all.

I know in my heart when God promises something, there are no ifs, ands, or buts that He will fulfill what He said He would do, because God cannot lie.  God is holy in every sense of the word and at the opposite end of the ‘truth spectrum’ from those that do not keep their word, but God keeps His.   He is perfect in all ways; a promise is a promise of which He will not renege.

I know the assumed reality regarding ordinances of the land says that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but does this apply to those walking with Christ that may trip and fall along the way and sin?  Satan would have us believe that grace takes flight and forgiveness won’t happen, but these are lies.

When I stop to consider the source of these negative thoughts, I quickly conclude that they are originating from the pit of hell, because God is not the author of confusion.  In Him there is hope and forgiveness, so it stands to reason the devil is filling my mind with doubt to create confusion regarding forgiveness—he is the great deceiver.

The joy that I have as a Believer, while living for Jesus cannot be equaled by anything in the world nor compromised unless I permit it to happen by listening to Satan’s lies. 

As for me and my household, we are serving the Lord.  We stand secure in the knowledge that salvation, through Jesus, has secured our inheritance of heaven.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

(Romans 8:38-39), “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,” (vs 39) “nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Whenever Satan hits me with a lingering question that causes me to doubt my position in Christ, and whether God forgive all sins, I quickly take control of my thought process and rebuke the questions that are raising their ugly heads.  I then refocus my thinking on good things.

(Philippians 4:8), “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.”

Positive thinking or better yet, positive faith, dispels all questions and brings victory that allows peace to flow from God’s throne, uninhibited, to wash away the bitterness of lies.  This is the hope of Christians that all sins, past, present, and the times we stumble, will be forgiven when we accept Jesus as our Savior.  He frees us from sin as we confess our faults to Him.

God is loving and long suffering.  We need only to ask for forgiveness in Jesus’ name and God tosses our sins into the depth of the sea, never to remember them again.

(John 3:17), “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

God loved us so much that He gave His only Son to die on a cross that we might be saved from our sins and experience an abundant life through Him.  He sets us free from the bondage of sin.  It’s like being born-again out of the corruption that sin brings, into an incorruptible birthright as children of God.

God is not quick to cast us aside because we fail.  He encourages us to pick ourselves up when we stumble and fall.  God does not want us to splash around in the mire or role around in the filth of self-pity, but to clean ourselves off, wash our face, and continue walking with Jesus.

The Holy Spirit gives us the strength to rise and live an overcoming life in Christ.  Remember, a winner never quits, and a quitter never wins.

(2 Timothy 4:7-8), “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (vs 8) “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Living for the Lord is like the song lyrics say, “It is joy unspeakable and full of glory; and the half has never yet been told.”  When we trust God with each step we take, we walk in victory, because our steps are ordered by the Lord.

(Psalm 37:23-24), “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.” (vs 24) “Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”

The bitter taste of sin is neutralized when we drink from the springs of living water that flows from heaven.  Tormenting questions that create confusion and try to linger in our minds are quickly washed away.  We are set free from the bitterness of satanic lies and sinister questions when we reside in Jesus, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Jesus dispels all questions that try to linger.  We are set free from worrying whether God forgives sin when we stumble…He does!  And because of this, we live in Truth, not lies.

www.wordsfrompapa.blogspot.com

Written by,

Papa Boyd