Side With Heaven About Your Sin

November 12, 2020

I was on a roll yesterday displaying how highly I thought of myself. At the moment it felt good, and it satisfied my flesh. I wanted to have the upper hand; I wanted to appear as if I had it all together and had all the answers. But shortly after, conviction set it.  God revealed that it was pride that motivated my words and actions. Praise God for His conviction, it reminds me I am His. Truly, He disciplines those He loves. As God showed me myself, it grieved me and I repented… AGAIN! I told Him I wanted to side with heaven concerning the sin of pride. I don’t want to keep it as a treasure. I want to have heaven’s perspective about pride and have a great disdain for it. I don’t want to justify my pride; I want to confess it before the only one that can deliver me from it. It is a process but one that I intend to yield to because I know that God’s word is true, He does “resist the proud but give grace to the humble” (James 4:6). And oh, how I desperately need grace! How about you? Perhaps your area of struggle is not the same as mine, but are you willing to side with heaven concerning your sin? Have you taken on heaven’s perspective or are you busy petting and justifying your sins? God’s grace is there to bring deliverance, but we must acknowledge our sin and see it the same way He does. Let us embrace walking in humility and side with heaven’s perspective of sin and watch God work in our hearts!

What Did We Expect?

October 15, 2020

“I can’t believe all this is going on,” seems to be a popular phrase these days. But God’s response to the shock of the people is, “Why are you so surprised, what did you expect?” Many have rejected God as king and we have chosen other kings; and we are now experiencing the fruit of our allegiance. We have chosen greed, lust, vanity, worldly success and principles, over a holy non-compromising God. These things have become an idol for us, and we have sacrificed our allegiance to God on their altars. So yes, we should believe what is going on. It should not be a surprise to us. When we reject God as king, chaos is inevitable! God wants to be there for us, but if we have uninvited him from being king of our lives, then we should expect a big mess like we have now! What is the remedy to this mess we are in? Contrary to popular beliefs, they will not find the remedy in government, a vaccine, money, or legislation that pushes for equality for all. While these things may appear good on the surface, they don’t address the posture of our hearts. The remedy is repentance. Having a contrite heart and owning our sin is the best place to start. We can’t cry out to God to fix the mess we made while still holding on to our idols. We must come before him broken and weeping. We must confess the sins of the nation, the compromise in the church and in our own life. Our hearts have been fickle, yet He has been faithful and constant. I pray that we will do more than just rehearse 2 Chronicles 7:14 because we know it is the right verse to quote during a time like this. I pray that we will implement this verse in our corporate and private times of worship.

What Do You Do After You Mess Up?

October 31, 2019

Being saved is not about always getting it right but more about what you do after you get it wrong. Until I breathe my last breath, I will have moments where I fall short. This statement is not a nod of approval for sin but more of a realization that I am continuously being perfected and I daily need the grace of God. Last night I got in a pretty heated discussion with my husband who is also a believer. We were both determined to get our point across and win the argument. Things quickly escalated, and we allowed our anger to get the best of us. Then silence. Within a few minutes after our discussion, conviction set it. We yielded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and apologies were said and my husband led us in a prayer of repentance. We went to bed forgiven and filled with peace. The narrative could have been a lot different if we continued in our anger. It takes humility to come back and apologize after you mess up. It pleases our heavenly Father when we have a humble heart and will repent after we sinned and not to be dug in and prideful. God knows we are not perfect, but He delights when we submit to being perfected by yielding to the convictions of the Holy Spirit after we mess up. I think about the story of David’s sin in 2 Samuel 11. When confronted about his sin by the prophet Nathan, David did not push past it or make excuses. Instead, He responded in humility and prayed the words in Psalm 51, a beautiful prayer of repentance.

Do you struggle with acknowledging your sin after you mess up? Do you try to push past it and pretend like it never happened? God is not looking to cut us off because we mess up; He is filled with mercy. However, we do the cutting ourselves when we refuse to acknowledge our sin. God resists a proud heart but lavishes his grace on the one who is clad with humility.

Be Blessed

Anika

Don’t Wait. Start Over Now

September 14, 2019

I recently published a video for my YouTube channel on how we do family devotions. From the looks of the video, it would seem I had it all together. However, some events that took place after publishing that video was a great reminder that I really don’t.

It was a long day and my outburst of wrath at every child in sight confirmed that the day got the best of me.

I had committed to staying off my phone, but by the end of the evening, I had the phone in hand scrolling on Pinterest looking for an escape from my current predicament but none helped me escape my reality. I have been following the Carnivore Diet for three months with great success and had just recorded another video saying I no longer crave the wrong foods. That evening, I suddenly began to crave the animal cookies I bought for my kids. I went to find them and took a handful and justified eating them because they were organic. I had intentions of going back and getting seconds of the cookies but after a few bites; I realized they were really not what I wanted. I felt guilty knowing I had given in to eating what I shouldn’t and to get no satisfaction from it made me frustrated. As for family devotion, I wanted no parts of it. My husband had a late evening so that meant I would have to do family devotion by myself. Given my behavior that day, I felt unqualified.

I decided I would take the shame and guilt I felt from the failures of the day with me to bed. BUT GOD! As I sat there in my upstairs hallway bogged down by defeat, He spoke to my heart. He told me I didn’t have to wait until the morning, I could start over at that moment. I began to cry and His affirming words broke down the wall and bridged the distance between us. I repented for my wrong actions and lack of self-control. At that moment the shame, guilt, and frustration I was feeling were replaced with the peace and joy of God. As the tears flowed, I began to praise Him for His love and the way He repeatedly makes repentance possible.  After I got it right with Him, I called the six children upstairs to get it right with them. I apologized for my behavior and we then had a time of sweet fellowship in God’s word and prayer. I went to bed free of shame and guilt from wrong choices. My head hit that pillow, and I was at peace. This incident was another reminder of the truth in Proverbs 28:113, “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

What is the purpose of me telling you this story? Often we mess up, whether big or small and we try to stay away from God or continue along the path of sin because we allow the enemy to trick us to believe that God is not interested in forgiving us. I want to remind you as God reminded me a few nights ago; you don’t have to wait to start over, you can start over right now. If you mess up, don’t carry that shame and condemnation around with you. Confess it to God, get right, not tomorrow not next week but right now!

Do you want to be delivered from sin or just the consequences?

Deliverance from sin comes only when I want it and I reach that place of true repentance.  No one can wish me to deliverance. It is something that I must be desperate for and God in turn meets me in that desperation and brings freedom. The blood of Jesus is what makes deliverance from sin possible, no matter how severe the case.  A lack of deliverance is not based on God’s inability.  Instead, it is based on my unwillingness to submit to the process and REPENT! At times, I mistake wanting comfort with wanting to be free.  There is a huge difference!  Many will come and say they want to be delivered from making unwise decisions and being spiritually wayward.  When in fact what they are really saying is, I don’t mind the decisions I am making, I don’t mind living in sin but what I really want to be delivered from is the consequences attached to my sinful choices.  Feeling bad and trying to avoid the CONSEQUENCES and not the SIN that warrant the consequences reveals a heart that is not repentant. 2 Corinthians 7:10 reads, “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.I know I really want to be delivered when I begin to feel sorry about THE ACT OF SINNING and not just the CONSEQUENCES attached to my choices.  Take for example a man who is caught stealing and is sentenced to years in prison.  The question he must ask is, do I really feel bad about stealing (the sin) or do I just feel bad about being in prison (the consequence)? Other signs that I want to be delivered is that I stop making excuses and pointing the finger at others.  Instead, I take responsibility for what I have done wrong. I am also willing to be fully transparent about my sins and not pick and choose what I share. These are all signs of humility and God gives grace to the humble but resist the proud (James 4:6).  God’s love, forgiveness and deliverance is available to us. We just have to really want it!

 

Be blessed!

Anika

Stop trying to hide from God

Whenever my children do something wrong, they go into hiding. I have been guilty of having the same response with my heavenly father. When I allow my anger to get the best of me and I snap on those I love and speak hurtful words, I am left feeling ashamed and condemned. My hiding sometimes comes in the form of an avoidance of prayer. However, I am so thankful for the truth of 1 John 1:9, that reminds me that when I come out of hiding and come with a repentant heart, God is willing to forgive and cleanse me.

As I read through Genesis 3, I realize that this hiding game started with my first parents, Adam and Eve. When they ate of the forbidden fruit, they hid from the Lord and attempted to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, an itchy choice (Genesis 3:7-9). Their attempts at covering themselves was futile. But how often do we respond in the same way when we have sinned? We may try to cover ourselves after sinning by performing outward acts such as giving more, or listening to gospel music. These acts do not deal with the sin that is in our hearts and our need to repent. Genesis 3:21 mentions that God covered Adam and Eve with animal skin. In order for them to have the proper covering, an innocent animal was killed and it’s blood was shed. This is a foreshadowing of what Jesus; the spotless lamb of God did for you and I on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven. Hebrews 9:22 reminds us, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
My question to you is, have you sinned and instead of coming clean, you have gone into hiding? Have you been hiding by lying to make yourself appear in an innocent light? Perhaps you are trying to avoid the people of God. The enemy knows that if he isolates us, he can devour us. Sometimes when we sin we avoid going to church because we do not like the idea of being accountable to anyone. While accountability is not always comfortable, it helps to keep us on the straight and narrow. Hebrews 10:25 reminds us that we are not to forsake coming together with the saints of God. No matter what you have done, if you come out of hiding and come to God with a repentant heart, He will forgive you! The choice is yours.  Make the right one while there is still time.

Be Blessed!

Anika