Sunday, September 28, 2014

Guilt for Grace

Sitting there in her chair, she told us how she was the one that parents warned their kids away from. Her life was one of struggle. She didn't follow rules, she didn't do right and she didn't care. 

Although she is different now, a new creature, the poor choices of her past still cause her to flinch in remembrance. While some days she can embrace the forgiveness that is hers, other days she is engulfed in bitter regret. She drags her past behind her in heavy bags smudged with dirt and marked from the grime each day brings. 

Though some bags are smaller than others, or filled with "worse" things than others, each of us has our own bag of burdens that we usually bring with us day to day. Burdens that we should have left at the foot of a rough sawn cross, but that we didn't. Or felt like we couldn't. And so we trudge day to day lugging this weight behind us, a constant reminder of our failures. 

Perhaps you have listened to the song, but have you ever really heard these words: 

"When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, who made an end of all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me."

So take heart if you struggle with a painful past, it's a chapter in your book, but not the whole story. And if God the Just can let it go, so should you. He will use it for His glory. 

Satan casts your guilt in your face to stop you from sharing the Grace that set you free. 


 

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