File it Under “F'
A Devotional
© 2001 Steve Lattier and Men's Help Ministries

Welcome to the new year. Many people, Christian and non-Christian alike consider the turning of the new year as a chance to start over or perhaps to start fresh. It is a chance to get a “do-over” so to speak. I think that many Christians feel like they need to start over because they have not yet left behind their mistakes of the previous year or years. I meet more saved, God loving Christians who carry around loads and loads of this kind of repressive guilt than you can shake a stick at. I hear stories of the sins of their youth and how horrible they were. Sins of the recent past that have long been repented of. I have come to believe this truth. “The biggest blockade to Christians forgiveness is not God, it is the Christians themselves.” Write that down and remember it. The enemy knows it and you should too! The enemy is going to try and beset you with guilt about your past so that you keep dragging your past around with you like some ball and chain. Just like a old prisoner's ball and chain, if you drag your past around you sure aren't going to go anywhere fast. Did you ever hear of one of those prisoners making a getaway by holding the ball and just running? Of course not, all the escapes were made after the prisoner managed to separate himself from that ball and chain. Then when he had loosed himself from what could slow him down, he got away clean! It works just the same for us. There is no way, Christian, that you are going to make your getaway or to take off and run with God if you are carrying around your past on a ball and chain! How do you cut that chain? How can one separate himself from his sin? God has several things outlined in His word to get us free from our past!

The Word:
Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.

That is the first step to loosing the shackles of guilt and shame that you have been carrying around. Repent! I guess the next fairest question would be what is repentance? I looked in the Greek and Hebrew lexicons for the answers. In the Greek which is what the New Testament is researched in, repent comes from the word “Metanoeo” which means: “to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins.” I really like that definition because Mr. Webster tells us right off that “amend” means “to make better.” While repenting often includes “I'm Sorry” rarely does it stop there. By definition you should repay a theft, rebuild vandalism, public apologies for public defamation, can you see that repent is an action verb? In the Hebrew lexicon repent is “nacham” and that means: “to be sorry, have compassion, to rue, repent of, to comfort oneself, be comforted, to ease oneself.” To comfort oneself? Well if we are to comfort our own selves then we certainly can't be carrying around that ball and chain of guilt can we? So in a nutshell repentance looks like this. We must abhor our sin, make amends for it, and comfort ourselves. Sounds easy doesn't it? It is much easier here on paper than it is to put into practice. There are two things that keep it from being easier. First is the enemy, he wants to keep reminding you of your past so that he can keep you hobbled like a prisoner. The second is you. Yes the art of Christian self abuse and self abasement. A Christian will hold themselves back in a flash because they perhaps feel as if they don't deserve guilt free living. (that is in SPITE of the fact that God says that you can live life that way after you repent!) There is hardly anything, second to someone gaining their salvation, that makes God more pleased. Really, if you think about it what would cause you more joy as a parent, your child getting their life right or one that didn't need to?

The Word:
Luke 15:7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

What do you think it is that pleases God so? Is it simply that His child has come to his senses and is seeking the proper relationship? That is part of it but certainly not all. God is pleased by repentance because it frees the person doing the repenting! God is happy because when you are free then you are a good witness for Him. There is nothing more depressing than a Christian that gets forgiven then commences to dragging their sin around with them like some type of inglorious monument to their past. I say get rid of it! Pasts are like armpits, everyone has them and they all stink! When you repent God does something for you! He takes your sin away from you!

The Word:
Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

God not only separates us from our sin but then He sends a time of refreshing. What a good God! I only hope that when my kids mess up that I can be that kind of dad to them! It is metaphorical but just think for a moment, east and west never touch do they? Once God has forgiven us that is all we need to do is leave it at that and go on with Him. Sadly Christian it is us that more often than not, goes and gets that sin and carries it around in guilt and shame. What is stopping you from being as forgiven as God wants you to be? I know that the enemy is always whispering in your ear how rotten of a Christian you are, what a hypocrite you have been, that you don't deserve to even pass the door of a church because you did whatever-that-was. Show him scripture the next time you hear those whispers! Send him packing. If you have repented and are forgiven then start acting like it Christian! God gave the Israelites so instructions for basic hygiene some four thousand or so years ago. They are rather blunt and might even be a bit embarrassing, but that subject matter stinks just as bad as a forgiven saint carrying their stuff around with them as well!

The Word:
Deuteronomy 23:12 Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. [13] As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. [14] For the LORD your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.

I know that right off you might not see a precept at work in that passage, but it is there! Remember we are talking about sin here and sin stinks! God is telling us through this verse that when you get forgiven, bury the darn thing! Cover it up! Now that doesn't translate into “try and cover up your sin without forgiveness.” No that just wont cut it! But when God wipes out your sin leave it wiped out! “God moves about in your camp to protect you” He sure does, your camp is your life and home. God moves around in your house all the time and like that passage says He doesn't want to look at your “stuff” and I am quite sure that if He doesn't want to even look at it then He doesn't want to step in your “stuff!” It says that “your camp must be holy” and rightly so. As a Christian we should not leave the “Stuff” of our past laying about. File it under “F” for forgiven!

Pray with me: Father I am sorry for dragging the sins of my past back out every time you forgive me of them. Teach me how to bury my sins Lord. I know that me carrying them around all the time displeases you. Father, I don't feel forgiven and I know that is just my own guilt and the whispers of the enemy. Help me to feel your forgiveness, help me to put my past in the past and start to grow with you. I know that I can't move forward while hanging onto the past change me Father. Finish what you started in me Lord, in Jesus name. Amen!

If you are not saved and would like more information please email me, see me, or visit us at http://mywebpage.netscape.com/pastorstevel/menshelp.html then click on the link for your free ticket!

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hmmmm...that's tough to do...