confession

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First, a bath . . .

“God sometimes takes us into troubled waters not to drown us but to cleanse us.” – Andrew Murray

God hears our prayers and sometimes chooses to intervene directly in our lives to answer them. There are times, though, when he thinks it’s important to do something inside us before he responds to our cries for help.

The Bible tells us about a proud Syrian general named Namaan who had leprosy. He came across the border into Israel because he heard the prophet Elisha had power to heal. But when he was told that he had to bathe in the muddy waters of the Jordan River to be made well, he was angry. Him? A military general? Bathe in the Jordan? No! It took some convincing, but finally he humbled himself, dipped in the waters, and came out cured from his disease.

We ask God to intervene in our lives, to make us well, or to meet some other overwhelming need. He hears and answers, but, as we see with this leper, he sometimes has a bigger plan in mind: A plan to draw us closer to him, a plan for our spiritual good and not just for our physical good.

And, for many (most?) of us, what God addresses first, as he did with Namaan, is the problem of pride. It sneaks up on us, and it gets in the way of our ability to know and respond to God. It’s a barrier to relationship with him and with others.

Let’s not let pride, or any sin, keep us from dipping in the waters of his grace and being restored to a place of humility and spiritual wholeness. Then we can confidently bring our prayers to him. It’s worth the bath!

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10

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Regrets?

“. . . in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself and not counting their trespasses against them.” – 2 Corinthians 5:19a

Do you think about times you rebelled against God’s direction because you thought what He was asking was too hard or unfair? Or times when you knew something you were choosing to do was a violation of God’s standards and you did it anyway? We all have regrets, don’t we? Sometimes the decisions we made then still affect our lives today. Because of our trust in Jesus, when we confess these sins, no matter how old or new they are, He forgives. He gives us a clean slate and invites us to move forward.

But sometimes we have trouble receiving that forgiveness. We still condemn ourselves for wrong turns we made long ago. I was talking to God about that one day and it was as if He was saying this to me (and, I think, to some of you, too):

I want to heal your heart from past pains and perceived obligations so you can be more focused on Me and My world. I deliver you from pain, caused by your sins or those of others. You are free to follow Me without carrying the weight of your past. I have forgiven you, released you, healed you. Freely you have received, freely give. Now it’s all about you and Me. No more regrets. Just the present moment and our never-ending future together.

Once we receive God’s forgiveness, we find it easier to give grace to those who wrong us. So for their sake and ours, let’s face forward –  forgiven and forgiving.

“This might well be the essence of the spiritual journey for all of us- to accept that we’re accepted and to go and live likewise.” – Richard Rohr