Am I the only one who wakes up at 4:30 am and says “I’m late”?
Just when I was getting ready to condemn myself this Scripture verse came to mind.
“You rise up early, and go to bed late, and work hard for your food, all for nothing. For the Lord gives to His loved ones even while they sleep.” Psalm 127:2 NLV
Thank you Father for giving me the rest I needed and thank you for providing me with your peace where there had been condemnation.
You see I have lived most of my life with the attitude that being late is almost a sin. We used to say that if we weren’t 15 minutes early we were late. Being punctual is a big thing to me and it can be very upsetting to be late.
Now that we’ve dealt with the thing that tried to start my day out wrong let’s look at your day. What type of things bring condemning thoughts to steal your joy?
It might be a failed relationship, an affair, a bankruptcy, a test grade that was lowered than anticipated. Perhaps you are dealing with position failure, you know what I mean, you thought you would be in a better position (whatever it is) at this stage in your life and so you fight feelings of failure.
Let’s look at what God has to say about things that condemn or try to condemn us.
“So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty. (condemned) 2 That is because in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit that brings life made you free. It made you free from the law that brings sin and death.” Romans 12:1-2 ERV
Condemning thoughts have a way holding us in a prison of fear. God never intended us to be afraid.
“ For God did not give us a spirit of fear. He gave us a spirit of power and of love and of a good mind.” II Timothy 1:7 NLV
When thoughts of self-doubt come- you can’t do it, you’re not good enough, no one wants to be around you, give up now, you’ve failed too many times – we take those thoughts and give them to Jesus. He will replace them with His loving thoughts.
“We live in this world, but we don’t fight our battles in the same way the world does. 4 The weapons we use are not human ones. Our weapons have power from God and can destroy the enemy’s strong places. We destroy people’s arguments, 5 and we tear down every proud idea that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We also capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.” II Corinthians 10:3-5 ERV
Still I can hear someone saying “but you don’t know what I’ve done”. True, but God does. Because He knows that we fail in lots of different ways, and that we sin in lots of different ways He tells us to come to Him and to confess what we’ve done and we will find forgiveness and help.
“If we tell Him our sins, He is faithful and we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. He will make our lives clean from all sin. ” I John 1:9 NLV
“With Jesus as our high priest, we can feel free to come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we receive mercy and kindness to help us when we need it.” Hebrews 4:16 ERV
And God not only forgives, He forgets. How is that possible, I don’t know, I’m not God. When someone wrongs us and we forgive them we need to be more like God and also try to forget it. We shouldn’t hold them in captivity by reminding them of the wrong they’ve done – we need to free them the same way God does us.
“I will show loving-kindness to them and forgive their sins. I will remember their sins no more.” Hebrews 8:12 NLV
“Love does not do the wrong thing. Love never thinks of itself. Love does not get angry. Love does not remember the suffering that comes from being hurt by someone. ” I Corinthians 13:5 NLV
God’s love is truly amazing! He doesn’t condemn, He covers. He doesn’t criticize, He convicts. His words are never “you awful thing, how could you do something like that” no, He says “you’re better than that, that was wrong, trust me to help you next time and I’ll give you the strength you need not to fail”.
When we do fail and do something again that we have asked forgiveness for He’ll be there to forgive again. Why? Because He loves us!
So what started out as a morning thought of “I’m late”, now what”, has become a reassuring lesson from the Father that I am dearly loved.
“The Lord your God wins victory after victory and is always with you. He celebrates and sings because of you, and he will refresh your life with his love.” 18 The Lord has promised: Your sorrow has ended, and you can celebrate.” Zephaniah 3:17-18 CEV
Let God’s love free you from condemning thoughts today!