Every child of god that endeavours to walk in His light will face at some point the feeling of utter dispair when they fall into sin. The temptation to sin is not the only temptation that has been given in to, but the temptation to punish ourselves for the sin is right on its heels. Somehow we feel that to prolong the punishment by putting ourselves down for an indefinate amount of time seems right and justified. But are you really allowed to do that? Are you allowed or commended to punish yourself for your sins when jesus was punished for sin in you place? Its not humble of us to try and punish ourselves for our mishaps in fact it would be more a sign of pride.

The proper cause of action to take is to repent of what you did, and then to believe that you have been forgiven. You have confessed the sin and therefore you can be assured that what jesus did for you on the cross is quite sufficient to take the offense away and restore your relationship with god through grace.

We dont surprise god when we sin. Our sin seperates us from god, but to proceed to act discouraged and to feel wholly a failure seperates you even more from god. Why then, do it? Do you think that god would have us feel sorry for two or three days or weeks before he will forgive us? He forgives us instantly.

Take courage dear friend in christ. Christ did what you could not do, justify you before the father. 'Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding''

Interesting that all we have to do is return, and He promises to heal us of our backsliding. If we continue to punish ourselves for our sins and keep on running away from god, he cannot heal us of our backsliding.

If a little child gives up trying to walk the first time it takes the first step but ends up on his soft little bum, it would never walk. Unless we become like children, quick to forgive ourselves for our mishaps and failures and in trust run back to daddy for assurance of love and acceptance we have a hard path ahead of us indeed.

You are accepted in the beloved. Its not you job to punish yourself. Neither is discipline and correction your task but the Lords. When a child does something against the will of the father does he apply the appropriate discipline? Surely not. But mostly the punishment for sin is exactly this...seperation from god. And when you confess your sin your right back in that relationship with him. He never left the relationship. Dont add to the sin by seperating yourself from god any further.

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, so why dont you forgive yourself as well.

All you need is to be wholly yourself with god. Be truthful and honest with yourself and with god at all times. Trust Him, he is able to make you and will in you what pleases Him. Now get up from the floor and realise who you are. A king, a peculiar people, set apart for him. This is what God told Joshua after the Isrealites had suffered a serious defeat. ' And the Lord said to Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou upon thy face?'

Be quick to repent and quick to return to your father. After all....you have all of heaven on your side.

God bless
Heneni

[DanielSlack]

"Because of my pride, I could not feel the wrong I had done, nor could I see the good you had offered. For that, I am sorry" ~Daniel Slack

This is going to sound odd, but I am a firm believer that many do not understand the ideas of confession and repentance. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Repentance is the right attitude towards self, right attitude towards G-D, the right attitude towards the sin and the right attitude towards who was wronged.

Repentance is the first thing one must do when he/she realizes that a sin has taken place. It can be a simple as taking a pen or as drastic as wounding someone with words that cut to the core of someone. It is the act of feeling guilt, shame, reproach to oneself, for what was, or was not done.

Repentance dictates that the sin should not be concealed. If you claim to have repented from a sin, but still try to conceal it, then the sin still has power over your life. Our pride is what urges us to conceal our sin. Our fear that others may find out we are only human and not perfect.

Repentance means that you turn away from it so much that the issue will never occur again, even if you heart tempts you to do it. Whether it is acts of violence, spiteful words, feeling of resentment in your heart, or thoughts of revenge. You recognize that is wrong. If you are concealing what your are repenting from, then what is the value if there is not accountability.

Another part of repentance is confession. Confession is not the apology to the person you have wronged. Confession cannot be hidden, that would defeat the purpose of confession. The purpose of confession to each other is so that each other can help with our sin. Cofession is way more than just praying to G-D for forgiveness! Confession opens the door for the apology to be made to the person you have wronged. Public confession will also help prevent you from committing that same sin again. When I say public, IO mean speaking to a few close friends who could help about it, not buying an ad in a newpaper.

Let us speak hypothetically:

You have three friends who are believers, one is an alcoholic, one is addicted to pornography, another is addicted to pain medications. All three of them go out after having a bad day at work.

If these three have confessed their individual sins to each other, because they have a strong friendship, they will help each other from their sin. The alcoholic will help the medication addict from buying some darvocets, the porn addict will help the alcoholic not drink, and the pill addict will help the porn addict resist the temptation of pornography.

If these three friends did not know of their short comings, they could have wallowed in their sins once again, feeling the weakness, guilt and shame that is pervasive in humanity today.

Pride prevents us seeking our friends for help, pride prevents us from seeing what is wrong with ourselves.

Lastly, there is the Apology and Restitution. Praying for forgiveness and confessing to your friends will not solve the issue you are having. If you have lied, stolen, cheated, or anything else, we are required to make it write in accordance to the Bible. Take one of the people you have confessed too, and go to the person you have wronged. Apologize and try to make it right. To apologize does make one feel humble, it is supposed to. You should not be able to go to someone whom you have wronged and say with a happy heart:

"I wronged you, I am sorry, But I got Jesus, Hurray!"

That makes it a little insincere.

Anyway, let me cut this short before it becomes an article, oops too late.

Hi daniel. I read the quote in your first line on your blog. And i think it is so amazingly true! Though i thought it read...'becaues of my pride i could not feel the wrong i had done...'

Thanks for your contribution and the 'article'. HE HE. I agree that we have to feel remorse for what we have done otherwise it would be completely insincere! Thankfullly god realises the condition of our heart when we repent. And therefore knows when the repentance is real. And its so true that we must not try to conceal the damage we have done.

I think that a working conscience goes a long way to aid in repentance.

I have read this somewhere in a book: There are two types of people, neither of whom steals. Outwardly it seems that they both are honorable in their actions. Inwardly there is a difference. There are people who dont steal because they are afraid of the punishment if they are caught out, yet, in their heart they still want to steal, and then there are those who in their heart dont want to steal. The one is honest in the flesh, the other is honest in the spirit. And i think that repentance can be just the same. Some would feel they have to repent for fear of punishment and others repent because they love god.

Thanks again for your posts.

God bless you richly
Heneni

[DanielSlack]

Originally Posted by Heneni

Hi daniel. I read the quote in your first line on your blog. And i think it is so amazingly true! Though i thought it read...'becaues of my pride i could not feel the wrong i had done...'

Thanks for your contribution and the 'article'. HE HE. I agree that we have to feel remorse for what we have done otherwise it would be completely insincere! Thankfullly god realises the condition of our heart when we repent. And therefore knows when the repentance is real. And its so true that we must not try to conceal the damage we have done.

I think that a working conscience goes a long way to aid in repentance.

I have read this somewhere in a book: There are two types of people, neither of whom steals. Outwardly it seems that they both are honorable in their actions. Inwardly there is a difference. There are people who dont steal because they are afraid of the punishment if they are caught out, yet, in their heart they still want to steal, and then there are those who in their heart dont want to steal. The one is honest in the flesh, the other is honest in the spirit. And i think that repentance can be just the same. Some would feel they have to repent for fear of punishment and others repent because they love god.

Thanks again for your posts.

God bless you richly
Heneni

I wish you had the title of the book. I had recently got into the discussion about the intention when praying for forgiveness and it, once again, hints at another article I am writing. It is called,

"Christianity, the worship of Hell?"

There are those Believers that understand the reason why we worship and do good works is because G-D is the Creator, and even if he did not require our worship, as a law (more on this in my article), he is justly due it anyway. The intention of doing good in the name of G-D is important, not for whatever earthly or heavenly reward we may get. We deserve nothing, he provides everything. His mercy, his compassion, our redemption, is not caused by anything we can do, but by his will alone.

Then there are those who do good works, pray, read the word, do everything possible from a G-Dly standpoint, but their hearts are driven be greed, fear, or both.

To do a G-Dly work because one fears hell, to pray because one fears satan, to give because one fears what others would say if you did not, IS NOT DOING IT FOR G-D.

Even if G-D uses it for good purposes, G-D does not care what he was able to use for for (bad or good), G-D's main concern is the intention of man's heart when he is doing good, or even doing nothing.

I better quite now before I write another article... Drats, too later again

[DanielSlack]

Originally Posted by Heneni

Hi daniel. I read the quote in your first line on your blog. And i think it is so amazingly true! Though i thought it read...'becaues of my pride i could not feel the wrong i had done...'

Thanks for your contribution and the 'article'. HE HE. I agree that we have to feel remorse for what we have done otherwise it would be completely insincere! Thankfullly god realises the condition of our heart when we repent. And therefore knows when the repentance is real. And its so true that we must not try to conceal the damage we have done.

I think that a working conscience goes a long way to aid in repentance.

I have read this somewhere in a book: There are two types of people, neither of whom steals. Outwardly it seems that they both are honorable in their actions. Inwardly there is a difference. There are people who dont steal because they are afraid of the punishment if they are caught out, yet, in their heart they still want to steal, and then there are those who in their heart dont want to steal. The one is honest in the flesh, the other is honest in the spirit. And i think that repentance can be just the same. Some would feel they have to repent for fear of punishment and others repent because they love god.

Thanks again for your posts.

God bless you richly
Heneni

You are right, I did a bit of a typing error but i had corrected it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

"Hey, if you need a story to fill your paper, I'm your man. I can make Santa look like the boogie man and Satan look like the toothfairy. If my spelling is a little off, I'm sorry. I'm a writer, not an editor. You write two thousand lines in the middle of the night and see how excited you are to read it all again."~guess who LOL