I will be starting on another Max Lucado book recommended by my dad. The title is Next Door Savior.
I have read the first couple of chapters and find it intriguing. I will slow down and examine each chapter closely, but as I was reading the chapter entitled "Every Person" a thought came to me.
Since I was a wee lad attending First Baptist Church in Bolivar, MO (Go, Liberators!) I was taught that Jesus Christ was tempted in all ways just like you or me. He knew hunger. He was ridiculed. He felt rejection. However, the one thing that Jesus never had to face was knowing that some the troubles in His life were caused by His mistakes, miscalculations or sin. Guilt- not in His personal vocabulary. "Shoulda'"- never uttered in reference to Himself. "If only I had of"- never crossed His lips.
For me, the hardest things to let go of, to quit worrying about, to put out of my mind, are those situations that I have created due to my own folly. Talking to a Christian mentor helps. Meditation really helps. Prayer is the most powerful antivenom.
Why does it still take me so long to run to my prayer closet when the woulda's and shoulda's start coming around? (Rhetorical.)
I think I have already written one response to your last blog, but in re-reading it I was drawn to your last sentence that says something like "Why does it take me so long to pray?"
ReplyDeleteI face the same challenge every day. For me it seems to revolve around the facts that (1)praying is somehow an admission that I can not solve my own problems (2)the focusing of my mind on my prayers takes an energy and disciplene that I often lack (3)since I don't see any immediate change I tend to discount the effectiveness of prayer.
Satan uses our memories of past mistakes as a weapon to rob us of present joy and future effectiveness for the Lord. I can not resist Satan on my own, but I don't have to.
God has forgiven me of the times I hurt others, including you. In most cases, I think that those others have also forgiven me (or perhaps forgotten.) Now the challenge is to forgive myself.