Category: Be Honest With God

When We Confess Our Sin God Cleanses Us but How Does the Cleansing Take Place

10/4/2024

1 John 1:9 NIV If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

We love to quote these words to celebrate God’s loving and forgiving nature. When we quote them, we praise God and because we know that God stands ready to erase our sinful past and let us start with a clean slate, when we admit what we’ve done wrong.

What that scripture doesn't tell us is how the cleansing takes place or, more specifically, what was necessary for that cleansing to take place. We must remember that God doesn’t simply dismiss the charges against us like a tolerant or indulgent, or easy-going judge. God is just and His perfect justice demands that our sins be punished. And the punishment is death.

We are helpless to save ourselves from that punishment. Only a perfect sacrifice, offered in our place, can satisfy God’s justice. The only perfect sacrifice is Jesus, God’s Son.

Romans 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Yes, God cleanses us from all wickedness, but the only cleansing agent that can remove sin is the blood of Jesus. God’s plan of salvation and forgiveness of sins required an unimaginable sacrifice. The best way to prepare to confess our sins is to meditate on Jesus’ sacrifice, to fully absorb what was necessary for our sins to be forgiven.

Hebrews 9:14 NIV How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Remember, confession isn’t a plea bargain with God. Confession isn’t a “Sorry” or “My bad.” The more we appreciate the gravity of our sins, the less likely we’ll be to downplay our confession.

Confession is agreeing with God. If God says, “That’s sin, and I hate it,” and you say, “I agree with You, God; that’s sin, and I hate it too,” that’s confession.

Genuine confession is the awareness that our sin is so serious, and so destructive to our relationship with God, that repairing it required the death of His only Son.
Genuine confession is a longing to restore that relationship, even if it means revealing our ugliest truths and admitting that temptation was more attractive to us than God’s perfect will.
Genuine confession is acknowledging that we tried to grab the controls of our life from God so that we could do “our own thing”.
Genuine confession comes from a humble heart.
Genuine confession doesn’t try to justify our behavior, it doesn’t offer excuses, it doesn’t try to shift the blame or downplay the impact of our sin on others and our relationship with God. Genuine confession causes us to turn our attention back to God.

When we genuinely confess with a humble heart we can truly see how God responds. When our confession is genuine God doesn’t offer a half-hearted show of forgiveness. His forgiveness is complete.

1 John 1:9 NIV If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (emphasis mine)

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Stop Hiding Anxiety And Depression - Denial Doesn’t Help, It Hurts

6/1/2019

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Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

Stress, anxiety and worry are something we all struggle with at some point in our lives. But what about when it gets to a point where you feel completely overwhelmed? Between financial struggles, marital issues, health scares, and the run-of-the-mill problems of everyday life, it’s easy to feel weighed down and trapped by your circumstances. In times like these, it’s tempting to just throw in the towel and quit. If we don’t do anything differently things will not change and we will stay in our depression or state of anxiety. Depression and anxiety do happen but they don’t just pass like the season. If we think that depression is just a season and it will pass then we have a serious problem. We must go through it. But we don’t have to go through it alone we have God who said that He would never leave us or forsake us.

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NLT2)6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

The church has a problem talking about depression because we somehow believe that Christians should not get depressed and talking about it can be uncomfortable because we don’t know a lot about it. In the church,there has long been a prohibition of talking about certain things or not expressing our feelings when we are hurting is certain areas like money or sex we often putting lipstick on a pig so to speak. We are masking how we sometimes hurt so we don’t get help. I use to hear some old time preachers and old time mothers talking about the church being a hospital well if you can’t talk about your sickness what kind of hospital is it. Is it only one that deals with the common cold or a stubbed toe and not drug addiction or sex addiction, or depression?

If you can’t bring your deepest problems to the church because you are afraid of what others may say, or where people have to pretend that “..there lives are picture-perfect”, there are two problems that result.

1) the issues or problems will sooner or later come out and either they will result is gossip or the leadership will tell them not to come back until the problem is handled or

2) then can’t take the pressure of trying to put up a false face for the church so they drop out.

Those on the right side of the cross (believers) and those on the left side of the cross (unbelievers) both face hardships. “When we meet Christ, we are saved from the penalty of sin, but we do not escape the effects of sin --whether that’s our own sin of other people’s sin or simply the broken world we live in. Church is the place where we need to go for healing not the place to pretend that we’re perfect. It shouldn’t be the place we run from when we feel overwhelmed it should be the place we run to. That is where Jesus will meet us and change.

Denial Doesn’t Help It Hurts

Truth Heals: 5 Reasons to Stop Hiding Anxiety and Depression
By Hope Bolinger

I didn’t see my first therapist until I’d reached my junior year in college. My parents, in my younger years, had often threatened to take me “to see someone” if I “didn’t change my behavior.” Not understanding why I felt the way I did, and not wanting to cause any trouble with my family or their finances in having to pay for professional help, I did my best to hide it.

It, I later discovered, better fell under the label of severe functional anxiety and depression. In other words, I could make it look like I handled life just fine, but inside it was tearing me apart. Christians who wrestle with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression often feel the need to hide these struggles from their brothers and sisters.

Perhaps they encountered a member of their church who told them anxiety came from a lack of faith and they needed to just believe more. Worried about their spiritual standing, they tried to exercise more belief, but this didn’t take away the anxiety by any stretch.

Or maybe they met with another well-meaning Christian who told them depression “is all in your head” and they needed to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and keep going.

Whatever the case, many Christians hesitate to let other Christians know about their internal battles with anxiety and depression.

Here are 5 great reasons why you should talk with a believer you trust about your mental health:

1. Satan Wants You Isolated

This especially applies to those who have depression. Depression tends to make its bearer want to disappear and hide away from those who could offer help and healing. By nature, it is self-sabotaging and attempts to rip apart those who have it in silence and isolation.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NLT2)9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

Two people can:

Complete projects faster than just one person setting forth to finish a task
Help each other up when they fall down
Keep warm during cold, wintry seasons
Overpower an enemy who tries to attack

Although the first one doesn’t necessarily apply to anxiety or depression, the last three certainly do. Anxiety and depression knock down whoever has them. But in close proximity to a believer who knows your struggle, you can have someone to help lift you up. I have a number of believers whom I trust and go to during my severe episodes.

They can also keep us warm during winter seasons. Anxiety and depression can turn a positive outlook into a cold one in microseconds. It can come at any time without warning and stay for months—years. Yet, fellow believers can help warm us. They can give encouragements and help us to “take heart” and wait for spring to come again.

Psalm 31:24 (NKJV)24 Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD.

Although depression and anxiety are real diseases that have resulted from a fallen world, Satan can and will use symptoms of these to convince us that we are alone, that we do not deserve to have a place in this world, and that we will never overcome these trials. In those times, believers can help us overcome the enemy through prayer, instead of us having to fight him alone.

Ecclesiastes 4:12 (NLT2)12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

A cord of three braids is not easily broken. This means, in addition to going to other believers with our struggle, we need to go to God—the third cord. Satan cannot tear apart this braided strand of community.

2. People Can Pray for Your Specific Struggle

In small groups and meetings with fellow believers, we might lift up depression and anxiety as an unspoken prayer request. While the Holy Spirit can help translate these prayers, it’s better to have something specific to pray for.

Romans 8:26 (NLT2)26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

If others know what you struggle with, they might remember more often to pray for the exact thorn in your side. Not to mention, if they know someone who has gone through anxiety or depression before, or have dealt with it themselves, they can pray more specifically.

If they’ve dealt with anxiety, they might ask for peace to wash over you. If they know the horrors of depression, they may pray that God encourages you and helps you to know your worth.

3. Christians Who Have a Mental Health History Can Help

We take comfort in the fact that Jesus walked in our shoes. He endured temptations of all kinds, but He overcame all of those struggles, and we look to His example.

Hebrews 4:14-15 (NLT2)14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

The same applies to believers who have dealt with or deal with our same afflictions. When my parents divorced, I took greater comfort in the advice of those whose parents had also split than those who never knew the pain of parental separation. In my struggles with depression and anxiety, I took great joy in hearing the stories of believers who had a similar history.

We can look to our Creator for such comfort, too. Although Jesus may not have had a mental health history, He did experience sorrow to the point of death. That sounds a lot like what depression feels like.

Matthew 26:36-38 (NLT2)36 Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.”37 He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed.38 He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

In the same garden of Gethsemane, He experienced so much anxiety that He sweat droplets of blood. Even the God of the universe understands the intensity of great sorrow and apprehension.

Luke 22:44 (NLT2)44 He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

4. This Can Help End the Stigma Surrounding Mental Health

The church has often claimed that those who have mental health issues have problems with faith and not with their cognitive faculties. We often forget that the brain is an organ.

Brain scans have shown physiological differences between the brains of control subjects and those subjects dealing with mental disorders.

Yes, God can heal all diseases, and depression and anxiety are by no means an exception.

Psalm 103:3 (NLT2)3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.
But Christians should approach depression and anxiety the same way we approach any other disease. If my friend has asthma, I can’t tell her, “Get over it and push forward. It’s only in your lungs.” In the same way, we can’t tell someone who has depression, “Get over it. It’s only in your brain.”

If we become more open about our mental health, we can help to end the stigma that surrounds depression and anxiety. When we realize how many people struggle with this within the church itself, we can move forward to help each other overcome it.

5. Healing Comes from Acknowledging the Problem

For a long time, I didn’t want to believe I had depression or anxiety. I resisted seeing professionals and therapists. But I couldn’t receive the proper medication, diagnosis, or treatment plan unless I went to them and admitted what I was struggling with. Only when we acknowledge the struggle can we find the healing we need.

Jesus calls Himself a physician.

Mark 2:17 (NLT2)17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

He can heal us from our afflictions if He chooses to. But we cannot embrace that possibility until we acknowledge we have a problem in the first place. He may choose to leave the thorn in our side, as He did with Paul.

2 Corinthians 12:6-9 (NLT2)6 If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message,7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

If He does so, we can rest in the fact that His grace is sufficient for us, and through our weaknesses, God can do great things.

The answer to our anxiety, fear and need for order is to focus all our attention, thought and worship on Jesus. He is the only one who provides lasting purpose to fulfill our deepest desires.

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When You Don't Feel Like Praising God

5/30/2019

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Psalm 150:1-6 (NLT) 1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven!2 Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness!3 Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp!4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes!5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals.6 Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD! Praise the LORD!

What exactly is praise? Praise is the expression of approval or admiration for someone of something. For Christians God is the object of our praise. Christian praise is the joyful thankfulness and adoration of God, the celebration of His goodness and grace. Here’s a definition from the Holman Bible Dictionary; Praise comes from a Latin word meaning “value” or “price.” so to give praise to God is to proclaim His merit or worth. Many terms are used to express this in the Bible, including “glory,” “blessing,” “thanksgiving,” and “hallelujah,”

The enemy, Satan and his demons, despise our praise of God so much that he cannot even be in the presence of anyone who is actively doing that. Praise is our correct response to God for all He has done and is doing in our lives. So whenever you want the enemy to flee, praise God. It is one of our greatest weapons in the war against him.
Praise is not the thing that comes when everything's going right in our lives; it is the driving force of our lives. When we start praising God in the middle of our problems, our problems become so small that we hardly remember them at all, they become an afterthought in the wake of our praise.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NLT2) 16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

What do you do in times of trials and tribulations? Do you become angry at God and ask why or do you praise your way through the storm? Praise is a powerful weapon that the children of God possess and it confuses the enemy of our soul. You have a choice- you can choose to keep quiet in the trials or you can choose to use your voice to get your praise on and experience victory as the King of glory comes to your defense.

But I Don't Feel Like Praising God
By Mary Southerland

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7, NIV

Praise does not depend on an understanding of the circumstance or trial. Praise depends on an understanding of who God really is and wants to be in our life, and on our willingness to put our Faith in Him.

As humans, we will never fully understand God – this side of heaven. God is holy and without blemish. God is all-powerful and omniscient. He is Creator of the universe and yet lives in you and me at our invitation. He is the only true, living God!
We may understand some of His ways and grasp the reasoning behind some of His plans. We may even come to the place of knowing Him on what I call an intimate level, but a full understanding of God is reserved for heaven. Until then, we walk by faith, not by sight. We praise Him in the darkness, knowing that the light is just ahead. We trust Him for things we cannot see. Honestly, the thought of serving and relying on a God I can understand is not a reassuring thought.

Most people who know me well would describe me as a strong person, someone who can usually handle what life holds. I thought the same thing until I became a powerless prisoner of the darkness as I battled severe clinical depression. It took me two long years to climb out of that dark pit, but in the process I learned many important truths.
I learned that I couldn’t depend on my own strength or my fickle emotions. God often asked me to praise Him when there didn’t seem to be a whole lot to praise him for. I didn’t feel like praising Him.

I began to understand that praise is not a feeling.

Praise is a choice, a step of obedience taken without the assurance of a changed circumstance or the elimination of a trial.

Praise focuses on God, not the circumstance, and fixes its gaze on God’s truth and God’s character instead of on the trial at hand.

We can celebrate the battle before it even begins because the outcome is neither our responsibility nor our goal.

Praise begins and ends with faith in the very nature, personality and integrity of God … and that never changes.

No matter what lies ahead, God is faithful.
No matter how hot the fiery trial may be, God is with us and will deliver us in it or from it.

So praise God!

Thank Him today for every victory tomorrow holds.

Celebrate - knowing that the battle belongs to God, and because of that single truth, success is certain.

Let's Pray

Father, I praise You today for all that You have done in my life. You are faithful even when I am faithless. Your love pursues me even when I am unlovable. Your forgiveness covers my sin and frees me from its penalty. I praise You for your love and faithfulness to me. Your presence in my life changes everything, empowering me to live each moment of every day, content in knowing You are in control. As I face today, Lord, remind me that no matter what happens, I can praise You!
In Jesus' Name,

Amen.

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When We Confess Our Sin God Cleanses Us but How Does the Cleansing Take Place

Stop Hiding Anxiety And Depression - Denial Doesn’t Help, It Hurts

When You Don't Feel Like Praising God

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