Daily Devotions, When You Keep Messing Up

When you keep messing up

Scripture

For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Psalm 66: 10-12

'But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap.' Malachi 3:2

Observation

👉🏻 The excerpt from the Psalm makes me think of a story I once heard. A father was worried about his son who had got himself caught up with a gang and had been dabbling with drugs and weapons.

He decided to take his son to a local prison to see where he would end up if he continued down that path and I believe he met with some of the inmates who shared their experiences and hindsight. It was a shocking experience for the son and was enough to deter him from carrying on doing the things he had been doing.

Isn't it like that with God?

We have free will and sometimes that leads us to want to do things that are not good for us at all. Even when we get that red flag, that alert in our Spirit that we shouldn't be doing these things (and we know deep down they won't end well) we sometimes push past these feelings, ignore them and carry on.

Yet God promised us that He would never leave us or forsake us. He will walk with us through the motions of our own undoing and be right there when it all falls to pieces. Even when we have to deal with the repercussions of our own reckless decisions He is right there with us. Even though we have ignored His warnings in our Spirits, even though we have tried to shut Him out so we can 'sin in peace' He still won't leave.

'Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.'  Psalm 137:7-10

When we get to the complete outworking of our sinful decision and are at the very end of ourselves, God is right there with us. This moment reminds me of the father taking the son to visit the prison. God is showing you and I, that this is what it looks like, this is the consequence of our sin, this is 'death' this is the point where you should be utterly defeated....

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

But Jesus

Because of Jesus that lowest point where it should be game over isn't because we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and nothing can snatch us from His hand. We check out rock bottom with a safety net of Jesus ... our beautiful redeemer.  Nothing and nobody can separate us from His love either, even our own self sabotage cannot undo us being sealed with the Spirit of promise which is,who is, Jesus.

'I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all ; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." John 10:28-30

'Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.") No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.' Romans 8:35