It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe. (Mohammed Ali) You can’t whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them. (Proverbs 28:13 MSG) I once heard a sermon about the pebble in one's shoe. The longer you ignored it was there, the more damage it caused. It would cause a sore where it caused pressure, wearing a hole in your sock, and eventually breaking down your skin. The quicker one sat down to remove the pebble, the sooner one would be relieved of the pressure. The moral was that all sin is like a pebble in one's shoe - the sooner one confesses it, turning away from it, the quicker one would have the 'pressure' or 'weight' of the sin removed from their lives. The damage that little sin could cause was significant if not repented! The pebble actually didn't give the one with it in their shoe any sense of comfort. Trying to just move it out of the way didn't do the...
Those who love your instructions have great peace and do not stumble. (Psalm 119:165 NLT) God's commandments are burdensome and 'too rigid' for those who have never placed their trust in them. The more we discover the truths in his Word, the more we realize there is a great deal of safety and security in following his instructions. Yet, we sometimes don't do a very good job following those commands, right? What happens when we choose to ignore one or more of his commands? Do we face his condemnation? If we try to rationalize our disobedience, we may actually experience the consequences of that disobedience, but even that is not his condemnation. The more we discover about God through his Word, the more we realize that our failure at obedience is not the end - there is grace available to those who seek it. It would be much better if we never stumbled, right? It is pretty unrealistic to think we will believe everything God says the first time we are exposed to his trut...