It Happened Again
“It happened again. God here I am coming back to you once again repenting and asking for your mercy and forgiveness. I was just here last night, and the night before, and the night before asking for the same thing. I have failed. I feel like I’m not pleasing you and I just keep on sinning. However, I know you to be a God that is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, so I am here to beg of you to forgive me.”
This is a conversation that I have had with God many times. Normally it is during times when I’ve been allowing the father of lies to have more control than the Father of Mercies. After I return to a sin that I haven’t succumbed to in a while, I often feel this way or reflect on the words of Solomon in Proverbs 26.11: “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” Satan often tries to creep in again to try and deter me from praying for forgiveness. The thoughts that creep in sound something like ,“You’re a failure, God won’t forgive you. You’ve messed up too much. Why even pray? You’re just wasting God’s time.” This article is meant to encourage you not to succumb to these ways of thinking. There is a God in Heaven who is slow to anger and whose steadfast love endures forever.
Firstly, Satan wants us to feel alone. His mission is to bring us away from God and have us be devoured by sin and darkness; if he can bring you farther from the source of life and light, it’s easier for him to succeed. We must remember that God is always with us. “For he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13.5b-6). Moses originally says these words to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31.8, there the Israelites are about to cross the Jordan and continue in war and conquest. If they gain courage from this message for their war, how much more should we gain courage for our war? Ours is against sin and death, and we must remember that God remains faithful (2 Tim 2.13) and on our side. What effect can Satan have on us?
Secondly, “The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell” (The Love of God: Hymn 170). Who among us can fathom the depth of love God has shown us? He has poured out his soul to death (Isa 53.12) for us. There are scriptures in every corner of the Bible that encourage us that God’s love is a fountain that never runs dry! Psalm 136 is especially powerful in showing us this, with every verse ending in “for his steadfast love endures forever,” and verses 23-24 saying, “It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever.” Romans 8.38-39 says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God will never leave us. God will never stop loving us. No matter how many times we have sinned. Is this a license to sin? No, of course not. However, we should never let Satan talk us out of crying out for salvation because God will never refuse it.
Mark Harper