Response Time

We will all make mistakes. We often blame it on lapses of judgment, mismanagement of resources, and the words & actions of other people. This doesn't change the fact that we have sinned, but

allows us to assign contributory blame in an effort to assuage our guilt. The evidence still proves that what we have done in the darkness has now been brought into the light and the experience is not always pleasant.

In the aftermath of discovery (and hopefully repentance) we are essentially left with two choices. We can continue to berate ourselves emotionally and verbally for our transgressions or we can humbly accept God's infinite forgiveness and move forward. One path devolves into a cycle of self-pity that debilitates us spiritually, derails us missionally, and neuters us evangelistically. The other (wiser) path creates a catalyst for spiritual transformation through our deep need for God's grace and our unwillingness to settle for anything less than our Father's best. The first path is born out of an overestimation of self while the second gives credence to our desperate need for a perfect, loving, personally invested King.

To stubbornly reject this gift of forgiveness from God is to devalue everything He has done to restore us as His people. Choose wisely.