I find it hard to pray when I whip myself over my sins.
Satan, our accuser, loves to drop into our minds that we are worthless. He wants us to wallow in our worthlessness.
But that is not how God wants us to see ourselves. He wants us to come before him, knowing that we are much-loved children.
C.S. Lewis touched on this in his book The Screwtape Letters, a fictional account of letters between a senior devil and a junior devil. Screwtape, the senior devil, tries to instruct his newphew Wormwood how to pull a young Christian away from "The Enemy" (God).
In this book, Screwtape writes: "Whenever they (Christians) are attending to the Enemy we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is turn their gaze from him towards themselves."
People naturally run away from God when they sin. That is what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Why? Because they feel God won't want anything to do with them.
So should we forget sin entirely and assume God doesn't care?
The apostle Paul makes a grand declaration about the victory of God's grace over sin in Romans 5. And then he follows this up with these words in Romans 6:1:
"Well then should we continue on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?"
So, I am to acknowledge my sins and put them behind me. The apostle John says in 1 John 1:9 that I am to confess my sins and God will forgive me and cleanse me from unrighteousness.
I need to remind myself of this because a great danger arises when I become preoccupied with my sin. Then, I turn away from God the way Adam did because in my heart I think he is deeply unhappy with me. And I stop talking to the Lord in prayer.
I am finding that the key is my relationship with God. Do I realize how much he loves me in spite of my weaknesses?
He knows what I am like and yet he takes "great delight" in me and he rejoices over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). He wants me to come to him for his embrace - acknowledging my sin and knowing that I am forgiven.
The writer of Hebrews says it best. In Hebrews 12, he tells me to strip off the things that hold me back - including sin - and run the race before me.
"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."
That's the idea. I am to put behind what I have done and look forward to what God has before me.
I am to fix my eyes on Jesus - not on myself.
When I look to Jesus, prayer flows. We talk.
Satan, our accuser, loves to drop into our minds that we are worthless. He wants us to wallow in our worthlessness.
But that is not how God wants us to see ourselves. He wants us to come before him, knowing that we are much-loved children.
C.S. Lewis touched on this in his book The Screwtape Letters, a fictional account of letters between a senior devil and a junior devil. Screwtape, the senior devil, tries to instruct his newphew Wormwood how to pull a young Christian away from "The Enemy" (God).
In this book, Screwtape writes: "Whenever they (Christians) are attending to the Enemy we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is turn their gaze from him towards themselves."
People naturally run away from God when they sin. That is what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Why? Because they feel God won't want anything to do with them.
So should we forget sin entirely and assume God doesn't care?
The apostle Paul makes a grand declaration about the victory of God's grace over sin in Romans 5. And then he follows this up with these words in Romans 6:1:
"Well then should we continue on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?"
So, I am to acknowledge my sins and put them behind me. The apostle John says in 1 John 1:9 that I am to confess my sins and God will forgive me and cleanse me from unrighteousness.
I need to remind myself of this because a great danger arises when I become preoccupied with my sin. Then, I turn away from God the way Adam did because in my heart I think he is deeply unhappy with me. And I stop talking to the Lord in prayer.
I am finding that the key is my relationship with God. Do I realize how much he loves me in spite of my weaknesses?
He knows what I am like and yet he takes "great delight" in me and he rejoices over me with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). He wants me to come to him for his embrace - acknowledging my sin and knowing that I am forgiven.
The writer of Hebrews says it best. In Hebrews 12, he tells me to strip off the things that hold me back - including sin - and run the race before me.
"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith."
That's the idea. I am to put behind what I have done and look forward to what God has before me.
I am to fix my eyes on Jesus - not on myself.
When I look to Jesus, prayer flows. We talk.
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