MARCH 15, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

MARCH 15 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING: PSALM 103:11-14

We are not to live in the past...the memories of the past are God's gift to us, but we cannot live there. If we are not careful the past keeps us from living today. There are people all around us right now that need us to live now...to love now...to be there for them now. Always going back to what used to be and either spending all our time and energy desiring it again, or letting the guilt of it rob our today's... is not what life is to be about. God has given us this day...He has called us to live today for Him and for each other. I thank God for the memories of the past and all that He has done and has taught me. I thank God for every friend in years gone by and what they have and still do mean to me. I am grateful for the lessons of life and the times the Lord has saved me from harm, when I made poor decisions. I am grateful for my past, but I cannot live there. I must live in today.

One of the great schemes of the enemy of our souls, Satan, is to consume us with guilt from our past. He knows that if he can do that, he can effectively keep us from hearing God today and be used in the Lord's great purpose. One of the primary reasons the Lord forgives our sins is to set us free from the guilt of those sins...free to hear His voice...free to follow Him...free to work in His marvelous Kingdom. Guilt paralyzes us. It keeps us from living today and forces us to be living in the past. The Devil works through guilt, because guilt has nowhere to go. It just consumes us and keeps us from following God fully today. The Holy Spirit works not by guilt but by conviction. When He convicts us it is to makes us aware of what we have done, so that we might confess it before God and move on. He promises to forgive and to forget our sins and to cleanse us from our own unrighteousness. He does this so that we might hear Him clearly and follow Him completely, today. Thank God for the gift of the memories of the past, but don’t stay there. Today is the day He has given for us to live...let's live in it!

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