Work with God to Clean Up the Consequences of Your Sin

Good morning, Happy Souls!

Bill Keller wrote a devotional today that I
recommend to you.  He has given me permission to
copy his e-mails, and I'm sure he would be happy if
you would share this with people you know as well.

Most people find themselves not only sinning, but ending
up with bad consequences from those sins.  I know that I
have.

If you ask for it, God will forgive you.  But then how do
you clean up the mess?

Please read on.

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL   WEDNESDAY APRIL 19, 2006
( Matthew 26:41, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 John 4:4  )

"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."
Matthew 26:41 (NIV)

"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)

Satan is out to get YOU!  I know yesterday's Devotional on
falling off the wagon was a "heavy" and very personal word
that applied to everyone who read it.  Some days it is
easy to dismiss what you read in the Devotional since it
doesn't directly apply to your life at that moment.  That
is a key point of this Devotional today.  Satan is out to
get YOU and you will be shocked at how he will try to
accomplish that, and even more shocked when you wake up
one morning and find yourself in one of his traps that you
never dreamed you would be in.

Every day I read emails from people that start out, "I can't
believe I am in this situation."  Sin is so subtle, can
start out so innocently.  I don't know how many people we
deal with each day who became addicted to pain killers after
using them legally under the supervision of a doctor.  We
deal daily with people who let a few glasses of wine with
dinner enslave them to alcohol.  Often I hear from dear
people who went to play the slot machines at a local
casino for a night of "fun," and have now destroyed their
finances due to gambling.

Over and over I hear of work friendships that turn into
adulterous affairs.  Sadly, I deal too often with pastors
and men and women in the ministry who allowed themselves
to get too close, too emotionally involved in the life of
someone of the opposite sex, and it ended up destroying
their marriage and their work for God.

Please hear me today when I tell you to NEVER, EVER, think
you are above falling into any type of sin.  Just because
you may not have a propensity towards drugs and could never
see yourself in that bondage, doesn't mean one day you
won't.  Just because you don't have a propensity to drink
and could never see yourself bound by alcohol, doesn't mean
one day you won't.  Just because you love your wife or
husband and could never imagine in your wildest dreams
having an affair, doesn't mean one day you won't.

The point is, NEVER, EVER feel you are above any sin,
because you are not.  In most cases, it is those areas of
your life that you feel you are the strongest where you
are most likely to fall!

Perhaps quicksand is the best example of what it is like
to be in one of satan's traps.  You sink, slowly to your
death in quicksand.  If you try to get out by yourself,
it only pulls you in deeper.  That is exactly what it is
like when you wake up one morning and find yourself in
sin.  For some of you, your quicksand may be drugs,
alcohol, gambling, shopping, food, or any of a number of
other addictions.  For others, your quicksand may be a
sexual sin.  For still others, your quicksand may be
greed and the lust of things this world has to offer.
Regardless of what your quicksand may be, the question
now is how do you get out?

The first step is to realize that you are in a situation
that on your own you can't get out of.  If you were
strong enough to get out, you wouldn't have fallen into
this trap in the first place.  So now is the time you
have to humble yourself before the Lord and come to Him
for help.  That begins with repentance and asking the Lord
to forgive you.  I'm not talking about that "I'm sorry I
got caught" type of repentance either.  But having a
real, broken and contrite heart for sinning against the
Lord and seeking His forgiveness for your sins.  He knows
your heart and He knows if you are sincere or just trying
to use Him to get out of the trouble you are in.

The second step is to fully surrender yourself to the
Lord and submit yourself to whatever His plan is for
getting you out of the quicksand.  We all want God to
come swinging down out of the trees like Tarzan in the
movies, grabbing our outstretched hand and pull us out
of the quicksand, placing us on solid land.  He may do
it that way too.  He also may take us out the slow way
as well.  We may have to stay in that quicksand for a
while, simply being sustained by His grace and mercy.
You are in no position to tell God how to rescue you,
just be thankful that if you surrender to Him, He will.

Never forget that there are ALWAYS consequences for our
actions.  Once we are out of the quicksand, it is very
possible that we will have to deal with the consequences
of our choice to rebel against the Lord.  The key is,
Christ is our ONLY hope to get out of the quicksand and
to eventually get our lives back on track where they need
to be.  We must surrender ourselves completely to Him and
know that it will only be His grace and mercy that will
see us through whatever we have to face in that process.

The third step is that time of restoration.  After we have
fallen, been rescued, we now need to have our relationship
with the Lord restored.  No doubt one of the greatest
examples of this process is Peter being restored by our
Lord after he denied Jesus on the night He was taken in
the Garden of Gethsemane.  (Note: Peter is a perfect
example of a man who fell into a sin he would have never
expected to.  Denying Christ is probably the last sin
Peter ever expected to commit, proving my earlier point
how we are immune to NO sin.)

The restoration of Peter is a powerful and encouraging
message that even if you have failed the Lord, sinned
against Him, He is ready to forgive you and restore you
to fellowship.  The Peter we read about in the Book of
Acts after being restored by Jesus, is a powerful and bold
man of faith who helped to lead the early church.

I love you and care about you so much.  I realize that the
Devotional on Tuesday and this one today are not easy to
read.  I realize that it has caused many of you to
literally break down in tears as you were reading these
words, knowing that God Himself was speaking to you.
Listen my friend, He loves you!  He loves you more than you
will ever know.  God is there to try and protect you from
satan and his traps.  But you do have free will, and in
exercising your free will you can choose to obey the Lord
or rebel against Him.

Satan does not play by any rules and is out to destroy
you.  He will use whatever tricks and traps he can to
accomplish that.  That is why as I stated yesterday you
must stay close to the Lord each day thru the Word and
prayer, stay busy, especially finding ways to serve the
Lord so that you aren't as likely to dwell on your flesh
and the allure of this world.  The message today is that
you are not above ANY type of sin, so you must always
be on guard and don't ever think you are immune from
being tempted by the evil one.

We all sin, we all fail God at times.  The key is if you
wake up one morning and find yourself in the quicksand,
realize you can't get out without the Lord's help.
Humble yourself before Him and submit to His plan in
getting you out.  Lastly, allow Jesus to restore you to
fellowship.  Failure does not mean you are finished.  Often
your greatest works for the Lord come AFTER you have failed
and have been restored to His fellowship.

Satan is out to get YOU.  However, I want to leave you
today with that powerful promise we have in God's word,
"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome
them, because the one who is in you is greater than
the one who is in the world."  1 John 4:4 (NIV)  AMEN!!!

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support of all God
is doing each and every day here at Liveprayer.  It is
friends like you that make all we do each day for so
many possible.  May the Lord's richest blessings be
upon you and your family as you faithfully serve and
follow HIM.

In His love and service,
Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller

***If I can help you in any way you can contact me
through my personal email at bkeller@liveprayer.com

***ARE YOU 100% CERTAIN WHERE YOU WILL SPEND
ETERNITY?  The fact is you will die one day.  At
that moment, you will either spend eternity with
the Lord or be cast into everlasting darkness
forever separated from God your creator.  To know
for certain you will be forever with Jesus, go to:
http://www.liveprayer.com/bdy_salvatn.html

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(C) Copyright 2006, Bill Keller Ministries.
All rights reserved


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May God bless you as you learn from this message!

Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge

Copyright 2006 Donald W. Mitchell