Day 82: Burdened with Sin

Psalms 31:10

...my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

Psalms 32: 5

I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

We all know that we are born into sin, we live in a broken world. We are not perfect therefore we have a need for a savior, Jesus Christ, and that savior is the only one to save us from our sin. Today let’s talk about sin, not sin in general but our personal sin. David says that it is his iniquities that make him weak, iniquity is another word for sin.  David knows that his own sin is what causes his spiritual weakness, as sinners we cannot fix this alone, we become our own stumbling block when we keep allowing ourselves to choose to sin knowing that it is detrimental to our spiritual health.  

In the next chapter David says that he acknowledges his sin and he will confess it to the Lord. He’s not going to try and hide it, but he is going to take his iniquities before the Lord knowing that forgiveness is in Him, salvation, and redemption is in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To acknowledge something means, to admit to be real or true; recognize the existence, truth, or fact of. Knowing and acknowledging something are two different things, we can know something but that doesn’t mean we will acknowledge it as truth. We know we are sinful, we know our sin is causing us to go down a terrible path, this is facts, it’s what we know, but will we admit it? Are we willing to go before God as we are and say, “I’m a sinful mess.” sometimes it’s as simple as that. Can we find the courage to confess our sins to the only one who can forgive them. Sometimes it’s as easy as saying, God help me. God won’t judge us, but he will forgive us. There is this beautiful thing called grace and God is full of it.

We cannot allow our souls to rot in a sinful hole because we are too shameful or too embarrassed to go to God, or we’re too full of pride. We all sin, believe it or not. After David gets done confessing to the Lord he says, “...And you forgave me.” We’ve talked about carrying burdens of many things, but too many of us are carrying the burden of sin, we are carrying the burden of death and it’s making us weaker and weaker everyday. We have to take especially these burdens to the Lord, because it will literally save our lives. Sin does not belong to us either, just because we were born into sin and into a broken world does not mean we have to bear the burden of it. It does not mean that we have to carry our sin around with us, Jesus died for humanity, he came for that sin. Stop carrying it around drop it and leave it at the foot of the cross. When you drop it, don’t pick it back up. Often times we go back and pick up our sin. No, we have to leave it there, we have to let it go down to the grave with Jesus and stay there. It does not belong to us. Drop it and leave it!

When God offers forgiveness and salvation in exchange for your sin, take it! Accept His forgiveness, there is no shame or condemnation in the Lord.

Reflection

1. Are you burdened by sin?
2. Are you willing to acknowledge that sin and confess it to the Lord?
3. What is on your heart that you need to confess to the Lord?

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. Talk to God about whatever is on your heart. Confess your sins to Him, allow him to purify your hearts and accept his forgiveness. Pour your heart out to the Lord, lay all your burdens at his feet, and know that you are forgiven.

Maybe you never had the chance to submit your life to Christ or you want to rededicate your life to Him. I believe that now is the time to do that. Take all that sin and confess it to the Lord, whatever it is, surrender it to Him. Know that He can take it, and you will find freedom in His house. He loves us so much that He wants us to be bear and with Him for all eternity. Forever in His holy temple.

If you made the choice to follow Christ, rededicate, or to submit your life to Him fully, Go to Romans 10:9-10

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

And repeat these few words,

Jesus I declare that you are my Lord and Saviour who died for my sin and was raised three days later. I repent of my sins and I give my life to you. I believe in my heart that you are the true living God. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, Amen.

Congratulations! The angels in heaven are rejoicing right now. Get plugged in to your local church, and bible study. If you have any further questions feel free to contact me, Thedyamondjbackup@gmail.com IAmDyamondJ on all social media networks.

Be sure to come back tomorrow for Day 83 and everyday for the rest of the year!

Day 53: It's That Simple

We as young people like to complicate things. We make life a lot harder than it has to be. We live in a world that tells us, if something is easy, or if something is handed to us it’s not worth having. I beg to to differ, God handed us a life of redemption, and freedom, and we did nothing to receive it. Yet we are still worthy of the gift in His eyes. We live in a world where if it’s not complicated it’s not real. So we end up taking all types of unnecessary turns to get to or reach something that is right in front of us. God is handing us the answer to our prayer, He is handing us a life free of complications and full of love, and instead of just reaching and grabbing it we create an obstacle course to get to it; so that we can have a story to tell. We are trying to build our testimony. The thing is, a testimony isn’t always about struggle it is testifying to what God has done for us and our lives.

Matthew 11:30

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Psalms 55:22

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

1 John 3:23

And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us.

1 John 5:3
For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.

When we are living for Christ life is a lot easier, than what when we were in the world. Everything becomes tameable, and feels more like freedom; things seem simple, and if I'm being honest they are. We don’t worry about anything because we know that God has it taken care of. This is not to say that every moment of our life will be a breeze but with Christ it is a lot easier. God sends us through tests we go through hard times, we have moments when we are unhappy. But that is just a section of our entire life, our feelings, our bad days, our frustrations do not dictate our entire life. When you think about it, life isn’t as hard as we think or as we make it. Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy, His burden is light. We do not have to bear the troubles, or the stress that come with this life. We cast all our cares, all of our anxieties, frustration, stress, disappointments, pain, and worries we cast it on Him because He can handle it. Or at least we’re supposed to. But instead of doing that we chose to harbor it, we choose to bear it, we choose sometimes to make our own lives hard. God is right there waiting to take all of our troubles, why are we still holding on to them? We know we can't do anything with it or about it yet we still hold on as if we alone can change something. A lot of times we give the excuse, “it’s easier said than done.” and that works for some things, but sometimes we just have to trust God and let go. We have to give God a simple yes. We make our own lives hard by choosing not to trust Him. We complicate things when we start to get in our heads and thinking too much. We must get out of our own minds and give Him a chance. We as people of faith know well that God can handle anything, and that with Him even the impossible becomes possible, it is not our job to fix ourselves, that is why we have Christ. We can try to make a testimony by taking on life on our own, but at the end of the day, who is really being glorified?

Matthew 22: 36-40

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Everything falls back to love. It’s that simple, if there is one thing we know how to do, it is love.

I’ve heard a lot of people say that being a Christian is too hard, there are too many rules. Uhmmm, no! Jesus did away with the rules when He came and died for our sins, He fulfilled the law and told us to love. We are to love Him and love our neighbors. Jesus then goes on to say that if we love Him we will keep His commands (John 14:15). When we love someone we want to honor them, we want to make them happy. If we truly love God, keeping His commands, and following His word isn’t that hard. Honestly, it takes a lot more to sin, we have to go out of our way to do wrong. No one is born a bad person, we are made in the image of God, we are made by love, we were created in the image of perfection. We are wired with love, evil and hate is not fabricated within us, but love is. Love has been ingrained in us from the moment we were created by God. Love has been given to us, from the moment we breathed our first breath on earth, and the moment our heart pulsed for the first time. Love is not complicated, hate is. Forgiveness is not complicated, holding a grudge is. Living a righteous life is not complicated, going against the word of God is.

Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and his answer was love. How hard is that? God says give me your burdens, cast it all on me. He wants it so that we do have to bear it ourselves, why do we keep it? We tend to allow all the clutter in our lives complicate things. We clutter our lives with stress, worry, frustrations, unforgiveness, insecurities, self-pity, pride, holding on too tight, being self-centered, etc. If we keep all of that in our lives things can get a bit complicated, but the great thing about it all is that it doesn’t have to be. God can take it, in fact He wants it. God is not some complex, and complicated being. He doesn't not limit or burden us with rules and commands, He is not burdensome at all. He is accessible to us, He reaches out to us, and He wants to take care of His children, why don’t we let Him? All we have to do is follow Him, trust Him, and love. It’s so simple it seems complex.

Reflection

1. Why do you think we tend to make life and being a Christian more complicated than it has to be?
2. Why do you think serving God is hard or simple?

Prayer Time

Talk to God about the simplicity of following HIm. Allow HIm to take away the clutter in your life that makes living seem complicated. Talk to God about trust and what it means to simply live with Christ.

Have an awesome day, afternoon, or evening! I love you!!!!! Share this with a friend. Make sure you come back tomorrow for Day 54!