Despite all we do, God never gives up on us.

Angus Buchan, in the book Faith Like Potatoes, was sharing about Jesus with one of his farmhands. “God is no respecter of persons. It doesn’t matter about your past and what has happened in your life. What is important is your personal walk with God.”

He then quotes Romans 8:28 emphasizing the fact that it is God’s job, not ours, to work all things out for the good. Yet how do we respond when our past failures are thrown in our face? Or, when our current ones are magnified?

Pull these triggers to take our drugs of choice (aka sin) because they make us smell good when we just stepped in something that stinks really bad.

What should we do instead? Throw up our hands and quit. What?? Quit listening to the shame of the past. Quit focusing on the present stink of failure. Quit pulling that trigger.

How? Put up your shield of faith in the truth of Romans 8:2 and say, “I quit!” Think about it. What part of “all things” doesn’t include your past failures or current missteps? And whose job is it to make all those things turn out for good anyway? God and God alone.

This is not a license to sin; but the power to stop repeating the same sin over and over again. If we focus on the past or present failure, which will trigger us, we’ll more than likely sin again in the present.

Yet, do you realize that when you spend time beating yourself up or wallowing in the stink, you are still focusing on you? Quit it! Quit thinking life is all about you. Quit thinking that you’re letting God down, which you can’t because that would make you more powerful than God, which you are not.

Quit doing you and let God do God. Only He can take the entirety of our lives and turn them out for good, which brings glory to Him, which means others see Jesus in us.

Quit trying to do God. The Father is much better at it.

It all starts with, “I can’t, but You can.”

After an early morning prayer struggle, I wondered what the Lord would show me in His Word. He showed me, alright.

I “just happened” to be in Genesis 41. Up to this point, Joseph had been suffering for 13 years: Put in a dry well. Sold as a slave. Falsely accused of rape. And imprisoned.

Unfair? Yes, but it was partially his own fault. At 17, Joseph was given dreams of both his and his family’s future. Where did they come from? Joseph never says. But he does tell his dad and brothers about the dream. “Every one of you will bow down to me.” You can imagine how that went over, like a lead balloon.

His long struggle would only be over when Pharoah had two dreams. Pharoah asked, “Can you interpret my dreams?” Joseph said, “Nope, I can’t, but God can.” In fact, Joseph emphasized that it was God who gave the dream and God who would give the dream’s interpretation.

This was not the same Joseph, who 17 years earlier seemed to brag about his dream and his interpretation of it. It took 17 years for Joseph to give up the struggle to be ready for the purpose God had for him – save his entire family despite the Satanic attack on it.

Joseph had to learn to surrender to God. Yes, Joseph’s dream came true. Yes, Pharoah’s dream came true. But who gave the dreams and was responsible to make them happen? God.

Sometimes our struggles are self-induced because we are trying to do God’s job for Him. The Lord will not only give you the direction, but the power to get there as well because He can.

Be salty…there will always be someone watching your life.

There are salt licks – natural or artificial deposits of salts and minerals – that wild and domesticated animals can lick to get vital minerals into their diets.

Jesus called His followers the “salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13), whose speech should be “seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6) in order to be ready to share Him with those around them.  

“Why is Tim Tebow such a fascinating and polarizing figure?” wrote one columnist. “It’s not just because he claims to be religious; that claim is commonplace among football stars and ordinary Americans alike. Rather, it’s because his conduct – kind, charitable, chaste, guileless – seems to actually vindicate his claim to be in possession of a life-altering truth.

“Nothing discredits religion quite like the gap that often yawns between what believers profess and how they live. With Tebow, that gap seems so narrow as to be invisible. He fascinates, in part, because he behaves – at least in public, and at least for now – the way one would expect more Christians to behave if their faith were really true.”

In the Spirit’s power, we are to always keep our biblically-based truth filter turned “On” in both our public and our private life. Thus, we can be the salt Jesus commands us to be.

It’s not about politics. It’s not about the issues of today, of which there are many. It’s about letting the Spirit change our lives while living among those who need to see/lick Jesus in order to come into a life saving and altering faith in Him.

We never know who is watching our lives at any given moment. So, be the salt people see/lick not trample underfoot.

Another aspect of faith is separation.

I apologize for being a day late. I ate some bad beef jerky that gave me food poisoning. Needless to say, I’ve been resting and drinking lots of water to flush out my system. I had to get rid of the bacteria that was causing me to…well you know. It wasn’t pretty.

Bacteria are small. But bad bacteria can cause a lot of damage. And in order to get better, I had to separate myself from the damaging bacteria.

Faith. The above quote gives another perspective on what it is. It’s choosing to separate ourselves from the harmful bacteria – sin – to stay healthy not just spiritually but physically as well.

There are consequences to sin on earth. True, Scripture does say Jesus forgave all our sinful choices. This doesn’t mean, however, that there are not consequences on earth, which is why one of the names for the Holy Spirit is “fear of the LORD” (Is. 11:2).

This is a name of God! This is Who He is. Fear is not just reverence. It is also acknowledgment that there can be consequences for not choosing to separate ourselves from (“process”) whatever area of our lives that the Spirit is calling to transform.

Confession acknowledges it as sin after we sin. Faith acknowledges it as sin before we sin in order in the might of the Spirit, another name of Who He is (Is. 11:2), we can become more like Jesus.

Confess quickly. Choose faith quicker.

“In failing to confess, Lord, I only hide You from myself, not myself from You.” Augustine

For those who wear glasses, you know exactly what the following means: Spots on your lenses.

You’re cleaning them one moment. And the next, you’re seeing water spots. Dust particles. Fingerprint smudges. It doesn’t matter where or what, those spots affect your vision.

You’ll put up with them for a while. But when the sun hits them while you’re driving – watch out!

Augustine was spot on. Unconfessed sin doesn’t keep Jesus from seeing us or altering His view of us one iota. It does, however, allow our lie-based choices, sin, to stay on our lenses.

Let that sink in. Past unconfessed sin will overtime become the basis for our decision making in the present. The sin, the action we took based on a lie-based thought, is now stored in our brains (“the flesh” of Gal.6:8), which can become the basis of future choices.

Yet, 1 John 1:9 starts off with, “If we confess our sins.” Notice the word if. It’s our choice whether or not we confess or acknowledge that our choice was sin.

Confession is calling the thought we chose to follow a lie. This leads to asking for and receiving forgiveness for choosing to follow that lie. And because Jesus is faithful, He will cleanse us from that sin.

Stay clean. Make confession part of your daily devotional life. Start off by asking the Spirit to show you where you’ve sinned. Then be quiet. When He points out something, confess it. And when He’s done, you’re in a much better position to hear from Jesus in the Scriptures.

By the way, I carry a cloth to clean my lenses the moment I notice a spot. We all carry that same cloth, it’s called confession. Use it to stay clean throughout your day.