Secret, Sinful Mindset? Seek God's Restoration

Children learn at an early age that secret keeping is a part of play. There are particular family secrets children are told to guard at all costs. It’s evident that some secrets can produce lasting negative consequences to family members. A number of secrets may be necessary for a family to keep functioning or for personal well-being.

Everyone has unacceptable secret thoughts that are kept active because they’re enjoyed. It's analogous to having an argument with another person, only in your thoughts. Negative self-talk may be created by anger or bitterness but restrained from being verbalized.

Psalm 90:8 is clear: It’s impossible to hide your thoughts from God. As creator, he knows your thoughts can be harmful emotionally even when there are no social consequences. Secret sinful thoughts can become a hope-crusher when permitted to remain unconfessed and unforgiven. So seek God while he may be found, and permit him to restore your soul and heal your infirmities.

___________ 

You have set our sins in front of you. You have set our secret sins in the light of your presence.

~Psalm 90:8 God’s Word Translation

Seek God while he’s to be found, pray to him while he’s close at hand. Let the wicked abandon their way of life and the evil their way of thinking. Let them come back to God, who is merciful, come back to our God who is lavish with forgiveness.  

~Isaiah 55:6-7 The Message

____________

Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week.

Seek God – Accept Boundaries

A crisis has the potential for securing change that previously seemed impossible. While a crisis can produce positive results, sadness and grief most often follow in its wake. Samson’s relationship with Delilah produced a devastating crisis for his life because he refused to accept that she was untrustworthy and would betray him.

Her betrayal resulted in Samson’s capture by an enemy who gouged out his eyes. He would labor for the rest of his life as a blind slave chained to a grinding wheel. Samson betrayed himself by believing he could survive and thrive living on the edge without boundaries, while minimizing his commitment to God.

As a Christian it is incredibly important to believe God will never betray or forsake you, even if you have turned your back on him. If this is your story, repent and seek God’s forgiveness. Ask him to renew your faith. If  you are sincere, he will receive you back into fellowship. Seek God now while he can be found. 

______________________ 

If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

~Psalm 66:18-20 New International Version

______________________

Subscribe to the Attitudes Answers podcast on your favorite podcast platform to hear this and other 2-minute features 3 days every week. 

Let's Get Serious about Forgiveness

Forgiveness is without question a bridge builder to transforming individual lives and relationships. Forgiveness has the potential for creating a change in negative feelings and attitudes. Forgiveness lays the groundwork for healthy, rewarding relationships. Yet there seems to be reluctance for trusting forgiveness to accomplish this task.

Perhaps forgiveness fails because it isn't taken seriously. A person should not be pressured into offering or receiving forgiveness when they are not prepared to do so. When forgiveness is offered, it may open old wounds and the pain may seem too difficult to tolerate, so forgiveness is rejected. Yet forgiveness heals old wounds.

If forgiveness is to be successful, each individual must desire it. Forgiveness cannot be coerced if it is to be effective, but it must be sought after like a person seeking after God. "When you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you search for him with all your heart."  Forgiveness parallels that search. 

_______________________

But even there, if you seek God, your God, you’ll be able to find him if you’re serious, looking for him with your whole heart and soul. When troubles come and all these awful things happen to you, in future days you will come back to God, your God, and listen obediently to what he says. God, your God, is above all a compassionate God. In the end he will not abandon you, he won’t bring you to ruin.

~Deuteronomy 4:29-31 The Message