“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9 NASB)
Saturday night I had a dream. “A dream you say,” was your initial thought, and you knowing that I am a preacher with a name that includes the initials “MLK”, perhaps you quickly speculated without going any further by the title of this meditation, “This is going to be about freedom, in one way or another.” Maybe you are correct, but keep reading.
When I sat down to write, what you are about to read was not my intent. But who am I but a man. The Lord is in charge. He is in charge; the Editor in Chief, the author of the best-selling book of all time, and even year after year. After editing my thoughts, He led me to leave out all the details that were in my Saturday night dream. Instead He wanted me to focus on making sure that I communicated the specific thoughts that He thinks are important for this specific time; thoughts to keep you and me from allowing Satan to use the sins of our past to his advantage. You see God wants us to be able to refute the strategy of Satan to take a walkthrough our past for the purpose of taking an inventory of our transgressions, causing us to be down on ourselves, so much so that our witness, work, and worship would be minimized of put on pause. Your speculation was right. This morning‘s read does speak to freedom, because God wants to give us freedom from that satanic strategy.
Yes my friend, God knows that Satan will be delighted if he can get us to focus on looking back instead of looking forward. There is no doubt in my mind that our adversary would be ever so happy for us to concentrate on all our past misbehaving, misconduct, and mischief. For you see, if he is successful in causing us to focus on the past, it will nullify our freedom, at least momentarily, and this will consequently interfere with our effectiveness as a child of God in the present and put others lives in future jeopardy.
Yes, we all could have done a better job for the Lord in days past! But let us not get hung up concentrating on “could have” or “would have.” Instead, let us focus on the “right now” and continue to press on the upward way, doing the best that we can as His servants for the rest of our lives. Don’t forget that when you repented from your sins and sought His forgiveness, because of His merciful, loving character, He gave you another chance to get it right! He gave you a new start! He cleansed you! Therefore, commit yourself to making perfect progress! Channel your energies into making the most of every year, every month, every day, every minute, and every second that God blesses you to see. You must do the works of Him who has sent YOU! We all have a nighttime coming, where we will not be able to work. So exercise your freedom to walk in the newness of life! Vote, yes vote in the political election, but make sure you also vote as one of God’s elect to avoid Satan’s strategy to render your shining light inoperable! Go! Fight! Win! Be like the Apostle Paul and move upward and forward! Have a great Monday! Be blessed!
“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14 NASB)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King