Day 37 Never reason with sin

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness!! He himself Has redeem Deidra from all of her sins. (Psalm 13)

My sin was enough to condemn me, but instead He was faithful to forgive me. I am taking just a tiny sip of that bitter cup- denying myself so that I can have more or Him.

Today at the conference they again had a plethora delicious looking sweets! This morning they had this chocolate coffee cake that looked SO good. At lunch right in front of my plate sat a beautiful piece of cheese cake with blueberry topping. I even tried to reason with myself wondering if maybe I could go with the “cheese” part and not consider it a sweet. Well the fact that it had “cake” at the end of it kind of made it obvious that it was off limits. Funny how even with sin sometimes we try to manipulate it into what we want it to be. We try to justify our actions or choices when we know good and well that we should just call it what it is. It’s sin and we can not compromise.
Just like that “cheese” was “CAKE’ and I was not to partake in it. Thankfully the Lord was right there waiting to help me resist and I did.

Day 38 No compromising

Tonight I went to a Hope for the Heart conference at one of our local churched. Babbi Mason was there and she and her friend Donna were wonderful speakers. Before the conference they had snacks in this room of the church. Talk about temptation!! They had brownies, cake, chocolate chunk cookies that looked like they came straight from heaven itself!! They even had chocolate covered pretzels!! My favorite!! So many times in my head I though…….”it’s too hard tonight…I will just give in since this is a special event” I learned a wonderful lesson from this experience. I resisted the temptation to give in and I am so glad I did.

I chose not to compromise on what I had set forth to do just because it got hard. So many times in my walk I compromise my ability to stand firm against sin just because of my circumstances. When I am tired I give into the temptation to get angry or grumpy with my kids. When I am irritated I give into the temptation to be disrespectful to my husband. When I am weary I give into the temptation to be lazy and complacent.

Even thought I was at this conference surrounded by sweets that looked too hard to resist, I still had to stand firm. I realized that it is so important for me not to compromise my faithfulness to Christ no matter what. My circumstances can not rule how I act or how I respond.

I also set in place my official goal for the next 40 days and it comes from

Psalm 51 :10 &12:

Create in me a clean heart , Oh God, and Renew a right spirit within me. Restore to me the JOY of your salvation and grant me willingness to obey you.

I was absolutely amazed when I cam across this scripture. This sums up completely what my goals is for this Lent season.

Day 39 Faithful Unto Death

Today in Bible study we looked at the seriousness of Covenants we enter into and how serious God is about us keeping the covenants we make with Him and He with us. We looked at several examples of how God is even prepared to put to death those who are not obedient to Him. We looked at communion and how it symbolizes of our Covenant with Christ. 1 Corinthians 11:27-28 says: whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.

If I am going to claim to be in Covenant with Christ I need to examine my heart and ask Christ to point out to me where I need to be cleansed. I want to walk in a way worthy of being called His.

A few thoughts: True salvation leads to the obedience of faith…
Is salvation just belief with out obedience?
Surrender: a total committal of oneself -even unto death
Jesus died for my sins- He removed my sins

Christ was faithful unto death…..will I be faithful?? Or will I give in?

Giving up sweets is hard. I found my self craving anything and everything....Brady’s Nilla Wafers looked heavenly today. I opened up the fridge and could have sworn the chocolate pudding cup called me by name!
Being obedient to God is hard too. Can I handle it? Will I be faithful or will I give in to the desires of my flesh?

Day 40 more conciousness

It’s only the first day and I am already being tested! After PE today the homeschool group went to the Pizza Hut buffet for lunch. Normally I would have just gone up and got a piece of dessert pizza without even thinking about it. I also would have gotten a Coke with my Pizza and not even thought twice about it.
Today I realized that sometimes my sin or disobedience (like my sweets) is something that I don’t even recognize or think twice about. I had to make a conscious effort today to say no to the coke and the dessert. I need to start making a more conscious effort to be obedient to Christ and to all that He has called for me to do (or not do!)
In the car on the way to church my husband was answering a question from one of the kids. Without even thinking twice, I butted in and corrected what he was saying. This actually irritated him and he even made a comment about it. This was a perfect example of me being disobedient to what God has told me (to be more respectful to my husband and his authority) and how with out even thinking about it I gave into sin. Just like I am having to be more aware of what I choose to put in my mouth, I need to be more aware of what comes out of my mouth and think about it before it does.

What I want to accomplish over the next 40 days

If I am going to give up sweets, it is going to have to be for a great cause! I havn’t even been able to give up sweets for even a day for any reason. Even loosing weight has never been a strong enough reason for me to give up sweets. I would rather run 10 miles afterward than to give up a piece of cake! So, what is my purpose of giving up sweets? Here is what I came up with today.
First of all…it is NOT about the sweets. I don’t in anyway think sweets are a problem in my life. I have no NEED to cut them out. I am CHOOSING to cut out something I really enjoy as a symbol of the sin on my life, and the sacrifice Christ made for me so that I can be washed clean of that sin and be called holy and righteous before Him.

During the next 40 days I hope to achieve a spiritual renewal through a stronger faith in Christ. I hope to replace my longing for sweets with a greater longing for Him. I hope to do this by focusing more on prayer and a disciplined heart seeking to be in obedience to God in several areas of my life. *prayer *surrendering ALL *slow to anger *slow to speak *respect for my husband
I am sure the Lord will be pointing more ways out to me as the days go by. I am eager to see what he shows me.

Lent

I have never been one to really give up anything for Lent. To be honest with you when the idea was brought to my attention by my friend this past week I really didn't know anything about it. I tentatively agreed to give something up with her, and then went on line to research exactly what Lent was and what I was supposed to do. As I looked at different things on the internet I only got my self more confused and even a little discouraged. I even read sights that claimed that giving something up for Lent was not Biblical. Being overwhelmed, I just decided to pray about it and ask the Lord Himself to tell me what this was all about and if he wanted me to do it.

I started out asking the Lord what I would give up. I started to feel that what I gave up shouldn’t be something that I feel I need to give up, but rather something that I really enjoyed and found pleasure in. I would be giving it up not because I have to, but because I want to. I want to as a sacrifice. A sacrifice on my part symbolizing the sacrifice God made for me for my sins. For the next 40 days I made the decision to commit to a complete surrender to the Lord and all that he wanted to work in and out of me. I would do this in the form of a fast. A fast of all sweets including what I call all the C’s. Cake, Candy, Cookies, ice Cream and Coke (but not coffee!!) If you know me well, you know that this will not be an easy task for me. I eat these things EVERY day and when EVER I want! This may very well be one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I am committed to it and I am going to do it!

Now, it has been a busy few months for me and while I have kept a written journal and continued to grow in the Lord, I have not had the time to write on my blog. I am anticipating though, that the next 40 days are going to be life changing for me. I believe that the Lord is going to make changes in me like never before. I am ready, and I don’t want to miss one thing. So, to help myself keep track of this 40 day journey (and to keep from getting writers cramp trying to write all in my written journal!) I will use my blog to count down and journal the next 40 days.

I will spend today praying for what God wants me to focus on during this time. Praying for my husband? Praying for my children? Reading my Bible more? More positive thinking? What does he want me to put on in place of what I am putting off?