Pastor Stephen Dedman

Tag: sin

Do You Have Unbelief?

Faith

‘And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.’
Matthew 13:58

Jesus spent a lot of time teaching and preaching in Nazareth. It was His hometown and many knew of Him. It was His custom to go to the synagogues and teach the Scriptures. Needless to say, His teachings were not welcomed openly.

The Jewish leaders rejected His authority. They discredited Him as being the Messiah. They even sought ways to kill Him.

Rather than opening their hearts and having faith, they were skeptics and resistant. They were closed-minded and hard-hearted. And because they rejected Jesus, they were not able to see and experience the mighty works of God through Him.

Many people could have been healed. Many miracles could have been performed. Even more importantly, many people could have received forgiveness of their sins and but could not because of their unbelief.

Does your unbelief keep you from seeing the mighty works and miracles of God? Sometimes we are just like the skeptics and resistant people. Sometimes we limit the power of God because of our unbelief.

We need not to humanize the things of God. Unbelief holds us back from witnessing the greatness of God. We want to see and witness His glory. We need to be like the father in Mark 9:24, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Pray

Lord, I confess my unbelief and ask You to forgive me. Help me to faithfully live out what You teach me in the Scriptures. Help me to never hinder the Spirit of God.

Are You Aware Of Your Sin?

Salvation, Trust

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
Psalm 51:1-2

Psalm 51 gives us a glimpse of how David saw his sin. To fully understand this Psalm we must realize that God caused David to see his sin from His point of view.

God made him aware of his sin and gave him the understanding of it. Psalm 51 is ultimately David’s response to God once he gained the knowledge of how greatly he had sinned against God.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then one sin led to another. Bathsheba sent word that she was pregnant so David developed a scheme to minimize the seriousness of what he had done. David sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, into a war zone to be certain that he would be killed and then David would take Bathsheba as his wife and everything would be alright. Not exactly.

God sent Nathan as a prophet to bring conviction to David’s heart. Sin spiritually blinded him and God had to intervene or else David would think he got away with it. David needed to be convicted of his sin and only God can do that. Once convicted, David realized the tragedy of his sin and needed God’s mercy.

How do you view your sin? Do you take it as serious as God does? God says the penalty of sin is death. That is serious business. God does not look lightly upon our sin and neither should we. If only we could see our sin as God sees it. We should never minimize the seriousness of our sin.

One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict the Believer of his or her wrongdoings. It’s not to shame you or embarrass you but to bring you to an understanding of what you did. You despised the truth of God. It is a great tragedy for a Christian to sin and not be brought to an understanding that we broke God’s commandment. It is up to us as to how we respond to the awareness and knowledge of our sin. Trust me, our sin is ever before us in our remembrance.

Will we continue in our sin or will we have an attitude of repentance? There are great consequences to those who do not repent.

Pray

Lord, will you bring me to the understanding and knowledge of my sin. Let me be aware of how I have sinned against You. Have mercy on me Lord, forgive me, and make me clean again.

The Power To Overcome

Encouragement, Faith, Trust

“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭13:14‬

Paul uses the threefold title, “Lord Jesus Christ,” to emphasize the Lordship of Christ. He did so to prove a point that making Him Lord over our lives helps us overcome the temptation to sin. When we “put on” Christ temptation loses much of its power. This doesn’t mean that we avoid temptation, but it does mean we have the power to overcome it.

Temptation is an issue for everyone who draws a breath. Even Jesus was tempted just like we are. Satan tries to use temptation to make us stumble in our walk with God. When we submit to temptation and commit sin a sinful act, we break fellowship with God. Hence the importance of forgiveness of sin. We need to be forgiven so we can have a good relationship with our Lord.

The only way to fight against fleshly desires is to seek Jesus daily. When we put Jesus first we can fight the battle of temptation much easier. Everyone’s temptation is different. But know that the devil knows what you’re tempted with and will do whatever it takes to make you slip and fall and give in to sin. So beware of the devil, because he prowls like a lion seeking to destroy you. But have confidence that as a Believer you have the power of God to fight against the flesh and say no to sin.

It’s a daily battle and that is why Paul says to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” and don’t allow your fleshly desires to have a part of making decisions. When we seek Jesus with all of our heart, mind and soul, we become a fierce battle for the devil. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ today and make Satan wish he never messed with one of God’s children.

Pray

Lord, I seek you today to be my first desire. Give me power to say no to temptations that I will face today. Thank you for giving me the power to overcome sin.