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Dedicated, Prosperous, But Fallen - Part 3 - Fallen
by Jerry Ousley We all fail sometimes. I failed just recently. We have always tried to make these emails different from many others in that we don't solicit money from people. But I yielded to that temptation. You see, we also write books. Some of you have received our books and I thought it would be okay if I sent an email to those who have trusted me when they respond, by include their own email addresses letting them know about our books. I thought, "What would be wrong with making an offer to those folks who had sent me their email addresses?" After all, many radio and television ministries do much worse. Our books are made of the same stuff the weekly emails are, and we feel God has anointed them just as he has graced us to anoint these emails. So I yielded to that temptation and sent the email that some of you may have received. But God wasn't in it. As I was sending them I began to feel a deep conviction in my heart. God didn't want me to do that. Thankfully I gave in to his gentle prodding upon my heart and I want to apologize to those of you who may have received them and thought, "He's no different than all the others; just wants money." Please forgive me. Again, we all fail from time to time. We have a deep desire to serve the Lord but there comes a time when we give in to ourselves and after it's all over we feel sad or let down because of it. The great King Solomon failed God too. He started his reign in humbleness before God. He had asked for wisdom to lead the nation of Israel and because of it God blessed him with wealth surpassing all the surrounding kingdoms. People respected him. Other rulers traveled from far countries to hear his wisdom and experience the wealth which he generously shared. But there came a time when he too failed God. He took many wives. The Bible tells us that he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Forgive me ladies but I don't know how the guy made it! Under the reign of Jesus Christ we know that we should only have one wife or husband. But then God sort of let it pass because it was customary for men to have more than one wife but 1000 of them? His problems began not because of just the wives but because he wanted to please them. Many of them were from other nations and practiced false religions. In his efforts to please them he began to set up houses of worship to these false gods in order for his wives to feel at home. This opened the door for the Israeli people to turn away from God and into paganism. Solomon began to accept things once considered sin. He let these things creep into his heart and he became hardened to them. While there is no record that Solomon turned back to God somehow from his writings in Ecclesiastes I believe that he was sorry for what he had done. Though he never reversed it I believe that he returned to the Lord. Our own failures may not seem as great as that of Solomon. Often we fail in things considered petty by most people, but in our hearts they loom before us like giants. We feel deep remorse for them and beg God to forgive us. The enemy of our souls the devil may begin to tempt us, telling us that now that we have failed God, that we are dirty, worthless and that our God can never use us again. But it is a lie. Because of the grace of Jesus Christ we can repent of our sins and failures. We can return our hearts to God. We feel terrible when we know that God has blessed us and has never let us down. He has not failed us. When we fail him we have a sense of guilt that feels like the end of the world. But be encouraged by knowing that Jesus knew we would fail sometimes. He made provision for that. Run into his arms. Accept his provision of forgiveness and you will see He will restore you. We fail, but he doesn't! Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |