As I prepared to return from a missionary trip to Malaysia, I watched a beautiful young high school girl die in her parent’s arms. She had lost her asthma inhaler.
Shame and guilt can also be life threatening if not treated properly.
Because we cannot forget anything unless there is organic damage, we are often at odds with the way God treats our sin. The memory of past sins, especially the more gross ones, can return and produce bad symptoms in our lives. These often pictorial memories resemble reliving bad choices.
When painful—and sometimes disgusting—memories plague our heart and vision, we must open our emotions to what God Almighty has revealed about His treatment of our sin’s condition.
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow … if you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land.” Breathing in the emotional content of the Word—such as this verse in Isaiah—mimics breathing in heavens’ clean air and is like using a spiritual inhaler.
Carrying the following verses, which also represent God’s instruction on how He handles sin, gives us a spiritual emergency inhaler to use when guilt chokes us:
“I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Your sins have been wiped away as the morning mist” (Isaiah 44:22).
“Be of a good cheer son, your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2).
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
“In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:30).
Carry your emergency spiritual inhaler to use against sin and its reoccurrence so you can experience the abundant life Jesus came to give.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
(For more devotions, visit Christian Devotions.)
The Rev. Dr. Bob Segress served as a licensed psychological clinician for twenty-five years. Upon retiring, he served for fifteen years as a prison minister. Retiring again, he began writing full-time after a period of boredom. He has written: The Biblical Approach To Psychology while serving as a college educator, The Shelton Series, and, in 2012, Ten Years Inside Shelton Prison. Currently, he writes for several publications such as Halo Magazine.