Stepping Stones: The Ultimate Personal Gift Card

Transformational Thought

So many times, we make mistakes. Even big sinful ones. Unfortunately, we often let our fleshly me-centered nature and Satan go to town with these sins to cripple, bind, and blind us. The chains are made of guilt, shame, self-pity, lame excuses, blame-shifting, depression, fear, anxiety, isolation, addiction, insecurity, and the list goes on.

In the Holy Bible, when the crowd was about to stone the woman caught in adultery, they asked Jesus; “What do you say we do?” Jesus started to write in the sand and then said, “Anyone here who has never sinned can through the first stone at her.”

The young men look to the old … the old look into their hearts and they are the first to drop their stones. Jesus then asks the woman if anyone has judged her guilty … she says “no one, Lord”. Then Jesus says; “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

How do you think God reacts when you fail? Listen carefully because this is critical: He writes it down … not in the sand or on paper, but on a cross and with Jesus’ blood. His message has three words: “Paid in Full”. He’s given you a prepaid gift card that He paid in full for your penalty. Your response is …. confess your sin and receive His gift.

Hear this. Your personal gift card is not permission to sin … that is a whole different topic. Your gift card is freedom from the condemnation your sin would bring if it weren’t for such a gracious God who is perfectly holy and just, but also perfectly loving and merciful.

Today, redeem your gift card. How? Confession. We don’t use it enough. We sin a bunch, but most only confess, what, once a week … once a day … three times a day? I know I sin more than that, and I bet you do too. Examine your thoughts and actions. When you miss God’s mark, stop and confess missing the mark and celebrate your freedom Christ purchased from the slave market of sin. Your renewed and liberated mind is now freer than ever before to make Godly decisions. Your decision, choose well.

Prayer
Dear Father, I come to You with a thankful heart, so thankful You sent Your son to pay the price for my sin, and thankful for Your gift of forgiveness. What a comfort to think of the words; “Paid in Full”. Better yet, thanks for the eternal life you offer me, free from sin’s devastation. Help me learn from Your wisdom and apply it to my everyday life. Please help me to not judge others’ hearts. Let me be Your disciple, not a judge. Help me to forgive others as You have forgiven me. Focus my eyes on my heart and intentions, and not on those of others. I pray this in the name of the One who paid the ultimate price for my gift card, Jesus Christ; and all God’s children say - AMEN!

The Truth
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
John 8:12

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:5-9