Joys from the Stomach Bug

It has happened to us all. The day starts out great. The sun is shining, kids are playing and you are feeling great. Lunch rolls around and the day is halfway over! Thirty minutes after the leftovers are refrigerated and the dishes put away (or in the sink) it hits...nausea, headache, dizziness. You must find a toilet, a bed, a rag and FAST. Mentally you scratch off the original plans of your day because you have the stomach bug. Hopefully it will “run its course” in 24-hours and no one else will get it!

   Sin is like that virus. It hits us the moment we are born. Its side effects range from lying to cover our tracks and stealing instead of paying to envy in place of contentment, and hatred instead of love. There is no cure, no antibiotic to take. It exists to run its raging course through my body and then move onto the next person in line. Only the Great Physician can cure. Only He can heal completely that which we are powerless to do. He knows every detail of us, what we’ve done, what we’ve tried to hide, the tears we’ve cried, and the tears we’ve caused. He longs for us to come to Him in pure authenticity, with open hands and humble hearts and ask for Him to take all of us. It takes acknowledging that I cannot do this – it’s out of my hands and control. Now and here, the Lord can move and work.

   In my very being, I embody deceit. I have been deceitful, can still be deceitful, and will struggle with deceitfulness in the future. Satan wants to drag out every instance from the past and lay it in front of me as a dog the ball he wants you to throw. Or he whispers in my ear deceits of his own (for he cannot speak the truth) in attempts to thwart the Truth of God’s Word that I am following. Either instance, I have come to back to needing, and struggling to REST in God's complete forgiveness. I keep wanting to offer a sacrifice for a sacrifice that has already been made. The only sacrifice now is a broken and contrite heart. The scripture says THIS, the Lord will not deny. I cannot add one pen stroke, penny, or good work to the finished work of Christ on the cross.

   Unlike that nasty virus that has no cure, sin does. But left untouched, sin will wreak havoc through out me and my whole family.

2 Corinthians 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”

   Complete forgiveness smells so much better than a stomach virus any day! 

Fabulous song to illustrate: Lauren Daigle "How can it be?"

Putting it In Our Own Words,

~Julie