The Messy Garage

I read a short devotional awhile back over at Faith Lifts (a group blog at 5 Minutes for Mom website). They have short devotionals that are often very impacting. This devotion was no exception. The devotional, written by Melissa, is called "The Messy Garage" (click on the highlited title to read the original post).

Melissa shared about the spiritual dry spell that she had been going through. Then she shares two things she has learned:

1. I experience times like this periodically in my walk with the Lord. They do not, however, define my walk with Him.


2. The more discouraged I allow myself to become, the longer I will stay in this state of distracted and dry prayer time.

I really like point number one; dry times happen but they do not define my walk with Him. Until last fall, I didn't believe that. I would think (or at least feel) that if I wasn't doing daily devotions then I must not be a "very good Christian". I would be overwhelmed with guilt which would shame me into not spending time with God. I figured, "How could I come to God when I have such a long list of things I need to ask forgiveness for. I have such a long list, I don't even know where to begin!..."

But somewhere along the way, I came to the realization that Satan was the one making me feel guilty, not Jesus; that God was waiting, aching for me to come to Him. God didn't expect me to come and ramble off my long list, He just wanted me to come! And when I did just come before him, hand my list over to Him and say, "I'm sorry! Please forgive me", then He took me from there. He forgave me for my long list of wrongdoings. And when there was something more specific that I needed forgiveness for, He showed me and we worked on it together.

"He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." (Titus 3:5)

Since then, when I come to Jesus, I don't have guilt and shame; but rather an excitement of hearing from Him. I still have plenty of things to ask for forgiveness, but now I approach the throne of God with confidence! It's so exciting!

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

I hope and pray that you also know that you can come to Jesus without guilt or shame. You can hand Him your list of things, ask for forgiveness and know that He will forgive you. He loves you SO much! Feel free to leave a comment sharing about where you are in your journey with Jesus!