Friday Fight 73 - Excusing or Extending?
Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help me fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF73.
All of us have sat on that see-saw of forgiveness, rocking back and forth between forgiving someone else or asking someone to forgive us. Both keep us in a healthy place of humility. But what happens when we hurt someone, and we make excuses for our behavior rather than admitting our faults?
Excusing or Extending?
How often are we in a situation where we realize we have hurt someone yet become defensive about it? Of course, through our repentance, we are justified by faith through the victory of the cross. But how do we position ourselves humbly if in disbelief that we did anything wrong? Maybe we feel the need to explain our actions and defend our bad behavior. Perhaps we do this in our minds through continuous self-talk. Ever wonder why it seems more like we are trying to convince ourselves we did nothing wrong in our repeatedly defensive self-talk?
Excusing our behavior or extending humility and asking forgiveness are on opposite ends of the spiritual spectrum. Excuses invite pride which is all about the goodness of self. Extending grace and asking forgiveness is all about the goodness of God. Listening to the Holy Spirit's correction and direction is essential, as He patiently waits for us to accept correction and learn. Once we do, we are ready to own our sins and ask those we hurt to forgive us. Excuses prevent us from hearing clearly and damage others in ways we won't understand until later.
The communication of this lesson is praying and asking the Holy Spirit for correction and direction. This application of this lesson is for those we have hurt with our actions and reactions. Those in disbelief of any fault set their table using utensils of excuses that feed the false reality that excuses their sin.
How does darkness operate? Satan will always feed us lies to manipulate us into justifying our hurtful, sinful actions. Doing so will bring pain and division in many areas. As long as we make excuses for our sins, we never experience one of the many precious gifts given to us through calvary.
We should all walk in the will and destiny God has planned for us. Remember that excuses are roadblocks in our spiritual life that leave us stagnant. To justify our sins, we have to invoke more sins. Instead of making excuses in our minds, let's recognize that we are being justified by faith through grace and posture ourselves in a position of repentance. With that comes peace from God that will cover everything. Let's practice less excusing our sinful behavior and more extending grace and asking forgiveness.
Pastor Shannon