Defining Moments

January 14, 2010 at 6:44 pm (About Sin, Assurance, chastisement, correction, Devoted To My Daughter, Devoted To My Son, Devotional Thoughts., Discernment, Faith, Family, Fear, Forgiveness, Grace, Guidance, Healing, Home Education, Homeschooling, Hope, Judging, Lighter Burdens., Love, Love, Marriage, Mercy, Our Unchanging God, Parenting, Patience, Peace, Relaxed Homeschooling, Resting, Restoration, Righteousness, Salvation, self-esteem, shelter, Sins, Sovereignty of God, strengthening, The Greatest Commandment, Transformation., Trusting, Truth, When you are afraid, When you feel bitter, When You Feel Like Crying., Wisdom, worth)

Scripture References;

 

But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah,  the Son  of God,  and by believing you may have life in His name.  John 20:31 HCSB

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.  Psalm 51:10-12 KJV

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  Romans 12:2 KJV

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.  Philippians 2:13  KJV

 

I am thinking about moments.

We do like to capture moments; both good and bad…

We can be having a happy, quiet, thoughtful, God glorifying moment, where our focus is on everything that is lovely, and in an instant it is invaded by the memory of another moment.

Sometimes a painful moment can be branded into our memory, and the one who caused the pain can be “defined” by that moment, and as a result, the memories of the happy moments are misplaced. They might turn up for a little while only to be misplaced again.

I have experienced this on numerous occasions. Then one day I thought to myself, “How would I feel if someone witnessed me at an inconvenient moment, and then defined me by that moment?”

“Defining moments”…

Then there is the moment when we realize what a mess we really are, and we cry out to our loving Savior. All of those moments that we are so ashamed of are washed away; those types of moments will no longer define us in His eyes. We might struggle with the memories of them in us, but they are no longer part of His memory.

Isn’t it wonderful to be defined by the moment we went to the cross…the moment we believed? (John20:31)

And one more thing…When you catch yourself in a moment defining someone by a moment, don’t beat yourself up. Confess it to the Lord and ask him to renew your mind. We might be saved in one moment but we need to be transformed daily, moment by moment. This is something that He does for us as we call on Him. (Psalms 51:10-12, Romans12:2, and Philippians 2:13)

Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord?  Please click on “Very Important Words” on the left margin of this page and make sure.

Do you have a Bible? If you don’t have one, you need not worry. Just go to http://www.biblegateway.com. They have many versions and translations of the Bible that you can read. Some of the best things in life are free!

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