Morning Moments

Almost twenty seven years ago a patient at the Fort McLellen's Noble Army Hospital died after breathing argon gas that was mistakenly pumped into the oxygen system. Apparently the white tank of ordorless, non-toxic argon resembled the tanks used for oxygen. The argon displaced the oxygen supply in her body and suffocated her.

Guilt, as argon, serves a useful purpose for it is God's way of bringing us to true repentance that is accompanied by faith, but must never be substituted for faith. Faith, the Christians oxygen, enables us to experience and enjoy forgiveness and victory. God never intended guilt to lead us anywhere but to Him. The problem with far too many of us is that we allow guilt to become a substitute for faith and we spiritually suffocate.

We may substitute guilt for faith as a means of justifying our thoughts or actions. When we do, however, we begin the slow process of replacing faith. It does not happen immediately but gradually so that we begin to live by increasing guilt and decreasing faith.

So what must we do to avoid this spiritual suffocation? When guilt comes, recognize it as the Spirit's prompting us to repent - turn, change in terms of our attitudes or actions and to confess - say the same thing about the thoughts or actions that God says and follow it with the affirmation that God is true and cannot lie, so when He declares it forgiven it IS forgiven. Any further attempt of "condemnation" is not from God, but from self, others, or Satan and must be rejected. THUS we are able to breath again spiritually and are spared from spiritual suffocation.

BLESSING!