"Limited Liability"

"Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces." (Psalms 58:7) As I was praying about this verse, and asking God what it was He wanted to say to me this morning, I could not get the thought of running waters out of my mind; just sitting here I got the sense of being like a stone in the bottom of a creek, as odd as that might sound; and then this title pops into my mind, and I wonder, Where are we going today Lord? Then I began to get the sense that God wanted me to understand how much He cares, not just about my struggles with sin, but about my struggles with the guilt associated with my sin. I know that I am a sinner, no one needs to keep reminding me of that fact, because I am well aware of my weaknesses and my struggles to be holy as God is holy; something that I find the more I try, the harder it is to accomplish; but the one thing that I do not need is to have the enemy of my soul trying to convince me that I am not God's child because of my struggle with sin. We truly need to understand that God cares about these struggles; He does not just throw His hands up, as if to say, I am done dealing with you; He would not do that, especially after all that He has done to make us right with Him. This cleansing is not finished with our first confession, as some might try and tell you; it's true that Jesus paid the price for every sin we will ever commit, but that does not mean we are done with our confessing; as long as we keep sinning, we need to keep confessing, because it is not for God's benefit that we confess our sins, it is for our own freedom from the guilt and the shame. If the enemy tries to shut that condemnation arrow at me, I have something that cuts those arrows to pieces, and it's called the Word of God! God's word is sure; and when I confess my sins, then I am assured by His word that my sins have been forgiven; and if my sins have been forgiven, then there is no condemnation, because there is no longer any sin that is attributed towards me. Do you see how that works? God wants us to continue with our confessing because we need to continually be washed; not that the blood that Jesus shed on the cross did not wash away all of my sins, because He accomplished the washing of all of our sins on the cross; He even forgave us for every sin on the cross also, but that does not mean we do not need to ask Him for His forgiveness, because we do! We are still the guilty ones, and we need to confess that we are, and we need to be continually washed, each and every one of us; just like those stones in that creek, we need His water washing over us, because He cares about our guilt and our shame as much as He cares about our struggles... "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full....If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 1:4; 1:8-2:2)