"Self-Inflicted Ruin"

"They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes." (Psalms 63:10) My mom always had a little line of wisdom she would say any time I was in trouble, "You brought this upon yourself; nobody made you do anything." It's true you know, "You made your bed now lie in it", is not just a old saying for trying to teach your kids to pay attention to how they make things happen, it's about taking ownership for the mess you have made, and then doing something about it. There is also another old saying that comes to mind, "Live by the sword die by the sword", which was actually spoke by Jesus to Peter (Matthew 26:52), after Peter had sliced off the ear of the servant of high priest. If you remember what happened, it became a ministry moment, as Jesus picked up the ear and wonderfully reapplied it to the man's head. And since we are on old sayings, how about one that goes all the way back to the beginning: "It doesn't have to end this way", which is a paraphrase of what God told Cain in Genesis 4:7; but do you think that he would listen? obviously not! You know, we all make mistakes, we all have days that we wish would never had happened; but God is more than willing to forgive us, if we would just own up to what we have done, and turn our lives over to Him. That's not just the way that we make God happy, it's also the way that we find happiness of our own! For complete healing there is only one Healer that we can trust; anything else is going to fall short; any other way is going to be incomplete. Is it really that simple? just give it all over to God? Well, you can't undo what you have done, but, if you care to listen, and I hope you do, I know someone who can, and His name is Jesus... "But now God has shown us a way to be made right with Him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for He was looking forward and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." (Romans 3:21-28) NLT