Have you broken your promise of consistency? You told God you will not sin against Him again and you went right back to it. Or maybe you told God, you will NEVER miss a day of prayer or Bible study and when you made those promises you will confident you won’t stop or fail.
But then you did.
Now you feel bad about it.
The devil is equally trying to milk the event making sure that you see yourself as a failure and you do not think you deserve God’s mercy, favor, or blessings.
I know this feeling first hand. I have been there. In fact, I was so bad at this that I stopped making promises to God and the worse part of it was I told myself I couldn’t keep up and then just stopped trying entirely.
That is what the devil hopes to achieve – to bring you to the point where you become weak in your mind and your pursuit for God and then you give in to laziness and being laidback.
The goodnews is that you can begin again. Yes, it does not matter if you have broken your YouVersion Bible streaks or you have skipped several days of devotion or you can’t remember the last time you prayed or you have engaged in sin more times after you promised God never again – you can still start again.
In Matthew 21:28–32, Jesus told a parable. He said a father told asked his first son to go and get something done and the son told him no but then changed his mind and went to do it. Then the second son he asked him the same thing and the son responded “I will, sir” but he did not do it.
Jesus then asked the people, who did what the father wanted, and of course, it was the first son even though at first he did not look like he was going to do it.
It is the same for you today. Right now, it does not look like you are doing it but you know what God is looking for, whether you actually do it – whether you love Him enough to want to get back with Him – that’s what He wants to see.
Not your promises.
Today, there is a new beginning. A fresh start. Another opportunity and you can seize it. You can begin again. It does not matter how far you have gone from Him. The truth is you are never too far from God.
David said “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” – Psalm 139:8 (KJV).
You cannot be too far to return to God today.
You cannot be too far from returning to the place of devotion to God.
Even God, like the father of the prodigal son from our anchor verse is waiting to have you again. He is not looking at your unworthiness or your sin or your promises that you broke. He is looking at you, a dear child, someone He allowed His son to die for. That is what He is seeing.
So begin again. Start small if you are feeling overburdened. The key is for us to achieve a consistent flow. It is not performance. It is fellowship, a walk of purity – and it is a pretty long one. So take it slow.