LIVING WORD DEVOTIONAL
By Pastor Mensa Otabil
Saturday 10th June 2023
GOD RESTORES OUR JOY
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Psalms 51:12
David is believed to have written Psalm 51 at a low point in his life, when he had sinned against God. In it, he expressed his sense of guilt and remorse for his actions as he sought to draw close to God who he felt was far away from him.
Each one of us remembers moments in our lives when things went wrong or we did things that really messed up our lives or that of someone dear to us. Although we may have recovered from that incident, the memories still keep us in an emotional prison. Regardless of who we are, we all deal with such issues at one time or the other.
Rather than allowing the devil to manipulate incidents in your past to harass you with feelings of rejection and failure, you need to affirm who you are in Christ and hold your head up. If what occurred in the past was a sinful act that you committed, the remedy to it is not embarrassment; the remedy is the blood of Jesus. In His blood, we have our sins washed away. When He washes away our sins, He really does erase the sin from our spiritual slate board.
Sometimes the memories have to do with bad things that people did to us in the past. They could be terrible acts of wrong that you were made to undertake by people who were more powerful than you or even people who were close to you. The remedy to your painful memories is not fear and rejection; the remedy is the Holy Spirit. He is able to make all things new in our hearts and in our minds. He is able to neutralize the poisonous effects of our past experiences and give us newness of life.
Today, you can break free from your past prison to enjoy the sweet liberty that comes from the presence of the Lord.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, release me from the prison of my past sins. Fill my heart with your joy and peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.