Wednesday Wanderings is a time we set aside to wander in the Presence of Jesus and ponder His truths. When you are ready, prepare your mind, body, and soul to have a transformational encounter with Jesus.
Watch the Wednesday Wanderings Welcome for this week.
Now that we have cleared our minds of the clutter, we can wander on the journey with Jesus.
PREPARATION: In our last Wandering, we considered Being Well and Staying Well. This week we will think about Once It’s Nailed, Will We Leave it There? When you are ready, you may begin the dialogue with Jesus and state: “Jesus, I invite you to help me to leisurely wander into your Presence. Prepare my heart to receive, and illuminate my spiritual senses to encounter you.”
PROMISE: 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Did you catch why God did this? For our sake. This is a remarkable truth. Jesus became sin for our sake, to make our souls well. So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. There is nothing stopping you, except maybe yourself.
PSALM: It Is Well with My Soul (1873)
By: Horatio G. Spafford, (1828-1888)
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Spafford quotes Psalm 146:1 in the last line of this stanza. There is much that causes us to admonish our soul to praise the Lord, but this truth must be near the top of the list. Christ bore our sin to the cross and we can leave it there so it no longer plagues us. Praise the Lord!
PARABLE: In your hand you hold a hammer. Though it may pain you to think about it, you are part of the reason Jesus is nailed to that tree. Did you drive those nails in that pierced His hand and feet? No, of course not. You were not there. But was Jesus being nailed there, becoming sin for us, partly your responsibility? Absolutely. To accept your need of a Savior means coming to an understanding that He was willing to go to the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. Standing here on this side of salvation that is plain to see.
But I wonder, is the hammer still in your hand? The nailing part is complete. But are there times when you need the other side of the hammer? Times when if you were honest with yourself you are willing to admit you twist the hammer around to the rounded claw part and pull out some of the nails holding your sins in place? We would all have to admit that if our sins are nailed to the tree, we must be guilty of prying them loose at times, otherwise there is little explanation for why they still seem active in our lives.
PONDER and WANDER: If you choose, Ponder the question: Are there sins I am inclined to pry free from the cross?
So how do we break free from this pattern of nailed and prying? Can it even be done? Good news. Yes it can, but it will require a desperate dependence on the Holy Spirit to maintain the wellness of soul available when our sin is nailed to that tree.
Soul care training exercise: If you choose, complete the Leave It Nailed exercise.
- When you are ready, clear your mind and invite the Holy Spirit to help you Discern any patterns that would reveal a sin you are inclined to pry off the cross. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring even subtle, subconscious things to mind.
- Next, Acknowledge the bent and rounded off nail heads markings those sins in your life
- Then, Confess the patterns of sin that may be marring your righteousness.
- Finally, Surrender those sins to Jesus. He has already paid for them. Nail them to the cross one last time and ask Him for the ability to live them there, even when they catch you eye in the future.
PRAYER: Jesus, You became sin for me and I want to die to those sins that were nailed to the cross with You, all of them. Help me to walk in righteousness continually transformed to be more like You. In the healing name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
PRAISE: Now that you have emptied your mind of the clutter and wandered with Jesus, take a closing moment to breathe and let the work of your wandering fill you with peace.
Then take the mindfulness of God’s presence cultivated in these last few minutes of wandering into the next ones and beyond.
Until next time, be Resonant.
The post Once It Is Nailed, Will We Leave it There? appeared first on Resonant 7.
Image Attributions:
Nailed – https://pixabay.com/photos/cross-nail-symbol-wood-old-woods-3080144/
Hammer – https://pixabay.com/photos/hammer-white-tool-equipment-repair-451987/
Hammer and Nails – https://pixabay.com/photos/hammer-nails-wood-board-tool-work-1629587/
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