Friday, March 20, 2015

Taken Away

I was out stomping around the backyard a few days ago.  Between the dog and the winter, the backyard was looking pretty nasty – until today.

Snow ushered in the 1st day of Spring and now the yard was covered.  The white blanket hiding all the ugliness; all the yard’s imperfections simply gone! Tomorrow however, when it reaches near 60 degrees, the blights will reappear again, for they were never taken away, just hidden from my eyes.

How grateful I am that God doesn’t just cover our sins like that blanket of snow hiding the mess.  He completely removes them. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) East never meets west so they are gone forever. Once we have repented and asked for forgiveness, how silly to take those sins back and claim them again as our own.

My sweet friend shared a story of a woman who had been very ill but now was healed.  She wrestled, as I sometimes do, with the thought of the illness reoccurring. God asked her why she was stealing from Him.  Stealing!  She couldn’t believe her ears.  “Lord I would never steal from you!” she cried out.  In her spirit He spoke.  I have taken that sickness, my child, in my own body – don’t take it away from me – that would be stealing.

As I heard the story it pierced my heart – had I been doing the same thing?

I had never thought of sickness being taken away in the same way I had thought of sin being taken away.  Taken away for good never to haunt me again.

When I think about it, weren’t all those people who were healed by Jesus in the bible healed permanently? Yes! They weren’t just healed for a season- they were healed for good.

As I have learned to not take my sin back, but to leave it at the cross with Jesus, I need to learn to never take cancer back but leave it with Him. He has graciously taken it in his battered and tortured body, and even though "worry thoughts" may come, I need to take those thought captive and remember. He has taken it all.  Taken it all away.  All sin.  All sickness.  In exchange He has given me new life and I want to live each day taken away by Him.