My Soul Looks Back and Wonders

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Graeme Wilson in Victory Call

Believe it or not, the year 2015 is just about over and I can’t help but wonder to myself, “Stephanie, have you lived this year well? Has the Lord’s character been reflected in your thoughts, words, and deeds or has your flesh won out?”  Who has maintained court in the kingdom of your heart and life?

Without being morbidly introspective, I pause, look back and I wonder.  Instantly, my mind comprises a list of personal failures; daily little compromises that lack the level of integrity that I ought to have as a child of a King.  I can see all the days I neglected time resting at His feet, hanging on His every Word.  Multiple moments of self-pity, faithlessness, and unbelief rise to the forefront of my mind and seek to whip me with condemnation.

Were it not for the Word, made alive in me, I could easily be crippled with discouragement. Praise the Lord that Romans 8:1-4 tells me; tells us, “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Why?  “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”  Why?  “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.”  How?  “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

In my pondering, I am increasingly aware of the enemy (this enemy, this created being, Satan, who from the beginning has sought to rule His Creator) who seeks to steal, kill and destroy all that belongs to God.

While all the things I listed above are very much true.  It is also true that the enemy has no right to use them against me.  His goal is to make a mockery of the Cross and in so doing seek to discourage and render me ineffective for Kingdom work.

Dear sisters, let’s collectively shout “No!”  Let’s, together, bend our hearts low to worship and adore the Risen One.  Let’s also remember 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Stephanie Dale

Stephanie serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy.
Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.