Don't Complicate What's Plain and Simple

With profound common sense Francis de Sales counsels, “Do not feel worried if you do not remember all your little peccadilloes in confession, for as you often fall imperceptibly, so you are often raised up imperceptibly.”

Does all this sound complicated? Do you fear you might miss one of the points and thus render everything ineffectual? It is usually much more complicated in the analysis than in the experience. Remember the heart of the Father; he is like a shepherd who will risk anything to find that one lost sheep. We do not have to make God willing to forgive. In fact, it is God who is working to make us willing to seek his forgiveness.

Last night, tired and falling asleep, as we were getting pretty heady with Paul's analysis of Christ as subordinate to God, Brad spoke out, "it should not be this complicated." Today I come across this quote from Foster and it encourages me. When we get analytical, we find reasons, and methods; but when we listen to the heart we find a better way (1 Cor 12:31).

Lord Jesus, I am challenged to live as You lived in the world. I shy away from it. Some food I am asked to eat, like Peter, I shy away from (Acts 10:9-16). Help me fulfill my calling today, to be "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." 1 Cor 15:58.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

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