I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” (Revelation 12:10)
As a child of the Most High God, it is right and required to repent of our sins, but it is wrong to rehearse them over and over again. One of the great goals of the accuser is to get us to do exactly that, and here is the reason why Satan keeps reminding us of our sins: When we rehearse our sins time and time again, we take our eyes off the victory won by our Redeemer and keep them on ourselves, with all our sins and shortcomings.
Rehearsing our sins is not of God; repentance of sins and restoration is of God. Rehearsing our sins is of the devil, who takes poisonous pleasure in shifting our focus away from our Savior and setting it squarely on ourselves. His goal is to keep us groaning, “What a miserable person I am!” (Romans 7:24 NLT). Life at this level becomes all about us, which prevents us us from growing into the person God is calling us to be.
I speak with far too many Christians who are locked in the rhythm of rehearsing and revisiting past sins. The accuser has convinced them that this is a sign of maturing in the faith, mulling over past sins and repenting over and over again, as if the depths of despair over past sins is a way to convince God we are truly sorry. But this is not for you! As Steve Brown says, “This smells like smoke and comes from the pit of hell.”
The sign of maturing in the faith is taking God at His word. He has promised us that He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12); He has hurled all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19); and He has put all our sins behind His back (Isaiah 38:17). Oh, what a tremendous encouragement this is for all those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation! In essence, God is saying to you and me, “Why would you continue to rehearse your past sins over and over again, when I have promised to remember them no more?” (Hebrews 10:17).
Self-condemnation is one of Satan’s sharpest arrows, designed to weaken our faith and water down our witness in every way. Let us all keep one of God’s great promises in view, which is, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). When you mess up, exchange repenting for rehearsing, because then you will conquer the attacks of the accuser, who has been overcome by the precious blood of the Lamb and by the triumphant testimony of His victorious saints (Revelation 12:11).
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 