Hope and Healing for Moms

"As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us."( Psalm 103:12, NASB) A conversation today has started to percolate in my spirit a new awareness of God's great love for us. As Christians we are used to hearing that when we repent, our transgressions have been wiped clean. This is the permeating truth which is the great promise of our salvation: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9, NASB) Also familiar to pilgrims progressing on the path is that God will not remember our transgressions because of His great mercy and grace: "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more." (Isaiah 43:25, NIV) As the conversation progressed, it dawned on me: What many of us don’t think about is the fact that God isn’t wiping out our RIGHT doing when he blots out our WRONG doing. He is makin...

I would like to start this installment by thanking my brother in law, James Alvarado, for the inspiration. On his Facebook status this morning, 10/19/2011, he stated, “ Sometimes we think that if we ignore our pain, it will go away. But sometimes God uses pain to change me. Pain causes me to change faster than anything I know. ” My initial response was to rattle off my patented answer, consisting of repeating a saying I learned while in Master’s Commission: “I will never change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.” [i] [i] As I sat poised at my computer prepared to share this “deep” wisdom (which is a widely accepted and applauded viewpoint, particularly among those of us touched by the power of God’s ability to free a captive through recovery), I felt the tug on my heart and the still small voice whisper: “Is that still true, Olivia? Do you still need pain in order to change? And do you WANT that to be true?” I felt like a little girl, listening to ...