Ephesians 4:1-2
1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. 2 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.NLT
This morning’s devotion took me to Ephesians chapter 4. I don’t know if there is much to say other than when I walk in forgiveness and I am humble, my life has so much peace in it. When I am mad at my children or my spouse all the time for reasons I cannot control or my co-workers. It makes it very hard to live by Ephesians 1-2 and 32
Ephesians 4:32
instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.NLT
So I guess for me the big question would be, do you have peace in your heart? Or do you have anger and un-forgivenenss? Are you still bringing up the past or are you living in the present?
Matthew 6.6 
Kee, I believe you have a great book you could recommend to Allen, the same one you recommended to me.
A low self-esteem, in my opinion of late, can be directly related to not forgiving one’s self. It is not about being worthy for that seems to be “works” related. We shouldn’t find ourselves saying, “If only I can be good enough, and do good things for God so He will pour out His grace and forgiveness upon me, because I know better and don’t seem to do what I know to do.”
You are in a good place Allen, a place where you can be completely and totally honest with our Father, who loves you I am sure you know. God reproves us so we can become stronger and develop our character as we go. I do not believe maturing and growing in the grace of our Father is an overnight process. So I leave you with these verses of encouragement. The challenge to you, I believe, is from the Holy Spirit to begin to discipline your body by gaining strength in the spirit. So Paul writes in Romans and 1 Corinthians the following, and I put them in the order that may most help the clarification of discipline for the body (our flesh) and why we do it. We are in a race, so run for that prize. I just do not see our Father with a baseball bat in His hands ready to smash you in the head in your willingness to draw closer to Him. He is an ever present help in a time of need. And we all need to buffet our flesh.
Romans 7:14-25
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Romans 6:1-7
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (buffet/discipline the body)
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
Peace and grace to you all,
Roy
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Allen, I too have struggled with “forgiving myself”.
Not that God can/will/did forgive me – just letting go and binding the enemy for bringing up things forgiven.
And “that I am not worthy” of this gift of forgivness from Daddy.
Daddy made it clear to me (after a good wrestling match on the cattle guard at Fire Worship).
I am His SON. He chose Me. I am worthy. And all I have to do is receive.
The issue was never “forgiving myself” it was “my not receiving my full pardon and my full inheritance” as the Son of the Most High.
Who are we? Sons and daughters of the Father!!!!!!!!! Receive it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Blessings and Freedom,
Ben Grounds
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Yet another one that hits home. The hArd thing for me is walking in forgiveness of myself. I can forgive others all day long. But forgiving myself is a task. Thanks Kee.
Allen Wheeler
Worship Pastor
Freedom Church
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Thanks, Kee. Your devo messages are a blessing to me. Daddy is using you and others to help me focus on the present so that I can listen to that still small voice and then obey.
Blessings on you my Brother.
Dan Speer
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