by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
At times I suspect that thinking about how far you have fallen holds you back from getting back up. You’re not the first to face the pits of despair. Ezra told God, “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens<\/em>” (Ezra 9:5). The mighty King David after his sins of adultery and murder said, “my sin is always before me<\/em>” (Psalm 51:3).<\/p>\n Satan plays on our guilt, chaining us down until we want to just give up. We can’t face our friends, our family, our loved ones at church — we can’t face ourselves. We judge ourselves harsher than anyone else, including God, and declare we aren’t worthy.<\/p>\n But behind it all is this one grain of truth: guilt holds us back because we are afraid. Have you ever thought why among all the deep dark sins, God listed “the cowardly” first in Revelation 21:8? Cowardice sends more people to hell than any other sin.<\/p>\n My friend, you are a stronger man than that. You have it in you to be like David: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions<\/em>” (Psalms 51:2-3).<\/p>\n Your family, your friends, your fellow Christians, we all love you. Peter said, “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins”<\/em>” (I Peter 4:8). And our shovels are at the ready to bury the past when you do come back to us.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Sin Is Always Before Me by Jeffrey W. Hamilton At times I suspect that thinking about how far you have fallen holds you back from getting back up. You’re not the first to face the pits of despair. Ezra told God, “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65600","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":65239,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/fundamentals-of-christianity\/praying\/","url_meta":{"origin":65600,"position":0},"title":"Praying","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Praying p>Text: Luke 11:1-13 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Being creatures of habit, we often fall into a pattern of doing certain things in certain ways. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with a habit, so long as it is a good habit. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact, we ought to cultivate good habits to carry us over our\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34214,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/fundamentals-of-christianity\/how-we-ought-to-pray\/","url_meta":{"origin":65600,"position":1},"title":"How We Ought to Pray (Fundamentals)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"How We Ought to Pray Text: Luke 11:1-13 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Being creatures of habit, we often fall into a pattern of doing certain things in certain ways. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with a habit, so long as it is a good habit. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In fact, we ought to cultivate good habits to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9790,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/david-and-his-psalms\/sin-and-remorse\/","url_meta":{"origin":65600,"position":2},"title":"Sin and Remorse","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Lesson 7 Sin and Remorse Chronology Summary David's Sin with Bathsheba (II Samuel 11) During the springtime, armies customarily engaged in battle. This timing allowed the soldiers to leave their duties at home with minimal conflict of interest. David sent his army, commanded by Joab, to fight against the enemies.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65801,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/the-blame-game\/","url_meta":{"origin":65600,"position":3},"title":"The Blame Game","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Blame Game by Jeffrey W. Hamilton It is hard to name a sin where the sinner accepts responsibility for his own choices. It is so much easier and soothing to accuse other people. Adam blamed his choice to sin on his wife. \"The woman whom You gave to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4900,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/letter-to-the-hebrews\/the-full-assurance-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":65600,"position":4},"title":"The Full Assurance of Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Full Assurance of Faith Text: Hebrews 10:19-11:3 A new and living way (Hebrews 10:19-25) Jesus\u2019 sacrifice gives us confidence to enter the holy of holies (Ephesians 2:18; 3:12). Under the Old Law, only the High Priest could enter the holy of holies once a year, but Jesus\u2019 shed blood\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7182,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-sermon-on-the-mount\/priorities\/","url_meta":{"origin":65600,"position":5},"title":"Priorities","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 8, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Priorities Reading Assignment: Matthew 6:19-34 Did you understand what you read? How do you lay up treasures in heaven? How can your eye be good or bad? (Hint: we are not talking about a physical disease.) What are the two masters you cannot serve at the same time? Why shouldn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65600\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}