INNOCENCE

Today I want to talk about Innocence. Not a word we hear very often anymore... it seems.

I have such a strong sense in me that it is a word that is important to God. And of course, not just the word, but it's essence. We live in this world that seems to be full of evil happenings. It really makes me wonder what the days of Noah were like... some days it seems we're there.

We are surrounded by dirty movies, porn shops, strip clubs, casinos (and everything that goes on there), bars (along with some pretty nasty bar fights). Cursing has become almost common within social media and on television these days, child sex trafficking is a huge problem, ISIS and the list just seems to go on....

I am not saying all of this to bring you down or cause you to be depressed. I just think it's something that needs to be talked about...the seeming lack of innocence these days.

 One of the strongest and I think best definitions of Innocence is:

1. a :  freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil : blamelessness

I love that. As Christians, we need to be as unacquainted with evil as we can possibly be. God has given us eyes that we can close, heads that can turn away, voices to say no to certain things that we know to be wrong and vile. He tells us, that with every temptation, He will make a way of escape. And He does, if we are open to it; if we love righteousness and are willing to submit ourselves to Him.

I truly believe that when we arrive in heaven, Jesus will restore our innocence, and not just partially, but totally. He will give us back the childlike innocence we once had. I don't know about you, but I so look forward to that day. A huge chunk of that innocence was stolen from me as a young child...but one day... I'll get it back.

I'm sure that you have had areas in your life where innocence was stolen from you, maybe far too soon, maybe by someone bigger and stronger than you were. You may have even been afraid to say anything about the abuse, and you may have held it inside of you for years. What was stolen from you...your innocence, will be restored to you one day.

Take heart, Christian. Jesus loves you, as the song says, and He will turn all of the wrongs into rights one day soon. He will govern righteously, with justice and equity. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Innocence...hold on to what you can, until all is restored.  God bless you richly.