No Longer a Sinner - Making Positive Changes

Once we come to Jesus Christ for our salvation, our spirit is alive in Christ and sin is gradually exorcised from our soul (Ephesians 2:5; Philippians 3:12-15). This requires no self-effort; the Spirit begins and completes this work in us (Galatians 3:1-3).

Our role is simply to cooperate and obey as we walk in the Spirit each moment of the day. Christ is our whole life and we are drawn away from Satan's dominion over our life (Colossians 3:3-4).

We do not need to make goals for our self and obsess over them. We have no need to develop problem solving skills in order to perfect our self.

We did not save our self, and we cannot perfect our self (Galatians 3:1-3). We usually struggle with reaching our goals and we get defeated by our failings.

Scientist tell us that the habenula in our brain records our failures and then inhibit our future attempts to succeed in that same area; this implicit memory prevents us from repeating our failures, but also hinders our attempts to perfect our performance.

Christ suffered in every way just like we do and He can relate to our issues in this life (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus was tempted, but did not sin; and He abides within us, helping us to maintain our purity.

God's Spirit will give us new habits to overcome past failings; He enables us to thwart temptations by giving us a motivation to serve Him rather than the flesh.

The law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus sets us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). We are free from sin’s torment and temptation (Romans 6:7, 18, 22; Acts 26:18). Christ in us then expresses Himself through us (Romans 5:10; Matthew 1:21; 1 John 4:4).

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that we do not have to sin. We can focus on the process of our spiritual growth rather than on our shortfalls. Help us to find a solution to overcome the sins, which so easily trip us up. Help us not to focus on the process, but rather on the outcome and to keep our eyes on You.

We know we cannot perfect our self, but as we acknowledge You before we think, act or speak, You will unveil Your plans for us and give us the strength to carry them out in Your will and way. We can celebrate even the smallest success when it comes from Christ in us. We give You all of the praise and glory that You deserve.

Thought for the Day:

Attempting to perfect our self may diminish our future chance to walk in holiness, since the perfection we reach on our own is done in the flesh and can also be undone by our flesh.

Forgiving Our Mistakes

The Bible makes a monumental case out of the fact that forgiveness is a fundamental exercise in our Christian walk. Jesus, Paul and many of the other authors note various aspect of forgiving our self and others (Matthew 6:14-15; Colossians 3:13).

Forgiveness is one of the hardest concepts to grasp and to obey God's directive. We want to hold grudges, thinking we are punishing the offending party; but we are actually only harming our self and our physical and spiritual health.

While balancing my checkbook at the end of the month, I clicked in two small numbers into the calculator and came out with an enormous number as the result.

Shocked, I sat there in disbelief. Then, I remembered that I forgot to clear the information, which I entered into the calculator earlier and this resulted in the confusion and misinformation.

This reminded me that we often carry with us, into our new life in Christ, the condemnation that accompanies our sinful lifestyle of the past. Yet, God forgot all of our sins when we repented and believed in Jesus as our Savior.

There is no longer any condemnation for them, because He cast our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). He remembers them no more (Hebrews 8:12).

Once we realize that God forgives us, it is easier for us to forgive our self, as well as those who offend us. We can delete the balance of our sins from our mind and heart.

God no longer remember them, so why should we? He freely gives us His forgiveness and unconditional love, which accompanies us for the rest of our life.

Prayer:

Father God, nothing takes You by surprise, because You know the end of time from the beginning. Every moment is present before You, because You are not hindered by time, space or matter. You live outside of the realm of earthly hindrances and restrictions. You are immortal and there are no limits to Your knowledge, power or goodness.

Thank You for loving us so completely, for coming to earth as Emanuel and for saving us from our self. You set our feet to dancing (Psalm 30:11), and You give us feet like a goat's feet to traverse the rocky heights of danger in this world (Psalm 18:33). We look forward to spending eternity with You when Your Kingdoms comes to the earth (Matthew 6:10). 

Thought for the Day:

God remembers our sins no more.

A Serene Life

The busyness of life is more and more distracting to the modern day person and parent. We make sports, music, dance and hobbies a priority over church activities, which teaches our children that worldly pursuits are more important than God in our life.

The way to remedy this modern phenomenon is to align our activities with Biblical priorities by seeking first God's Kingdom (Matthew 6:33). This causes the noise of life to diminish, and we find more joy and tranquility in our daily schedule.

Rather than to drown out God's directives by the noise of worldly pursuits, we reduce the cacophony of life by making God's will our priority each moment of our day. As the noise of this world diminishes, the guidance of God's Spirit is more acute and discernible.

We fully experience God's abundant life, which brings Him glory and honor in our every thought, word and activity (John 10:10). We come to realize the magnitude of the concept of Jesus Christ actually abiding in us by His Spirit, and we surrender our goals and priorities to Him (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Jesus admonished us to live dramatically different lives from those who live in the world. He encouraged us to love God more than those in our household and even our own life (Luke 14:26; Matthew 6:24). 

Our love for God is so paramount that we actually feel more love for Him than we do for anyone else. God has the bulk of our affections and everything we think, say and do is a reflection of Christ's life within us (Galatians 2:20). 

Our heart swells with our adoration of our God and Savior, and we serve at the pleasure of our King in our family, church and community activities.

The worldly clutter in our life disappears and we live above the clamor of life swirling all around us. We rest in God and serve from this place of unhindered peace (Hebrews 4:9-11). We see life from His perspective and we rise above the demands of modern society.

We can also rise above the temporal issues of this life, the attitudes of our fellow sojourners, and the circumstances that attempt to overwhelm us. This prevents them from robbing us of our joy in the Lord.

When we keep our focus on the joy set before us, spiritual truths actually govern our life. God is still in control, Jesus sits on the throne and abides within us, and the Holy Spirit will guide every step we take and keep us in God's will for our life.

Prayer:

Father God, remind us that You created rest for more than the Sabbath and help us to enter into Your Kingdom's rest. Open our eyes to the reality of Christ in us and the fact that His presence in our life removes the necessity of us struggling to survive in this world. Help the codependent and workaholic to totally surrender to Your Spirit's direction for each moment of our day, rather than to succumb to the tendency to enable people and to do more than Your will for our life.

This way we rise above the stress and negativity of life on planet earth and dwell in Your Kingdom now.  Teach us to rest in Your loving presence, which will increase our positive emotions and decrease our depression and anxiety over the issues we face each day. We thank You for Your grace in our life and for our unity with the Trinity, which abides within us.

Thought for the Day:

Any negative emotion in our life is a red flag to signal an unresolved conflict within us, an idol we erected above the Lord, a misleading focus on the importance of the issues of this life, or that we are walking outside of God's will for our day.