A righteous person has received Jesus as Savior and Lord and is, at that moment, in right standing with God.
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Jas 5:16 NIV
In right standing. What does this even mean? Think accounting books here. When we are in our sin, we have a whole lot of debt; actually, an eternal, un-pay-able amount. There is nothing we can do to get rid of our sin, because that is our nature. It is who we are, a sinner, so it is what we will do, over and over again, with no remorse or repentance. But when God moves our hearts to see the truth of our wretchedness, and when we are moved to accept, believe and receive the saving work of Jesus on the Cross, all that debt is paid for and gone from our books, forevermore. Not just our past sin, but our present and future sin too. And when God looks at us, He sees His righteous children.
Cleared of all our sin debt, having been given this title of righteousness, we now can work with the Holy Spirit to actually begin to act like this righteousness we have been given. Remember our WHO determines our DO. How we see ourselves, the identity we believe we have, will cause us to act in ways that will align with that perceived identity. So if I still think I am all alone and a sinner, I will act like I am all alone and I will sin. But if I dare to believe what God says about me? Then I will come to Him and others in confession and prayer, and the power to change into this New Creation identity will be released in my life. In other words, I will lean on God so that I can start acting like the righteous child of God He says I already am. Then my life becomes powerful and effective, just like those prayers. We will wrap it up tomorrow.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
March: 9- 1Pe 5:7; 10- Jn 8:32; 11- Dt 30:19; 12- Jn 3:30; 13- 2Chron 20:3
April: 14- 2Chron 20:12; 15- 2Chron 20:15b; 16- 2Chron 20:17
May: 17- Ro 8:28; 18- 1Co 13:13; 19- Php 2:12; 20- Mt 5:4
June: 21- Lk 23:42; 22- Jas 4:7; 23- Pr 22:6; 24- Mt 5:3; 25- Jn 14:6
July: 26- Jas 2:19; 27- Dt 31:8; 28- Jn 14:15; 29- Jn 8:11
August: 30- Ro 8:1; 31- Pr 4:23; 32- Pr 18:21; 33- Ps 118:24; 34- 1Jn 4:4
September: 35- Mt 16:24; 36- Isa 53:6; 37- Ps 23:1-6
October: 38- Heb 4:12; 39- Jn 15:5
40- Jas 5:16
<>< Peace, Diane
