What you DO is not necessarily WHO you are, listen:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Ro 8:1 NIV
I have said, many, many times, that even when we surrender our lives to Jesus as Savior and Lord, we are God’s children, which means we are still not going to get everything right. We will continue to sin. Either we will sin out of rebellion, as we refuse to want to follow God’s Way. OR what happens more often, we will sin because of our immaturity. When we do not know something, how can we follow it, right? Oh we are still responsible for the sin, we still need Jesus Who paid for the sin, but we cannot change what we are doing if we do not realize it is sin. (see Lev 4:2-3) The issue comes when we focus on what we have done, instead of focusing on WHO we are IN Christ. I say it again: we are forgiven and redeemed.
Forgiven. Not because we deserve it. And as I am saying, not because we will be perfect in our actions starting the moment we are born again. We will continue to sin, but as we grow, we do not WANT to sin. God knows our hearts and He knows why we do what we do, then He works with what He is given to continue to transform our hearts to WANT to be more and more like Jesus.
Redeemed. Because God can, and does, use all things- the good we do, the bad we fall into and the ugly we are still too stubborn and continue to do. God works all of these together for our good because we have confessed to love Him and desire to live, on purpose, for His purpose. (Ro 8:28) While each thing is not good, God can redeem it all…let’s continue 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
30- Ro 8:1
<>< Peace, Diane
