What we DO comes from WHO we think we are:
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Pr 4:23 NIV
Hi Friends, Diane here. So when the Bible talks about our “heart,” It is not talking about our beating organ. Instead, it refers to the core of who we are, or our Identity. As we said yesterday, apart from Christ, our identity is a sinner, and so we sin. Once we are saved though, we are made NEW inside our heart, with a New Identity and a New Potential. Now in Christ, we can choose whether to sin, or not. It is Christ alone Who gives us the power to say “NO!” to sin. So while a sinner has no option but to sin, because that is WHO they are, a saint can now choose to follow Jesus and not sin…or sadly, to continue acting like our OLD self, and continue to sin. I hope you can see how knowing WHO we now are in Christ is vital.
In Christ, our Identity has changed and we are NOW a saint, and no longer a sinner. In Christ, we can choose to lean on Him and this New Identity, which will change our behavior to match this New WHO. Yet since we are children of God, (Jn 1:12), we must grow into this New Reality, which simply means we still don’t get it all right, and so, we still sin. Sadly, way too often we look at the DO, the behavior, the sin we still commit, and think, “Nothing has changed!” But that is so far from the truth of WHO we NOW are! Yet if we do not know the truth, we cannot be set free from this lie…see how it is only the Truth that sets us free? Free to be WHO we NOW are in Christ.
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
31- Pr 4:23
<>< Peace, Diane
