Morning Family ~ No man knows how bad he is until he tries to be good.” That’s true, isn’t it? A person who is abiding in God’s Word will know the law of God better and will know better what He expects. As a result, he will also know in greater detail when God’s expectations are not met. Ironically that struggle and frustration is a good sign. If you don’t feel like it is a struggle to walk with God, if you don’t feel week by week and day by day a frustration in your life of sanctification, then there’s a problem. Then your new man is not putting up much of a struggle against your sinful flesh. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. If you don’t feel a heaviness in your heart then that is not necessarily a heart attack or angina, it is your spirit rebelling against “what thus saith the Lord”. Romans 7 (thru 25): starting at verse 17 deals with a “frustrating failure” that all of us have experienced that literally is a matter of life or death. Paul speaks from first-hand experience about the reality that our best is not good enough when it comes to keeping the commandments of God. “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me”. As Christians we strive to please our Lord. We desperately do not want to fall into the same spiritual traps over again. Frustration and maybe even despair creep into our lives because it seems that the moment we are getting a handle on our walk with Christ we go backward and find ourselves caught up in a sin that we were sure we’d never commit again. Like the dirty magazine or explicit website we promised we’d never look at again; the spending spree we gave into after we told ourselves we didn’t need to max out any more credit cards; losing our temper and blowing up at our spouse or kids when we told them we’d get our anger under control from now on, or any other bad habit that we can’t break, or “pet sin” that we can’t seem to let go of. Jesus delivered each of us from the body of death by giving His body into death for us. He did not lead a perfect life just to be an example. He led a life of righteousness in our place. His sacrifice was complete to deliver us from both original sin and actual sin. He took care of the root of the problem. You might be stuck in a ditch of discouragement. You may be saying, I’m so tired of trying. I’m so tired of failing. I’m so tired of putting out all this effort to improve my life with no results. I hear you and I understand but, it’s time to stop trying. And start trusting. The very next verse in Romans (8:1) says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Jesus can pull you out of that ditch. He pulled us out of the “ditch” of hell itself when He paid for our sins on the cross. By that death He also gave us power over sin. We can depend on Him or depend on ourselves. The result is either freedom or frustration. Why not give it all to Christ? When Christ gave His all that was more than good enough—it saved us! God loves us and accepts us just as we are right now! Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not good enough to come to God? Those thoughts and feelings are lies from the devil so you will never experience God’s best for your life. Because of God’s love for us we can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (See Hebrews 4:16) God does not have one child who is not good enough to receive His love. All His children are good enough, loved enough and accepted unconditionally by Him. He assesses our goodness based on the goodness of Jesus, not on anything that we have or haven’t done. Our performance is not what He sees. He sees the performance of Jesus, and Jesus was perfect. So on this “I am no longer sick and tired of being sick and tired” Wednesday let us remember that we are good enough even when we do wrong; and can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain His mercy; all because of the blood of Jesus. Blessings and PEACE to you all, We are free from frustration
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 10:27:36 +0000
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