Romans 6:23 NLT
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
When Jesus died on the cross, He died for everyone one of your sins. And mine, and look around you, theirs too. God put the full weight of sin on Him on that cross.
He knew us and everything that we would do from our first breath until our last before the foundation of creation.
Psalm 139:16 NLT
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
When He was hanging on the cross, He saw you, and he saw me, along with every other human being, and willingly died for our sins. And here’s the good news for us, we no longer have to suffer for the sins of our past, present, or future; they are paid for by the loving grace of God through Jesus Christ.
Psalm 103:12 NLT
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.
Micah 7:19 NLT
Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean!
The question is, why do the sins of our past haunt us? Knowing that the price is paid, why do we continue to live them out in our minds?
I think a big reason for this is not properly knowing your identity in God through His saving grace.
Mark 9:23-24 NLT
“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Let this father’s pray be your prayer. If we believe that we are saved, ask God to help you with your belief.
In the message that my Pastor preached today, and I have heard him say this before, and I am paraphrasing, “We don’t need more Bible study; we have plenty of people with head knowledge of what the Bible says. We need more people to live out what the book says in their lives.”
When he has said this in the past, it sort of bothered me because I am a huge proponent of being in God’s Word with consistency. I like to say that we should be in the Word of God as often as we can while maintaining effectiveness in our lives with our family and our jobs.
But I’m thinking what frustrates a Pastor is the people in the church that “know” the Bible, but their life doesn’t come anywhere near reflecting what they claim to “know.”
“How” we read and study the Bible is just as important as the act of reading the Bible itself.
“John, what do you mean by that?”
James 1:22-25 NLT
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
The Bible is to be used as a “mirror” that we examine our lives against. Not a “magnifying glass” that we examine the people around us with.
We have a hard enough time keeping ourselves in check with how the Word of God says that we are supposed to operate, let alone by keeping the scores on those around us.
I’ve heard stories of others being hurt in the church. And my guess would that is all stems back to this type of thinking. This is exactly what Jesus died for.
Jesus confronted the “religious” leaders during His ministry. These were the people who were putting unbearable and unrealistic expectations on those around them.
Matthew 23:4-7 NLT
They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. “Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’
If we are not careful, we can fall into this same self-righteous way of thinking about others. Jesus never intended for it to be this way.
Matthew 11:27-30 NLT
“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
The one thing that I am in awe of is that the promise of God was always on His shoulders. God is simply looking for our willingness to worship Him for who He is.
He is perfect, and we are not, so He provided the perfect sacrifice in Jesus Christ. And those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word. I pray that You let it affect my heart, change my mind. Let Your Word manifest the activity in me that will glorify You.
I pray that You continue to soften my heart towards those around me, and that the way I treat others is by the same grace, mercy and forgiveness that You gave me.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen!! 🙏❤️
