The devil certainly has a way of shoving us one degree off course to the point where we wonder where God is, amid severe levels of discouragement. As I will attempt to show you, however, God is never far away; indeed, as Psalm 139 would insist, we can do nothing to get rid of God’s Presence.
Here are a few images of godliness that may surprise us and will definitely encourage us:
Þ every day or every moment we succumb to fear, then by battling our way to peace, as we imbibe the old adage, “Do not be afraid,” we are blessed — not in achieving peace but in simply endeavouring to go that way — it’s nothing about success, it’s more about the orientation of our heart.
Þ how God speaks powerfully when gently admonishing us in the flesh — 99 sins we commit, but by God’s grace, 100 times we repent. See how even as we sin, God speaks, and God’s grace abounds, as we repent. How wonderful the revelation of God, especially as it speaks into the darkness to bring us to new frames of light. What a gift it is to hear from God in our wrong!
Þ even as we can commit a sin, flesh warring with Spirit within us, as the Spirit gets through by his Presence, there, right there, is holy revelation, the likes of which the devil hates, because it brings us to the precipice of conviction, which leads to confession and then repentance — the forgiveness of sins.
Þ in seeing our sinful nature shriek under the enemy’s testing, to the point where our flesh folds under the devil’s tyranny, it’s the grace of God within that that is so much more powerful, supremely indeed. God, no less, convinces us we are worthy of saving, and that even on this occasion, we are forgiven; but, note the contrition of heart that presupposes this. Those who know they’re wrong are more easily forgiven.
Þ only God could turn our enmity towards another person or their enmity toward us into an opportunity to GROW our relationship — but only when both of us are putting God first and owning our individual parts. All God needs is two cooperative participants, both prepared to repent, which is simply to turn from their own way back to God’s, and God is glorified in the reconciliation.
Þ even as we slip up again, taking back our forgiveness of a person or situation, feeling hurt and betrayed once again, we have not sinned if we diligently wrestle with the orientation of our heart. If only we own the bitterness that takes us in the wrong direction, which is not about fixing it, just simply owning it, we have attained yet again the standard of godliness that God seeks. If they have done nothing to warrant forgiveness and yet we’ve forgiven them, they alone have an account to settle with God.
Þ It isn’t perfection that sets us apart to godliness — it not our sin that holds us apart. On the contrary it is because of a sin, in spite of it, in fact, that God calls us holy and set apart. All that is required on our behalf is acknowledgement. Once we have acknowledged our sin, God’s Spirit leads us toward the path of light — conviction, confession, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, in that kind of order.
Many people do not wish to commit to Jesus until they can be a little more “Christian,” or a bit more deserving of God’s forgiveness. But Christian faith is the other way around. Christian faith is not about being better at all, but it is a way of acknowledging how far we fall every day. Christian faith is the way back to relationship through honesty by faith.
Far from being condemned at all, God has made a way through Christ that we are forgiven despite the sins we commit, if only we can be honest and admit our wrongs.
Being a godly person is nothing about being perfect; it is much more about acknowledging and accepting we are imperfect and have been forgiven by a perfect God.
Photo by Luiza Braun on Unsplash
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