When you sin, God’s Spirit will convict you of your need to repent and change your ways. But until you get your glorified body in heaven, you’re always going to deal with sin. The apostle James wrote, ‘We all stumble in many ways.’ But falling down isn’t what makes you a failure - it’s staying down! Get back up, dust yourself off, receive God’s grace, learn from the experience, and move on. The Bible says, ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1 NIV 2011 Edition).
God is not condemning you, so stop condemning yourself. A few decades ago, people used to wear a little badge with the letters GNFWMY. It meant, ‘God’s not finished with me yet.’ And He’s not finished with you either. Sometimes we’re guilty of doing the wrong thing with the right motive.
For example, in 1957 Ford Motors described the new Edsel as ‘the car of the decade’. Try telling that to all those drivers whose doors wouldn’t close, whose horns stuck, and whose transmissions failed! And remember the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, where the architect designed a 10-foot-deep foundation for a 179-foot-tall building? How’d you like to have that on your CV? The fact is, the most talented people often make the biggest mistakes.
Solomon wrote, ‘There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins’ (Ecclesiastes 7:20 NIV 1984 Edition). And Paul added, ‘I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize’ (Philippians 3:12 CEV). So, stop beating yourself up.
Prov 19-21, 1 Cor 15:29-58
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