He Chooses to Forget..

 

We have all heard the famous verse Romans 3:23, “All men fall short of the glory of God.” We hear this and an immediate, “duh” enters our thoughts. We know that we are human, imperfect, weak, sinners that are nothing without our mighty God breathing life and grace into our feeble lives. But even with having this elementary Sunday school lesson embedded in our brains, we still beat ourselves up and sometimes feel as though we are too far out of reach for our Father to call us back home. Let me tell you something, this is a LIE mustered up by the enemy, who in reality is just a tiny mouse with a megaphone.

Personally, this is an area of my life that the Lord has been trying to bring clarity to for quite some time, and finally I surrendered and let him fix this broken part of me…which is why I am writing this.

 Spiritual warfare is evident. The bible tells us multiple times that there will be a great battle between spirit and flesh, and that these are opposing forces. The way that I allow my flesh to prevail is usually in a way that is so camouflaged that I hardly even know that it is battering my spirit, such as indulging in garbage on tv, listening to that tasteless song on the way to work, or feeling too exhausted to open my bible that morning, however little it may seem in human eyes, it’s all the amo the devil needs to seep in and start his destruction. These little triumphs of the flesh can snowball out of control if we’re not feeding our spirit, because again, these two forces are in constant head to head combat..just waiting for the other to have a weak moment allowing victory over its opponent. This is one of the many reasons I am thankful for grace. That’s the beauty of all of this mess. We serve a God who is number one. He has the ULTIMATE power over every living thing in this world, he is above all else, his mighty hand can do anything he pleases, but with all that power..he uses it to be a good God. To love. To father the fatherless. To heal. To bring joy and hope…and He uses that power to forgive. This forgiveness of His is graciously given. We do not win it, we do not earn it, and we certainly do not deserve it…we are simply asked to receive it, and allow Him to see us as pure and new. SERIOUSLY?!? How breathtaking is our God?!

My struggle with this has been accepting the fact that I am completely forgiven even after I choose to serve my flesh over such an amazing God…knowing I chose something so vacuous and filthy over something so magnificent and holy, leaves me so astounded that God is willing to forget about all of it so hastily. But He does, and receiving that forgiveness is the key. Unless we are able to start seeing ourselves the way God sees us, and living in that mentality that we ARE redeemed, we cannot grow.

What is even more dangerous is when we start striving for that grace rather than accepting it. Trying to earn your way to living life through the spirit will do nothing but leave you exhausted. Spirit and strife do not mix .When you war in your own strength against something that God says is already finished, you’re fighting a battle that has already been won, and you’re not fighting from victory you’re fighting towards it. What victory can we achieve that is greater than the one already waiting for us? Ephesians 2:8 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved , through faith..and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift from God.”

 Now im not saying that we should give ourselves more credit, but rather give our God more credit. We are going to mess up, we are going to fail, we are going to be selfish and feed our flesh. But these are things that God already knew the day He created the Earth. He knew what he signed up for..trust me its hard to pull one over on this guy. This is why his goodness is such a treasure. It is so important to understand that He doesn’t want you to sulk in your shame or guilt. He doesn’t want you to feel like you need to strive to measure up, or try to earn your way back to him. He simply wants us to believe in that power of his forgiveness and to grasp how much He loves and values us, enough to forget all of our mistakes. Don’t ever let the lie of the enemy hold you back from growth with your Father. There is nothing you could do to make him stop loving you.

 

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

-    Psalm 86:15

Love you all, Lys.