All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down.
Romans 5:20-21 The Message
As we saw yesterday fashion, money or any other external values cannot guarantee your worth and acceptance.
We went back to the very beginning to discover how the first two humans accepted their value and worth. It was found in their relationship with God and one another. Sadly that existence did not continue for the next stage of this couple’s journey was to bring down their values and worth. How?
Disobedience to God. They stopped trusting God and believed someone else. Today you may be doing the same. Advice is good but only if it lines up with what God has to say about that situation. So please before you buy into anything anyone says check it lines up with what God says.. That is where true value and worth is found. Adam and Eve chose not to and the result was they lost their image and worth along with their acceptance for they exchanged it for guilt & shame. (Gen. 3:10)
Look at what happened in Genesis 3:10. Immediately following sin: they hid themselves from the one person who loved them more than anyone. After sin, they felt guilt and shame. Almost instantly, the relationship had been lost and acceptance was replaced with rejection.
Today Jesus has put that right through his death on the cross. We have been restored, redeemed and reunited. No more rejection from the father.
You need to buy into the fact that it has all been restored as in the beginning. Yet some have never come to terms or grasped this, and so although they are soundly saved they still live in the old way of life feeling rejected. I am talking about rejection from our father in relationship terms, not rejection in the human terms.
When we fail to accept our value we develop a “worst-case” mentality. Let me say someone gives you the keys to his car and you have just passed your driving test. He says “Now let me remind you you’re going to have a crash. So the first thing you need to memorise is the phone number of the car insurance agent. Then when you have an accident, you can be sure to call the right person. But here are the keys. Hope you enjoy the drive.
What a negative piece of counsel. Yet that’s what we are doing. We tell people to listen, you need to know you’re going to fail and sin so watch out. Learn 1 John 1:9, so that when you sin you’ll know what to do.”
You know what? You no longer serve sin. You can actually live for several days without it, perhaps a lot more. The reason is you’ve got a new Master Jesus Christ. And know what else? You have a power down inside of you, called the Holy Spirit. And you have a set of keys – the Scriptures. So when you engage the key in the ignition you can enjoy life as you’ve never enjoyed before.
Let us remind ourselves again we have 1) Jesus 2) Holy Spirit and 3) The Bible.
Yes, there will be times when you may have an accident and when it occurs you know how to handle it. But that’s not normal, that’s the exception. You have freedom from the old master because Christ.” has set us free We have been emancipated. Our biggest problem is trying to fill the space with something that doesn’t FIT:
I want you all to understand something: Your sense of worth is not a question of giftedness, intelligence, or beauty. Your sense of acceptance is not in what others make of you. Your sense of worth & acceptance comes from knowing who you are as a child of God. When you try to fill the void with something outside of God, you are going against your basic design. It doesn’t fill the void because it is not supposed to.
How much better to begin each day thinking victory, not defeat, to awake to grace, not shame; to encounter each temptation with thoughts like…
Jesus, you are my Lord and Saviour I am your child, liberated and depending on your power. Therefore, Christ, this is your day, to be lived for your glory. Work through my eyes, my mouth and through my action to carry out your victory. And, Lord does that all day long. When I face temptation, I will present myself to you and claim the strength you give to handle it. Sin has no authority over me any longer.
Take the keys and enjoy the ride – you are worth it. Jesus says so!!!!!!
Keep safe and blessed.