We Have Not Arrived Yet....

     "for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again." Proverbs 24:16 This verse is specifically speaking to God's own. As a Christian, you will still sin, but you are not to stay in the sin, nor dwell on it. 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The moment you confess your sin-agree with God that it is sin and bring it into the light, God forgives you. We must not only confess the sin, however, we must also repent or turn from it. In other words, stop committing the sin. "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother." 1 John 3:9-10 When this scripture talks about how we "cannot go on sinning," this is any habitual sin. Yes, you and me are going to have moments where we sin until the day Christ comes because although we are saved by the blood of Christ, we still have the sin nature and we will not be made perfect until the day Christ returns for us. Paul spoke of the battle we have daily between our flesh and our spirit. "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. for in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:19-25 Here we see that Paul, one of the greatest apostles that walked the earth in my opinion, struggled with sin.
     The thing we need to remember is that when we do sin, confess it to the Lord. Yes, He already knows what you have done (before you even do it), but confessing the sin to God and repenting brings it out into the open-into the light. You may even try to hide certain things....as a child of God, you will be miserable until you deal with the sin. Remember, when you first believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and asked Him to forgive you of your sins and submit to His authority, He placed His Spirit in you. One of the Holy Spirit's jobs is to convict us of sin. I want to be clear that the Holy Spirit does not condemn. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1 satan is the one who will accuse you and make you feel unworthy or make you think that God will not forgive you. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, will gently convict, leading you to repentance, thus restoring the relationship we have with God. God has promised that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us. Don't beat yourself up when you do sin...just confess it. "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord-and You forgave the guilt of my sin." Psalm 32:5
     Keep running the race my friend! When you fall, fall forward and don't dwell on the past. The One who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day Jesus comes. Philippians 1:6 Keep your eyes on Jesus and always keep in mind how much He loves you and NOTHING can separate you from that love. Romans 8:38-39
     Together we can say, "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits-who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles." Psalm 103:1-5
   

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