It’s called confession — siding with God against yourself.
As proclaimed in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you …”
I feared my dad and his hair-trigger temper. One false move and boom! No discussion, just consequences — usually sudden and painful.
This shaped how I viewed God. It haunted me all my life.
How wonderful it is that we have the scriptures to correct the record on who God REALLY is.
Listen to these words from Psalm 103:7-8, not so much with your head as with your heart, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always contend with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.”
Like a soothing balm, those words mean the world to me. No fear of God “flying off the handle,” you can rest in His goodness, wisdom and carefully measured discipline as required.
Lifelong Reconstruction Project
Did you know as a Christian, you are in the middle of a lifelong reconstruction project that is being personally conducted by the Holy Spirit?
In Ephesians 4:22-24, the Apostle Paul cautioned us, “… in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always contend with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.”
Psalm 103:7-8
No more “business as usual.” God has big plans for you, believer. He wants you to cooperate with Him in eradicating that “old self,” that brought such havoc into your life.
And like a house remodel, the process begins with a “demo.” Getting rid of the old and putting the new in its place.
This is often a painful process, and that brings us to “the rub.”
We can get in God’s way by resisting the Holy Spirit’s good work in our lives by ignoring His prompts to change, as shared in Ephesians 4:30-32:
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
Judge Yourself
Of course, this judging business has nothing to do with our salvation — the passage above reminds us that we “… were (already) sealed for the day of redemption.”
That job is complete once we are born again. God is now our Father and like all good fathers, He loves us too much to stand idly by while we carry on with our self-defeating, destructive ways.
This is the lifelong process of sanctification.
Remember, we carry the family name and like a soldier in uniform, we want to bring honor, not heartache up the chain of command.
As explained in Philippians 1:27, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ …”
So, bottom line, if we mess up, as we inevitably will do, it is vital that we keep short accounts with God.
Don’t let sins pile up or think because the roof didn’t fall in that we’re getting away with something.
We must judge ourselves immediately and take appropriate disciplinary action, starting with confessing and forsaking. Otherwise, God will have to step in and do the disciplining for us.
From Hebrews 12:5-11:
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are punished by Him;
For whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He punishes every son whom He accepts.”
“It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
How About You?
One of the glories of Christianity is that we are accepted up front, regardless of our behavior. But it doesn’t stop there.
Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to have His cleansing way in your life?
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