“May my only boast be found in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him I have been crucified to this natural realm; and the natural realm is dead to me and no longer dominates my life.” Galatians 6:14 TPT.
Scriptures like this one come up, and if we are being real with each other, our response can easily be: “I don’t know, I sort of hope so.” But this whole thought sounds lovely doesn’t it? Especially the thought that this world no longer has that kind of hold over us. First of all, I want to encourage anyone reading this to resist the temptation to feel guilty if your answer happens to be: “I don’t live that way.” Guilt, shame, blame, etc. will cloud, and eventually overwhelm, our sense of God’s love, peace and acceptance toward us.
Yes, maybe you lost your temper last week and shouted at someone. Or perhaps lately you have been plagued by fear, but that won’t change the reality that SomeOne already paid, in real time, for whatever we’ve done. The point isn’t that we did whatever it was, the point is what are we going to do about it NOW? Are we going to allow ourselves to go round and round about something that no longer exists, or are we going to go to Love Himself – repent, and start thanking and praising Him for dying in our place. Jesus is praying for us, right now. He is not up there with a pen and paper and list of dumb things we have done. You asked Him to wash you with His blood and He already did!
It says this in Romans 8:31-34. “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honour at God’s right hand, pleading for us.” Hallelujah!
Instead of walloping yourself over the head with a handy umbrella, why not ask yourself why do I think I can’t live the same way Paul did? Nine times out of ten we feel bad because we are judging ourselves, and we are not happy about the answer. But in this statement Paul is pointing out that God is already for us. So let’s concentrate on the fact that Jesus voluntarily already reached that mark for us. How we feel about scriptures like these two, have absolutely no bearing on their reality and truth. The work is already done. Our thoughts and feelings must never rob us of His overriding truth.
It’s like praying for more faith. There’s nothing wrong with that — but it helps if we are using the faith we already have, to praise and thank Him for what we’ve already been given. We need to hone our focus, so we choose to switch our thoughts off who we are … and intensely focus on Who He is and what He did. Is He trustworthy? Does He love us? Does He speak truth? I love that last one… Jesus is Truth. Game over… we win! This life is just a shadow, it’s a pale imitation of the reality ahead of us, those thoughts should dominate us.
Jesus leads us, He never shoves, bullies or coerces us. He doesn’t have to, He’s the real deal. His peace inside our hearts is our reassurance. God’s grace is bottomless. Here is something wonderful to chew on today, His mercy is brand new every single morning. Imagine that! There is no such thing as left-over, partly used up, mercy — God’s mercy is brand new and fresh every single day. Focus on that.. Don’t wait to be better, or do better, or be in a better place – do it now. Start thanking Him for it, and then give away the very things you have been given to everyone around you. Instead of keeping score, let things go. This is how we remain aware of what we’ve been given, we choose to live in utter gratitude and unrestricted generosity.
The natural realm is temporary. People in war torn countries can tell us all about temporary things. One minute they have what they need, the next everything they had carefully collected and treasured is gone — including the people who dearly matter to them. Praise God…Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever! I love that it says yesterday, first. Let’s get rid of yesterday’s junk that can trip us up — and live in His light, His love, His truth, today. We need to leave the past behind us when we choose to forgive, repair, repent and then move on toward tomorrow.
Jump in the river of His love for you. Even when everything inside you screams at you to defend yourself and explain, or tell the other person your side of the story. The power to overcome those things that easily grind us down, is in the river of His loving forgiveness and acceptance. We need to leave our sins under the blood and jump on in. We cannot afford to let the devil and his lying ways dominate us. We will get discouraged if we do. Instead we submit to our Lord Jesus, because He loved us first. Let’s flow in love instead of being dominated by fear. Bye. 👋.
