A Thing Called Grace

Warning:  Fairly long post coming because I am passionate about this issue.

Satan likes to feed us all kinds of lies.  I know in my personal life, every time I screw up he whispers the same things to me over and over again.

 “Amanda, you are so worthless.”

 “How dare you call yourself a Christian?” 

“You will taint those good believers over there.” 

“You can’t be forgiven.”

 “This is all your fault.” 

Sound familiar?  Well here is what I have learned.  When we enter the battle grounds of our minds when satan is feeding us lie after lie, our choice weapon has to be our Bible.  God does not ever lie, and He comes through on every single promise He makes.

God told us that if we confess our sins we will be washed white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).  Jesus paid the ultimate price, and it is His pure, sinless life, and pouring out of His blood that cleanses us (Matthew 26:28).  1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I also want to hit on the topic of not being “worthy” of being called a Christian.  Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  1 John 1:10 tells us that we are lying if we say we have not sinned.

            If we have sinned even one time, then we are not righteous, and we cannot go to Heaven on our own.  That’s where grace comes in.  Grace is getting something we don’t deserve.  We don’t deserve to go to Heaven, or to even be forgiven for that matter, but God loves us too much.  He can’t stand the idea of eternity without us, so he sacrificed His only son for us (John 3:16).  However, it still does not mean we deserve it. 

            To receive grace, we only have to do one simple thing.  Come humbly to the feet of Jesus.

 Isaiah 30:18 “the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore He will rise up to show you compassion.”  Accept his grace, and move on for the plans that He has in your life. 

            Two other verses were shared with me that deal with grace and the kingdom of Heaven. 

“9Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived, Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.  11And such were some of you.  But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”

                                                        1 Corinthians 6:9-11

“3For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving carious lusts and pleasures, living for malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.  4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared, 5not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

                                                           Titus 3:3-7

           

            We have the choice to let the enemy stand in the way of our relationship with Jesus, or we can choose to rebuke him in the name of Jesus.  If we choose the latter he has to flee.  He only has as much power over you as you allow.  Jesus loves you and would trade all of creation just to be with you (Isaiah 43:1-4).  He’s offered up his grace and mercy to you.  Will you take it?

Initially I was not going to write another post for a week or so, this started out as a reply to someone, and I was just so passionate about it, that I could not keep it short.  I guess there are exceptions to every rule when it comes to taking a break.  I do pray that everyone comes to see that there is no way we can do this on our own, that we are so unworthy, but that is really one of the beautiful things about being a Christian, we were never told we had to be worthy, but that we would be made worthy because of what Jesus did for us out of love.  

Are Tattoos Sinful

So I don't normally let a video do the talking, but as I was on Facebook I came across this guy, and found a video on tattoos.  Its interesting because I was going to do this post on tattoos already, and he pretty much took the words out of my mouth and made it better.  Anyway, please watch the video.  I think it is a good perspective, and from someone who has a tattoo and wants more, I hate all the judgement I get.

Forgiveness

“Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’  And they divided His garments and cast lots.”        

                                                                        Luke 23:34

As Jesus hung on the cross, beaten, bruised, and humiliated, He prayed one thing.  “Forgive them.”  He didn’t hate them, He didn’t wish death upon them; instead He wanted His father, the King of kings and Lord of lords, to forgive them. 

In Jesus’s life he referenced forgiveness.  He told us to love our enemies, and bless those who curse us (Matthew 5:44).  Then He lived it out, while enduring the most painful, humiliating death He could’ve died; and He did it for YOU!

Peter asks in Matthew 18 (verse 21) how many times we should forgive someone who has sinned against us.  Jesus replies “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but seventy times seven.” (verse 22).  Jesus isn’t saying here that we should keep a record, but instead that we should continue to forgive, no matter how many times they have wronged you.

However, forgiveness is not about saying that an act was okay.  I think one of the biggest arguments about forgiveness is that it is letting someone off the hook for something they did.  Forgiveness is simply saying “I am not going to hold a grudge because it is hurting me, and my relationship with God.”  It is all about setting yourself free.  There is punishment to sin, and if a crime was committed, prosecution needs to take place, but you can forgive what happened, and still go down that road. 

This lesson has been hard for me.  Up until a few days ago, I have had a hard time agreeing to let go of my anger that I felt justified to have, because I was never going to get justice from the law.  I learned to stop wishing death upon my enemies, but to pray for them seemed out of the question. 

I didn’t care that I was judging.  God had a comeback for every answer I gave.  

“God, the world says I have every right to be angry!”

“Daughter, you do not belong to this world, you are Mine.”

“God, what they did to me was unforgiveable, I will have no justice.”

“My Daughter, I will avenge you, if only you place it in My hands.”

“God, why are you taking justice from me?”

“Can’t you see?  I am extending my love and mercy to you by asking you to forgive.  I want you to enter into freedom.”

Yet, through it all, I couldn’t forgive.  However after reading a verse about God avenging I did start asking God to soften my heart, and I would highly recommend anyone struggling with having to forgive the unforgiveable to do the same. 

Two months later, after multiple nights of tears, I finally agreed to do the impossible.  I didn’t wish death upon these two people, but I did not want them to be saved, yet God would constantly ask me to pray for them. 

With tears in my eyes, and a shaking hand I wrote out in my prayer journal “Out of obedience Lord, I pray for my attackers.  God, I pray they find you and repent.  I pray they hurt no other women.  God, let them find you, and bless them.”  I didn’t feel bitterness, I didn’t feel anything but the broken pieces of my heart.  But I knew God had heard; and He showered me with His love simply because I was obedient.

You see, as hard as it was, I found freedom in releasing it all over to God.  I didn’t necessarily want to pray for these two people, but I knew that was what God wanted.  I used to not be able to stand the idea of seeing them in Heaven one day, but I have since realized that I don’t deserve Heaven either, so why should I get to decide who gets to go and who doesn’t?

We don’t live on a scale of different levels of sin.  Sin is sin, regardless of if it was a lie, or someone murdered someone.  Jesus died for all of us, and as forgiven people, we need to be forgiving people.  Let Jesus break the chains off your soul, by releasing all the hurt, anger, and unforgiveness to Him, the one who can heal all things.  Decide to be like Jesus in those unspeakable moments and say “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

A verse that I love, that gave me the belief that I could attain this one day was Philippians 4:13

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” 

It took me months to get to this point, don’t beat yourself up if you are not there.  Pray for God to soften your heart, and keep trying until you succeed.  Heart and flesh may fail, but God will never leave you! (Psalm 73:26)