100 Days of Right Believing: Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing (14 page)
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Authors: Joseph Prince
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
R
OMANS
8:1
NASB
P
eople who believe erroneously that God is hard on them for their failures will inevitably be hard on the people around them, and most of all, they will end up being really hard on themselves. They cannot forgive themselves for the mistakes they’ve made in the past and end up punishing themselves, whether they know it or not. It’s a vicious cycle of defeat. The more they can’t forgive themselves, the more they hurt themselves with all kinds of behaviors and the more they end up bound by various destructive addictions. This leads to even more guilt, which in turn drives them to punish themselves even more—and the cycle continues.
I believe the root cause of many sinful habits, fears, and addictions can be traced to condemnation. I want to talk to you today about going after condemnation as the root to help you receive God’s forgiveness in those areas so that you can break out of your cycle of defeat and step into a new cycle of victory.
Are you living with some unresolved guilt and condemnation today? I have great news for you. When you realize that God’s heart is not in condemnation but in forgiveness, your entire life can be turned around for His glory! I have personally witnessed so many lives transformed when they just take a small step of faith to believe in His grace and receive His forgiveness in their lives.
Instead of punishing themselves for their mistakes and disqualifying themselves, these people began to correct their beliefs and receive God’s forgiveness by seeing Jesus taking on their punishment. They began to see their Savior qualifying them to receive every blessing from God for their marriages, families, and careers.
Right now I want to encourage you to release the built-up guilt and condemnation for whatever mistakes you’ve made over the years to the Lord.
Would you pray today’s prayer with me? It’s a simple but powerful prayer. I encourage you to pray this prayer every time you fail and experience guilt and condemnation in your heart. Stop punishing yourself—your answer is found at the cross of Jesus. I promise you that when you turn to Jesus and remind yourself just how forgiven and righteous you are in Christ every time you fall short, you will start living like the forgiven and righteous person Jesus has made you.
God’s heart is not in condemning me but in forgiving me.
Lord Jesus, I don’t want to live under guilt and condemnation anymore. Today, I release all my failings, sins, and mistakes into Your loving hands. And I receive Your forgiveness right now into my heart. Thank You for Your precious blood that washes me whiter than snow. Right now I stand in Your righteousness, favor, joy, and peace. Amen!
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
R
OMANS
5:8–9
G
od is a God of forgiveness. He knows you perfectly and still loves you perfectly. We are slaves to the idea that if someone sees our flaws, they won’t love us anymore. Well, while that may be true in human relationships, God is not like that.
God sees all our imperfections, failings, and flaws on Jesus at the cross. Our sins and ugliness do not turn Him off. In fact, to Him they are occasions to demonstrate His grace and forgiveness through the blood of His Son, who has removed all our sins efficaciously at Calvary.
So don’t be embarrassed about your flaws, mistakes, and imperfections. God knows your weaknesses better than you do, and He loves you just the same. His Word reminds us that Jesus is not someone “who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.” Instead, Jesus was tempted in all points, yet He was without sin (Heb. 4:15). He understands every temptation and every trial that you are going through. He is not disappointed with you, and He is not waiting for you to live up to a set of dos and don’ts before He forgives and loves you. The Bible says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Rom. 5:8–9).
Did you get that?
When
did God love you?
That’s right,
when you were still a sinner
. Before you even knew Him, when you were still in sin, He already loved you. How much more today, when you have been cleansed by Jesus’ blood and made righteous! Having received Jesus’ righteousness, you are righteous forever. Even when you fall into sin, your sins don’t make you a sinner again.
When you fall short today, you are still the righteousness of God. This is because your righteousness comes from Jesus. In the same way that a beautiful butterfly cannot morph back into a caterpillar, once you have been made righteous by the blood of Jesus, you cannot morph back into a sinner. Knowing your righteous identity in Him then gives you the power to overcome every sin, every addiction, and every bad habit!
God knows me perfectly and still loves me perfectly.
Father, thank You for demonstrating Your love toward me, in that while I was still a sinner, You sent Jesus to die for me. Thank You that though You know my every flaw and failing, You still love me perfectly. Despite my imperfections, You still see me righteous today because of Jesus. Today, I believe that through Your gift of righteousness, I have the power to overcome every sin, every addiction, and every bad habit in my life. Amen.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
R
OMANS
6:14
I
n many places today, all you hear is more teaching on right doing, right doing, and more right doing! But I believe what we need is more teaching on right
believing
. What we need to do is keep pointing people to Jesus, His grace, His finished work, and His forgiveness. I have no doubt then that their right believing will produce right living. They will become people whose hope is not in the righteousness
they
can produce, but in the
gift of righteousness
from Jesus Christ and what
Jesus
can produce in them.
Let me share with you a testimony I received from Lucas that demonstrates this truth:
Even though I was raised in a Christian home with parents who are both totally dedicated to Jesus, I fell into drug abuse. I tried attending church, but listening to the sermons made me feel like I just couldn’t confess my sins enough, repent enough, or hate my sins enough to get God’s forgiveness.
Then one day a very dear friend gave me a copy of your book,
Destined To Reign.
The book rocked my spiritual world. I saw that sin was not the issue. The issue was not understanding the grace of my wonderful Lord and Savior. When I saw the finished work of Jesus, I realized that God is not up there with a big stick waiting for me to mess up so that He can beat me with it.
As I continued reading your book and feeding on the gospel of grace, I was set free from a five-year drug addiction in just five days! And I know it’s all through the sweet, sweet grace of Jesus being revealed in my life.
Thank you, Pastor Prince, for your book, resources, and sermons. I want to know this God of grace more, and I want my family to also know
Him as a God of grace and not a God of law who condemns His children. I have never known a loving God as I do right now!
Can you see how powerful living with a consciousness of Jesus’ forgiveness can be? Sin has no dominion over your life when you are under grace. Sin cannot take root in your life when you are established in God’s forgiveness. Receiving His forgiveness and gift of righteousness puts you in a cycle of victory over sin, whereas those who receive condemnation for every wrong thought in their mind enter into a never-ending cycle of defeat. Do you see the difference?