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Don’t Allow Past Sins to Limit
Your Future
.
God has a plan for every one of us to serve Him. We
have become the righteousness of God in Jesus because He, the sinless one,
became sin for us. We are not perfect, but God sees us through the
righteousness of His perfect son. By God’s grace, our past sins have fled from
us as far as the east is from the west. Jesus took our guilt onto himself on
the cross. We can trust that God has forgiven us because Jesus took God’s just
wrath for our sin and paid the price. Instead of guilt, God invites us to a
place of rest, refreshment, exhilaration, inspiration, and intimacy through the
Bible and prayer. He calls us to serve others in His name - let’s rejoice in all God has done
by Jeanne Dennis
Do you ever
struggle to forgive yourself for your past sins? Reminding us of our failures
is a favorite trick of our enemy.
If we wallow in
the memory of our offenses, we could miss fulfilling God’s call on our lives.
Don’t allow past sins to limit your future service to God.
Don’t Listen to
the Devil
The devil tries
to make us believe we can’t serve God because of our former sins. But why
should we listen to him?
God alone
equips us to serve him.
Granted, some
of our failures will limit what we can do in the future.
Scripturally,
for instance, a divorced man cannot serve as a pastor. However, God can still
redeem the future of every repentant sinner.
He has a plan
for every one of us to serve him.
We need to
remember what God says about us as believers.
We have become
the righteousness of God in Jesus because he, the sinless one, became sin for
us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
We are not
perfect, but God sees us through the righteousness of his perfect son.
Haunted with
Doubt? Check It Out
Perhaps
reminders of your past sins make you doubt your salvation. I have struggled
with that problem and found the solution in God’s Word.
First, we need
to make sure we are truly saved. Paul instructed the Corinthians to test
themselves to see if they were in the faith (2 Corinthians
13:5).
We can ask
ourselves these questions:
· Was there a
time when I confessed my sin – agreed with God that I am a sinner (Romans 3:23)?
· Do I believe
Jesus died for me (Romans 5:8) and was resurrected from the
dead (Romans 10:9)?
· Have I repented
– turned away from my sin and toward God (Luke 13:3)?
· Have I truly
made Jesus lord of my life (1 Peter 3:15)?
· Do I
acknowledge to others that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9)?
· Has God made me
a different person than I was before (1 Corinthians 5:17)?
These questions
are not a to-do list if you’re not saved. Think of it more as a list of
evidences that you are saved.
If you cannot
answer yes to the questions above, then read the referenced verses as you
prayerfully ask God to save you and help you live for him.
Remember,
salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ. It’s a gift of
God.
We can do
nothing to earn it (Ephesians 2:8–9).
But we can know
if we have eternal life in Jesus (1 John 5:13).
The Definitive
Test: New Creations
We can know for
sure we’re saved if we’re not the same persons we were before. Not by anything
we did, but by a miraculous work of God in our hearts.
Praise God, we
no longer want to sin! Instead we desire with all our hearts to live for Jesus.
Amazingly,
through the Holy Spirit’s power, we actually can do it. And we’re miserable
whenever we let Him down.
In short, we
have become new creations. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he
is a new creature; the old things passed away;
behold, new things have come” (1 Corinthians
5:17 NASB).
By God’s grace,
our past sins have fled from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
But sometimes
our past sinful experiences open the door to ministry with people who have
sinned in similar ways.
God Doesn’t
Waste Anything
I met a lady
once who ministered to the most hardened criminals.
This tiny woman
would get right in the face of a six-foot-six man and say, “No matter what
you did, you can’t shock me. Are you a murderer? I murdered four of my own
babies. Are you a (fill in the blank)? Well, so am I.”
She followed her
challenges with the gospel and said, “If God can forgive me, he can forgive
you too.”
Many murderers,
rapists, and other prisoners broke down in tears and repented when they finally
recognized God’s tender love for them through this woman’s testimony.
Let Go of Guilt
If you know
you’re saved, don’t hold onto guilt you no longer own.
Jesus took our
guilt onto himself on the cross.
We can trust
that God has forgiven us because Jesus took God’s just wrath for our sin and
paid the price.
Instead of
guilt, God invites us to a place of rest, refreshment, exhilaration,
inspiration, and intimacy through the Bible and prayer.
He calls us to
the power not to sin and the ministry to serve others in his name.
Let’s rejoice
in all God has done!
As sinners
saved by his grace, we can spread the wonderful news of his gift of salvation.
We have the
Holy Spirit living inside us to comfort, empower, and guide us in all he wants
to do in and through us.
And we can
access his joy, peace and love all the time, because he has promised never to
leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
God is Faithful
So, the next
time the devil tries to haunt you with your past, put your faith in God’s
faithfulness. You have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus.
Turn the
enemy’s ruse into a reminder to praise and thank God for his faithful
forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9,
NASB).
Then determine
to do what Paul did: “… but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press
on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus” (Philippians 3:13b–14, NASB).
Press on toward the future God has for you. All in his strength and for his glory!
As an author, speaker and online host Jeanne Dennis helps
families understand and apply biblical truth, answer tough spiritual questions,
and pass on their faith in a confused culture. She is a commissioned Colson
Fellow and Centurion and an award-winning author of a dozen books. She and her
husband of over 40 years produce Heritage of Truth TV. Learn more at JeanneDennis.com
https://inspiration.org/christian-articles/dont-allow-past-sins-to-limit-your-future/
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