So Go

Ask the Lord to search your heart and give you eyes to see your sin through His heart of love and truth. This may require much fasting and prayer, along with patient, faithful waiting. As the Lord reveals your sin, be quick to agree with Him and confess it. Trusting in Christ to fully forgive you. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:9-10). As you consider your heart condition, you may wonder what to do about the unrighteousness the Lord has identified. You may be tempted to despair, but be encouraged. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. You are no longer to think of yourself in this way, as the old man or woman you once were. Nor are you to identify with or seek to satisfy the passions that belong to that old self. You have died with Christ, and now Christ lives within you. You are to die to your self-centered wants, desires, fears, concerns, ways, and feelings so that you can live according to the wants, desires, and ways of Christ. The old self was crucified with Christ in order that your body of sin might be put to death. You no longer need to be enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). If that thing that held a grip on you and controlled you has died, then you have been set free to go. So go. Walk forward in grace and truth. You have no power in yourself to go, but it is Christ within you. You must see yourself for who you are now. You have been crucified with Christ. You no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in you. The life you live in the flesh you must now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave himself for you (Gal. 2:20). He has also given us the power to overcome sin and transform our hearts by His Spirit and His grace.

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This blog post is an excerpt from the Thistlebend Discipleship Study Falling in Love Again with Your Lord available here.