Hurdles

I know the devil is the one who condemns us and makes us feel guilty. But did you know that your own heart can condemn you? It shows us in I John3: 20, 21. Paul did not want any of us to be ignorant of the enemy’s devices, but who needs the devil when we heap loads of guilt upon ourselves. When we get like this we have no confidence to come before God with our prayers. Not a good place to be in. We walk around thinking, “I just can’t win. I’m too weak. Being a Christian is too hard. God expects too much of me. I’m always messing up”. Any of this sound familiar?

The truth is that we are the righteousness of God “in Christ”. Yes, we do dumb stuff, we mess up. Our family and friends can let us know about it too. But God sees us “in Christ”. Christ, the perfect one, the fullness of God. We live in Him! Our unrighteousness is covered by His righteousness and we can come to God boldly with our requests. He wants our focus to be on Him, not on our weaknesses. This is an exercise. I first have to recognize that I am in that “Woe is me” state. Then have to choose to believe God more than my feelings or circumstances. This goes against our nature but it is done with our spirits, not our flesh. Our spiritual muscles get stronger as we exercise them to believe God.

I am still at the “Oh yeah, this is my heart condemning me” stage. But it is the finish line I strive for and I know there will be many hurdles on the way. I just don’t want to be building those hurdles for myself!