“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9 (NIV) God’s standards never change: Premarital sex is unacceptable. It always has been. It always will be. Living together without getting married is unacceptable to God. It always has been. It always will be. Adultery—being unfaithful in your marriage—is unacceptable to God. It always has been. It always will be. Pornography is unacceptable to God. It always has been. It always will be. But if you’ve been guilty of one of those sins, that’s not the end of your story. God gives you a chance to come clean and start over. How do you do that? Repent. Repent means “to change your mind.” You say, “You were right, God. I was wrong. What I did was sin.” You don’t rationalize your sin or excuse it. The most important part is, you do this now. If you’re currently in the middle of an affair, end it today. Receive forgiveness. God is waiting to forgive, cleanse, and restore you. He’ll release you from the shame, regrets, hidden hurts, and pain that come from your sin so you don’t carry them into your next relationship. God wants to wipe the slate clean. The good news is, once he’s forgiven you, you can forgive yourself. Refocus and replace. You make a commitment to live morally pure by God’s standard from this day forward. That means having sex only with the person you’re married to. Request help daily. Commit your life to Christ (if you haven’t already). Ask him to help you manage your mind, because you know that your decisions about sex start with the way you think. Don’t just ask him for help for the next week or the next month. Ask him for help every day—even minute by minute as you fight to stay sexually pure. Your sexual drive can destroy you if you let it. It’s your choice! Choose to repent and receive God’s forgiveness today. God will give you a fresh start and will even bless your future relationship when you follow him in faith.
0 Comments
“Let us examine our ways and turn back to the LORD.”
Lamentations 3:40 (GNT) When your life feels like it’s falling apart, knowing what you can change—and what you can’t change—can make all the difference. You can’t change your past. You can’t change your parents. You can’t change the gifts and talents God has or hasn’t given you. You can’t change a handicap you’ve been given. You can’t bring back a loved one who has died. You might as well accept all of those things. You’ll start to find peace in the midst of troubles when you accept what you can’t change. Otherwise, you’ll make yourself and the people you love miserable. There’s much you can’t change, but there’s something important you can change: you can change you. When Jeremiah’s world was falling apart, he wrote in Lamentations 3:40, “Let us examine our ways and turn back to the LORD” (GNT). What’s going on in your life that doesn’t line up with what God wants? Depending on how we react, crises can help us as we learn to focus our eyes on what matters: Jesus. To re-order your life God’s way, it’ll take some gut-level self-evaluation. You’ll need to do an inventory of every area of your life. You’ll need to take a look at your relationship with God, your spouse, your kids, your friends, and your co-workers. You’ll need to look at hurts and hang-ups that may be bringing you down. You have to assess what habits are leading you closer to Christ-likeness and which ones are pulling you away. You need to be honest about your flaws—not someone else’s—that got you where you are. Nothing can be off limits. It’s not easy. It can get messy. It’s always tough to turn from sin, even when it’s tearing us down. But you can’t find healing without telling yourself the truth about yourself. Healing apart from repentance can’t last. When your world is falling apart, you’ll be tempted to bemoan every area of your life. That’s a waste of time. You can’t change everything—but, remember, you can change you. And when your world is falling apart, that can mean everything. “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.”
Ephesians 4:23-25 (NLT) To change the defects in your life, you’ve got to have people in your life who tell you the truth. You’re not going to get well on your own. You’re going to need support. You’re going to need a small group. Change requires honest community. The things in your life you’re never going to be able to change on your own are typically the things that are the most difficult in your life. They’re also often the things you don’t want anybody else to know about. You’re never going to get over those things until you share them with someone. You don’t have to tell everybody. You just need to find at least one person who will trust you and whom you trust—someone who will be confidential, love you unconditionally, not be judgmental, and pray for you. You’ll find that revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing. This does not mean a small group where you get together on a superficial level and everyone is “fine” or “doing great.” You have to get to the level of maturity in your small group where you can say, “I had a tough week. Life is really hard right now. Here’s what happened.” Ephesians 4:25 says, “So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body” (NLT). If you’re a believer, you’re also a belonger. You belong in God’s family, and every other believer belongs to you. You cannot become until you belong. You can’t become what God wants you to be until you belong in a group that’s going to have gut-level, honest community. So put away falsehood. Talk to your neighbor. Tell your friend the truth, because we belong to each other. If you are serious about changing the deepest hang-ups and defects in your life, you’re going to have to face the fear of being honest. You’ve got to stop faking it. You’ve got to be real. You can go through life one of two ways: pretending like you’ve got it all together or getting it all together. But you’ll never get it all together as long as you pretend you’ve got it all together. In God’s family, we belong to each other. Let’s be honest with each other so we can help each other make the changes that bring health and healing. “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”
Philippians 2:5 (NLT) Changing your life requires new thinking. The battle to change the defects in your life is always a mental battle. It starts in the mind—and that’s where the battle is won or lost. Ephesians 4:23 says, “Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes” (NLT). You’re not going to change until your thoughts and attitude change. This is why a daily quiet time is important. The time you spend intentionally studying God’s Word and in conversation with him through prayer is the spiritual renewal in your mind. Even with the Holy Spirit, it takes spiritual discipline to have the power to change. You have to get to know God so you know what he expects from you and desires for you. Do you know what the theological term for “change of mind” is? It is the word “repentance.” To repent literally means to change your mind. The word “repent” is actually a Greek word: metanoia. Metanoia means to change your mind—to turn from death to life, sin to forgiveness, guilt to peace of mind, hell to heaven. You turn from “my way” to God’s way. The most positive change in your life will be when you repent of your sin and turn from regret to forgiveness and peace of mind. You have to learn to think in new ways about your defects. Defects are often strengths being misused. That’s a new way of thinking. You probably never thought of that, but that’s repentance! That’s a change of mind. Your defects are often the strengths God gave you that are being misused. You have to change the way you think so you can make the most of your strengths instead. To do that, you “must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:5 NLT). God wants you to learn to think like Jesus. How do you do that? Again, it’s a choice. You’ve got to make a choice and say, “Lord, how would Jesus think about this?” The more you fill your mind with God’s Word, the easier that’s going to be. “The mountains may move, and the hills may shake, but my kindness will never depart from you. My promise of peace will never change . . . I will rebuild your city with precious stones. I will reset your foundations with sapphires. I will rebuild your towers with rubies.”
Isaiah 54:10-12 (GW) There is only one place in the Bible where the word “reset” is used. It’s found in Isaiah 54. The nation of Israel had lost a war to Babylon, where they were taken as captives and would remain for 70 years. The Israelites were pretty discouraged—not just because they had lost but because their Holy City, Jerusalem, had been destroyed. In the midst of all this, God did not want them to forget that he was still with them. He loved them, and he was going to rebuild—or reset—their lives. God says in Isaiah 54:10-12, “The mountains may move, and the hills may shake, but my kindness will never depart from you. My promise of peace will never change . . . I will rebuild your city with precious stones. I will reset your foundations with sapphires. I will rebuild your towers with rubies” (GW). God was going to rebuild their city and their whole lives. But the foundation wouldn’t be made of clay or rock or cement. God said he would build Israel’s foundation with sapphires and rubies. Why would God build a foundation with precious jewels? Because every other kind of foundation can rot or decay—but sapphires and rubies last forever. That’s why they’re so expensive! God would build Israel’s foundation with the most precious things on Earth. That is how much he loved and cared for his people. When Job was going through hard times, his friend said to him, “Put your heart right, Job. Reach out to God. Put away evil and wrong from your home. Then face the world again, firm and courageous. Then all your troubles will fade from your memory, like floods that are past and remembered no more. Your life will be brighter than sunshine at noon, and life’s darkest hours will shine like the dawn. You will live secure and full of hope” (Job 11:13-18 GNT). If you need to make a big change in your life, then you’re going to need a strong foundation. And you’re only going to find that foundation in God, who loves and cares for you. Get rid of the sin and junk in your life that keeps you from focusing on God. Then you can live full of hope, moving forward with courage and shining brighter than the sun. “Forget what happened before, and do not think about the past. Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don’t you see it?”
Isaiah 43:18-19 (NCV) You are a product of your past. You have been shaped by the good and the bad things in your life. But you are not a prisoner of your past—you can be free! That’s what Christianity is all about. Through Jesus Christ, you can be born again and start a new life. Jesus makes it possible for you to push the reset button and get a second chance. Here’s what God says about your past: “Forget what happened before, and do not think about the past. Look at the new thing I am going to do. It is already happening. Don’t you see it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19 NCV). God doesn’t want you constantly looking at the past. If you’re always looking in the rearview mirror, then you’re going to crash! The only way you can move forward is to focus on the present and look forward to the future. The rest of your life is in the future, not in the past. Your past is past; it’s over. You can’t change it, so don’t dwell on it. Instead, start asking God to do something new in you. Maybe you feel like nothing new is happening in your life right now. Do you know why? Because you’re not asking. James 4:2 says, “You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it” (NLT). Look again at what that says: You don’t have it because you don’t ask for it. If you’ve never asked God for a reset in your life, then all you need to say is, “God, I need a fresh start. I’ve blown it. I’ve made mistakes, and I need you to reboot my life.” This is the first step to a reset. You just have to ask God for it! Everyone needs a reset at some point—because life is hard, and we all make mistakes. Are you ready for God to do something new in your life? Ask him for a fresh start, and he’ll give you renewed energy, a renewed spirit, renewed hope, and a renewed heart. “Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”
Ephesians 3:20 (TLB) Real change requires knowing God’s truth, cleaning your spiritual house, and honest community. And, like anything to do with spiritual growth, real change requires faith. In other words, you have to believe that you can change, with God’s help. How does God help you to change? There are two primary ways. He can transform you by his Spirit living in you and with his Word, the Bible. Ephesians 3:20 says, “Now glory be to God, who by his mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes” (TLB). What is the biggest thing you want to change in your life? No matter how big it is, it’s not too big for God. Maybe you’ve tried and failed to make the change on your own. That’s because you never were meant to change alone. You change with God’s power. And how do you get God’s power? Through faith. God supplies his power in response to your faith in him. Philippians 4:13 is a familiar verse, but the Amplified Bible says it in a way you may not have heard before: “I can do all things [which he has called me to do] through Him who strengthens and empowers me [to fulfill His purpose—I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency; I am ready for anything . . . through Him who infuses me with inner strength and confident peace.]” With the power of Jesus Christ, you can do anything God has called you to do. His power was infused in you when you became his follower. If you want to change, then you need a can-do attitude—not a big ego about what you can do but a big faith in what God is able to accomplish in and through you. Jesus said in Matthew 9:29, “According to your faith let it be done to you” (NIV). You get to choose how much you change. You get to choose how much God blesses your life. You get to believe in faith that God can help you make the hard changes. “We must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up.”
Hebrews 12:1 (GW) Real change requires cleaning house. If you’re one of those people who can’t find the motivation to get your physical house clean, then cleaning your spiritual house may seem like a bigger task. But this is where you need to use your best energy—because God wants you to spend your life becoming more like him. And becoming more like him sometimes requires you to make difficult changes. The Bible says it like this: “We must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up” (Hebrews 12:1 GW). To decide what you need to clean in your spiritual house, you just have to figure out what needs to change in your life. Ask yourself questions like: What is slowing me down? If you want a healthy body, then maybe you need to keep healthier food in your house or create a meal plan. Or maybe you need to commit to regular exercise, even if you start small with 15 minutes a day. If you want a healthy mind, then you may need to unsubscribe to some magazines or block some channels. You may just need to delete some apps or put healthier boundaries around your screen time. If you want a healthy schedule, then you need to decide what’s most important to you. Then you can eliminate some less-important activities—sometimes even good ones—so that you can focus more on what matters most to you. If you want a clean heart, then you need to spend time in prayer, asking God what you need to confess and then confessing those things. This can be the most difficult step of spiritual cleaning. Through confession, you’re recognizing and rooting out sins that cause unhealthy habits throughout your spiritual house. The Bible says in Ephesians 4:22, “Get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to—the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires” (GNT). It’s time to clean house—but it’s not a one-time practice. Just like you have to regularly clean your physical home, you need to make a habit of asking the hard questions to identify what spiritual rooms need a good cleaning. Then, with God’s blessing, you get to work. “Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways.’”
Haggai 1:5 (NIV) After you’ve gone through a challenging season, you’ll eventually be ready to resume life again. But as you do, you should keep a few principles in mind. You should expect to feel mixed emotions and also take time to extract the lessons you’ve learned from the hard time. And here’s another thing you should do: Evaluate everything. Whether you’re returning to life after a pandemic, a divorce, an illness, or another time of great fear or loss, don’t automatically say, “Well, I’m just going to do everything the way I’ve always done it.” Why? Because hardship changes people. You’re not the same person after a trauma that you were before. Instead of returning to the same old patterns, behaviors, and habits, God wants to give you an opportunity to reset your life. There are likely some things you were doing before the hard times that you shouldn’t start up again. As the ancient Jews resumed “normal life’ after being in captivity, the prophet Haggai had a message for them: “Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it’” (Haggai 1:5-6 NIV). Haggai’s words seem like metaphors of dissatisfaction: I keep eating, but I’m still hungry; I keep drinking, but I’m still thirsty. In other words, if what you did before the hard times was so unfulfilling, why go back to it? One way you can “give careful thought to your ways” is to make a “don’t do” list—not a “to do” list. Some things you used to do aren’t necessarily wrong—such as spending a lot of time on things like social media, watching television, or shopping. You just don’t need to resume them because they’re not necessary. So add them to your “don’t do” list. After a hard season, God wants to rebuild your life and make it better and healthier than it ever was before. But you have a part in that too. You need to take time to evaluate everything before you head back into the world. “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
Romans 12:4-5 (NLT) If you want lasting change in your life, you must fill your life with love. Love is the only thing that can change the unchangeable. Love heals, uplifts, strengthens, energizes, refreshes, and renews. Love is the most powerful force in the universe because, as 1 John 4:8 says, “God is love” (NIV). As a Christian, where do you find this kind of love? In community with other Christians. God wired the universe in such a way that we need each other. I need you, and you need me. The phrase “one another” is used 58 times in the New Testament. It says things like love one another, care for one another, encourage one another, support one another, pray for one another, greet one another, share with one another. God never meant for you to go through life by yourself. The Bible says in Romans 12:4-5, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other” (NLT). What does it mean to “belong to each other”? It means you need the people around you, and they need you. You become each other’s spiritual family. You help each other toward your goals and encourage each other as you become more like Christ. The Bible is clear about what love looks like in a spiritual family: “Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:9-10 NLT). “Take delight in honoring each other”—I love that! You know what that means? It means when people in your community have a win in their health, finances, or any goal they’ve set, you celebrate with them. And when life is difficult, your community of believers is the first to comfort and support you. Here’s the amazing thing: God has wired the universe so that when you help other people, God simultaneously works on your problems. There is healing in giving back. Remember when Job lost everything, including his health, his family, and his wealth? At the end of the story, God gave it all back to Job—because Job prayed, not for himself but for his friends. The Bible says, “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10 NIV). Do you need lasting, positive change as you work toward your goals? Give yourself away in love, and then watch God work in your life. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
All
Archives
July 2024
|