"If I were your enemy, I'd constantly remind you of your past mistakes and poor choices. I'd want to keep you burdened by shame and guilt, in hopes that you'll feel incapacitated by your many feelings and see no point in even trying again. I'd work to convince you that you've had your chance and blown it—that your God may be able to forgive some people for some things, but not you…not for this.
Fervent Reading: Chapter 5, "Your Past" Bible Reading: Ephesians 2:1-5, Ephesians 3:16-20, Romans 8:35-39, Lamentations 3:21-23
Notes from the study:
[In reflecting back over this past week, I notice that as I pray for things and the Lord answers and the situation betters, I stop praying and start relying on self again. I find myself in this continual state of wavering between dependance on God and dependance on self. I am encouraging each of us today to stay constant in our prayer lives, realizing that even when we are not in times of dire straits, our prayers are the preventative medicine that shield us from the oncoming attack.]
[One of the women shared that she was at the bedside of her grandmother this week just after her death, thinking, "What is our life if we don't influence the next generation to live for God." She has started to read a chapter in Proverbs with her 9-month old boy each day as she feeds him in his high chair. We took the time today to pray for our children's salvation. If you were not able to make it to the study today, take a moment right now to pray for your children...specifically for their salvation and knowledge of God.]
Today, we are going to talk about:
Our REAL Life in Christ—building your Christ-proclaiming testimony through your forgiven, grace-covered past, present and future.
- Which of the following best describes your struggles with the past?
— My past fills me with regret and/or memories of time wasted on lesser things…
— My upbringing plagues me, filling me with despair and bitterness…
— I make mistakes with my children (or others close to me), leaving me discouraged and frustrated…
— I worry about tomorrow, already counting it a failure, based on my previous performance…
"As long as I am stricken with the guilt of my sins, I will be captive to them, and will often find myself re-committing the very sins about which I feel most guilty. The devil is well aware of this fact; he knows that if he can keep me tormented by sin's guilt, he can dominate me with sin's power.
The gospel, however, slays sin at this root point and thereby nullifies sin's power over me. The forgiveness of God, made known to me through the gospel, liberates me from sins's power because it liberates me first from its guilt (Romans 6:14); and preaching such forgiveness to myself is a practical way of putting the gospel into operation as a nullifier of sin's power in my life."
-Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer
Believers, say it with me: I Am Forgiven!
"In prayer you are alone with a God Who sees you only as you are and have always been since that beautiful moment when you placed faith in Him—holy, righteous, and blameless; past, present, and future." -Fervent
Psalm 32:1-7 (ESV)
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
___
In Lamentations 3:21-23, we learn that God's mercies are new for us every morning! As believers, we should begin each day with fresh energy through applied faith—rooted and grounded in Christ's love (Ephesians 3:16-20).
In Ephesians 3, we read that the love of God is so high, so deep, so wide, so infinitely full that it "passeth knowledge." And, in Romans 8:35-39, we read that nothing—time nor space, angels nor demons, nor any created power—can separate us from the deep, deep "love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Frederick Lehman, in his hymn, "The Love of God," describes God's love as something we could speak of or write about forever, never finding an end to His love:
The love of God is greater far
- Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
- Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.- Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Let's Read Ephesians 2:1-5.
Anytime our past—whether things we did long ago or more recent failures, comes to mind—we can meditate on the two beginning words of verse four, "But God"—
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Any failure the devil plays before our eyes is forgiven! We often get busy in life and lose our grasp of the TRUTH. But, through time spent at the feet of Jesus, in His Word and in prayer, we are reminded of God's grace toward us through His glorious gospel. The gospel is not something that we leave at the day of our salvation. It is what energizes us every day of our lives. It is what sets us apart from the non-believer. It is what teaches us to truly love others, as displayed through the example of Christ. And when we fail and make mistakes, it only shows God's glory more, putting His grace on display.
Gloria Furman, in her book, "Treasuring Christ When Your Hands are Full" says, "What mother isn't plagued by her feelings of inadequacy and guilt over her mistakes?…Even if we haven't committed any gross infractions that we're aware of, we don't have to look very far into our heart to uncover our sinfulness. We use our children to bloat our egos and make us look good. We criticize other mothers to alleviate our feelings of insecurity. We fail to love our children with selfless, sacrificial love. We neglect our children in the name of ministry. We break fellowship with our Christian sisters over petty matters of parenting preferences. We set bad examples and train our children to value the world's opinion over God's. And these are just a few of the ways we fail to live righteously. There are also the other impossible standards that we invent and hold ourselves to. We feel shame over projects we start and don't finish. We feel guilty that our children aren't 'turning out' as we had planned. We stumble into the snare of 'the fear of man' and live for the approval of other mothers…What hope does a flawed mom have? Against the backdrop of this bleak outlook, the gospel shines brighter and gives a more durable hope than the empty promises of self-actualization and the short-lived encouragement from glass-half-full optimism. The gospel changes how we view our failures, and we see how God redeems our flaws for His own glory."
God said to Paul concerning his weakness:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
And so, Paul proclaims:
"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (II Cor. 12:9)
In light of this truth, you might wonder, "Then does it really matter if I sin?" Paul says in Romans 6, "God forbid." "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"
Milton Vincent, in "The Gospel Primer," says in moments of temptation, he enjoys saying to himself, "You know, I can commit this sin, and God's grace would abound to me all the more as He maintains my justified status…But it is precisely for this reason that I choose not to commit this sin!"
Gloria Furman says, "The indignant, self-righteous lament, 'I know better than this; how could I have been so foolish?' is a poor conduit of grace in our lives and offers us nothing for tomorrow but compounded guilt. But the soul-freeing news of the gospel that says Jesus loved us perfectly on the cross and redeems our failures—this news is of another kind. This is very good news. Now with faith-filled joy we can rejoice in God and say, 'How could I have been so foolish? See the grace He has shown me in His Son!'"
And so, here it is—the joy of our salvation. Here is where we no longer live in the past. Here is where we move forward from shame to assurance, from guilt to grace, from regret to blessing. God's love for us gives rise to our love for Him (I John 4:19). Our fervency to pray and seek God in His Word will stem from this love. And thus, in our day to day activities, our actions and reactions should be the mark of our response to this love. Not driven by duty or derailed by despair, and not living in perfection either, but rather living, as Paul says further on in Romans 6, "in the likeness of His resurrection." Alive. Aware. Anew.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
"It is only when a deep sense of insufficiency and a strong confidence in God are combined that you are at all likely to be successful in your arduous work. Your sense of insufficiency will make you cautious, tender, watchful, prayerful; and your confidence in God will nerve your soul and strengthen you to grapple with the difficulties you have to encounter." -James Cameron
Rather than our insufficiency just making us feel inadequate for each day, we can use it to continually go to Christ. Our weakness draws us to Christ.
So, we are forgiven and free to take our past and learn from it and teach from it—especially to our children. This is where we build a REAL testimony as believers. One, where we don't hide our past, but use it for Christ's glory!
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." (2 Cor. 1:3-4)
Personal Story: I used to think that the best way to be a strong witness for Christ with my life was to give others a "perfect" view of myself. I would never talk of my shortcomings or failures—in fact, I would try to conceal them so that other women could see how "amazing" I was (notice the quotation marks!). That way, I thought, they would see my "light" and want to be like me—a Christian. This philosophy made me very concerned for what others thought and I often found myself striving in my Christian walk more than trusting, putting on "fake" smiles when I was tired and, in the end, discouraging other women who saw me as "flawless." My testimony was missing the gospel! It was missing Christ and what He has done for me and continues to do for me everyday! It is not necessary to spill all of our dirty laundry, nor to degrade or belittle ourselves, but rather to confidently exalt Christ. To give others a picture of how His Word materializes in everyday life. It is necessary that we become REAL Christians and give others an image filled with hope because it leads them to Christ and His love and forgiveness!
We are all drawn to women who are "real." You know. The woman who can invite you in when her house is messy. The woman who is confident in who she is and feels no need to put on a front. The woman who looks you in the eye, full of compassion, more concerned with your needs than with what you think of her. She laughs at her mistakes and makes you feel at ease. She never intimidates, but continually bolsters and strengthens through her genuine example. It is time to lay down our "front" as Christian women, and show a hurting world that everything we are is because of Christ. And He is the same yesterday and today and forever! (Heb. 13:8)
"We rise to defend ourselves over petty things. We give disclaimers about things such as how much we paid for something, why a child responded in a certain way, or why the kitchen countertop is a mess. We also justify things that are a big deal—like our sin. The Bible says that pretending we have no sin is pointless, because the cross has already announced to the world just how guilty we are. We need a Savior, not a self-help guru. Our 'dirtiest laundry' has already been aired. Our sin has offended an infinitely holy God so that the death of the perfect Son of God was required in order to rescue us from the eternal punishment that we deserve. That's why Jesus died in our place on the cross. The grace given to us on the cross liberates us from the heavy burden of pretense before other people and (most importantly) before God…Why do we sweat and strain under the burden of pretense in front of friends who were saved by the same grace given to them by the same Savior, or in front of friends who don't know that grace can free them too? We have no good reason to shrink back from confessing our sins to the Lord or to our trustworthy sisters in Christ. We have every reason to glory in the cross and trust Jesus with our PR department.…Instead of being preoccupied with building our own kingdom, we can take up the ministry of reconciliation that God has given us…When you discover that you are the unworthy recipient of God's lavish grace, you cannot help but share it with others." -Gloria Furman
- What is your testimony? What has God done in your life? Write down your testimony now—only, rather than your salvation testimony, write down some key areas in your life since being saved (areas where you failed or where you faced struggles or times of waiting, etc.) that God has used to draw you to Himself, teach you more about Him, and make you more like Him. (It is these areas that can point others of like situation to Christ)
- Pray that the Lord will give you opportunity to share these areas where Christ has shown Himself strong in your life with others in a way that would bring praise to His great name!
- What can you do the next time you get discouraged or feel weak from failure? Or the next time your past comes back to torment you?
Let's read Psalm 40:1-17 as a prayer to our God.
May the Lord be magnified—Made Great—through our lives!
My award is not to be "Mom-of-the-Year." Neither is it the praise of other women or even my own self-approval. No, my award is a beautiful relationship with my God, who has redeemed my life!
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