Do you ever feel like you are dragging your past around like a dead weight? No matter how much time goes by you look back and---THERE IT IS---still just as close as the last time you looked. You know that Jesus has paid the price, and you are forgiven of all the rubbish contained in those weights, but they still seem to drag you down.
Lighten up dude
How is the christian suppose to lighten his load? Jesus said, "My burden is easy"?
The Accuser
Rev 12:10 "And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God'".
We have an accuser. What do accusers do? They accuse. Satan and demons will remind us of every bad thing we have ever done since we were two years old. As a matter of fact, they will even accuse us of things we didn't do--because they are liars. We don't have to listen. That weight we are dragging has been released--never to be dragged again! We have everything we need to resist the devil and his minions. For the how-to, see my previous post When Demons Attack .
Too late
"Okay Mr. Demon Slayer, but you can forget about the demons, my photographic memory has all my sins stored on my hard drive. I don't need any dumb old demon to remind me. I remember them like they were yesterday. I still remember the time when I was 8 years old and I stole my best friend's R2D2 action figure! And then lied when he asked me about it! Oh the shame!! And then there was the time I...ugh--and the unmentionables."
There is hope--Renew your mind
I want you to save the following scriptures and remind yourself of them often. I have them permanently marked in my bible. These are promises of a brighter future--somewhat in this life--but more importantly in the one to come.
In the book of Romans we read: 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..."
2 Corinthians 4:16 "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
Ephesians 4:22 "...to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
Colossians 3:10 "...seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator."
Dwell on these words. Replace your old black and white photos with full color photos of God's glory. It takes time and perseverance. You can do it. God is working in you.
It's for our own good
We want instant perfection when we become born again--children of God--but that's not what God declares to be so. He has completely and totally forgiven us, yes, but there is still a wait for the resurrection to a new spiritual body. We want perfection, but God is refining us--pruning us--molding us. By the way, refining, pruning and molding------will hurt.
Wait for it...
The grand finale
Philippians 3:10 "...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus...20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself."
You can take that to the bank!
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