Identity in Christ #5

We've finished Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels. They book contains several stories depicting people's holy discontent with different things, like the AIDS pandemic. I've chosen to leave those out because they were so long, but they were very interesting. I highly recommend this book.

Back to Discovering Your Identity in Christ by Charles Stanley before the spiritual warfare book, which is great.
Chapter 5 is called Redeemed and talks about the forgiveness of our sins.

"To be forgiven is to be set free from any guilt and any consequences over one's past sins.

Sin is regarded throughout the Bible as a state of bondage that is the result of transgressions, iniquity, and evil. We commit sin because we are sinners. We were born with a sin nature. Our sinful actions further seal the fact that we are sinners. Our being and doing are cyclical.

Many people experience God's forgiveness but then suffer from lingering guilt over their past sins. To continue to hang on to guilt after receiving God's forgiveness is to say to God, "Your forgiveness wasn't enough." And surely it is!

The challenge for many of us is to accept God's total forgiveness and then to forgive ourselves and to move forward in our lives. To hang on to guilt and shame is to devalue what Christ Jesus did on the cross.

Those who have received God's forgiveness, however, have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, and they are compelled to act in a righteous way because of His presence."

I especially like what Stanley said about hanging on to guilt. This is just what the enemy would like us to do. If we sit and spin in guilt over the past, which is dead and gone, we are ineffective in the present and are threatening our effectiveness of our future. Let you love for Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit be the things that keep you from continuing to sin. Though we are all in the process of sanctification (I call it the purification process) we have the strength and power to stop sinning, stop looking at our past to comdemn ourselves and move forward with confidence as a child of the King.

Isaiah 43:18 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past."