Starting Over

What a wonderful Savior we have in Christ! We can start over again - every moment of every day!

With His quickening power we can move past regret and shame. No longer do we have to be bound to the past or even to the failings of the present. Indeed He makes all things new (Revelations 21:5) and He works all things (both the worst and the best) together for His purpose in our lives (Romans 8:28).

Recently I struggled with a very bad attitude that so often lends itself to a familiar cycle of sin and confession. This is evident of repeatedly saying that I'm sorry and promising to do better. But such a cycle leads to greater frustration and despair.

Then one late night I was reading a devotional that mentioned John 1:12. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--" (NIV).

It was in that moment that I realized that no matter my miserable state or poor spiritual condition this one truth remained constant. God through Christ gave me the right (the authority) to be his son.

I went to prayer with this promise that I can call out to Him for help because of this authority - to approach Him as a Father and I His son. This right as a son was not a result of some demands I made from Him. And our relationship was not as a result of human endeavour. The right of sonship was His alone to bestow and sustain.

Oh, beloved what a sweet and tender release from the care of trying to make things right in my own strength and will. I was able to sink down into His presence rather than approach Him with a fleshly intensity of doing better and arguing with Him just how I was going to correct things.

This is my point. Such a revelation does not give a permissive lifestyle of doing whatever we want or please. The understanding of being a son or daughter of God only causes us to love Him more - to revere Him as a loving and kind Father. Most importantly, it brings a freedom that heals our heart so that sin is avoided and we run to Him.

As His sons and daughters we live in a moment by moment experience of being renewed, refreshed and restored.

We can start over again - with that sense of feeling clean. Nothing between us and nothing to hide.

Sparkling new and clean.

The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. Job 17:9 (NLT)