What Jesus Christ has done makes a significant change in how we live from day to day.
There are things that I have done that I am not pleased with at all. It’s one thing to make a mistake, it’s another to actively operate in a sinful and hurtful way. Likewise I have expereinced things that have caused me great pain and devastation.
The scars from these episodes in life are meant to last whether on the surface or beneath. Although it is meant to last, that does not mean it is supposed to have the same effect as it did at the time. The love of God and forgiveness extended through the cross and the blood of His Son does not erase the episode – it deals with the episode so that it no longer holds us captive to bitterness and shame. It deals with the episode so that we don’t have to bury ourselves in the rancour and recrimination. It deals with the episode so that we are not narrowly defined by it, but we are welcome to the grace of God that restores us and helps us to point others to Jesus as a result – Christ is greater than our faults.
That’s also applicable to people and relationships that come for a time and for a season. Not everyone we came across did us good and some actively harmed us by their action and inaction. It is not for us to view them with the eyes of bitterness and regret. We are encouraged to see them with a desire for grace and mercy to be extended to them.
At the same time, the grace and mercy that has allowed us to move on gives us the capacity to see that what happened in the past really belongs there and not to our present. Rather, our present is to explore and embrace the new opportunities God offers us every day to serve Him and others.
This is why Jesus is so crucial for the day to day living. That’s why I love Him and trust Him, even in my faults and failings and sometimes especially because of them.
(Photo by Tania Malréchauffé on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 