The following is an excerpt of Second, Ryan Ries' book, Kill the Noise: Finding Meaning Above the Madness available for purchase at killthenoisebook.com.
The devil wants you to know that you suck as a Christian—he’s really good at that. So, he’s going to tell you every chance he gets. Every time you screw up and give in to your body appetites, he’s going to be right there saying, “See! You can’t do the Christian life. It’s no use. You’re a total hypocrite and a big poser. You aren’t fooling anybody. God’s given up on you by now. You might as well give up, too.”
But you want to know something? Jesus also knows that you suck as a Christian—and He still loves you. That doesn’t mean that He doesn’t care when we do the wrong things. Sin is still bad. It still hurts us, hurts others, and hurts our relationship with God. But God also knows that we’re going to mess up and that we are a work in progress. And knowing that we’re going to mess up, He’s already provided a way for us to take care of that sin like we talked about in an earlier chapter—“If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9). The blood that Jesus shed on the cross washes us white as snow. We get cleansed by torrents of living water and we’re empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The devil and the Holy Spirit couldn’t be more different in the way they deal with us. Satan is there to condemn us—to tell us how miserable we are. If you ever have the thought that God hates you or is done with you—if you ever think that you are so far gone that Jesus will never forgive you—that thought is not from God. It’s a lie and it’s right from the mouth of the devil.
The Bible tells us something very different: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Once we have given our hearts to God, He will never turn His back on us, ever! He loves us, and He always will. King David was thinking one day about how much God loved him, and he wrote, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (Psalm 139:17–18). Don’t buy into the devil’s lie— God never thinks of you with anything except love in His heart.
Instead of condemning us for our sin, God convicts us of our sin. Instead of saying, “You sinned; now you have to pay,” Jesus says, “You sinned, but I’ve already paid.” Instead of saying, “Your sin has permanently separated you from God,” the Holy Spirit says, “Let’s deal with this sin so that you can be made right again with God.” One is hopeless; the other is full of hope. One leads to death; the other leads to an incredible, forgiven life.
You have to understand that everybody sins. “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth” (1 John 1:8). None of us is perfect. We are all just sinners saved by grace. We don’t use that as an excuse to keep on sinning. If we don’t have a desire to stop the sin, then we have to really think about whether we are actually Christians. But we also have to make sure that we don’t let sin cause us to doubt our salvation or God’s love.
Think about a baby growing up. First, he learns to crawl, then walk, then run. When he’s first learning to walk, there are a lot of stumbles and falls. Can you imagine a dad getting mad at his kid every time he tripped over his feet or fell on his butt?
What kind of a father would punish their kid for that? What dad would say, “You stupid kid! Why don’t you walk already?” Why would we think that God is like that? He understands that we are going to fall as we learn to walk the Christian life. When you find yourself on your butt, get up and start walking again. Don’t buy into the devil’s lie that God’s done with you. He’s not, and you can count on that. Keep moving forward— walking gets a lot easier the more steps you take.
Learn more about Ryan's book at killthenoisebook.com
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