“I’ve sinned too much today.” 

“I don’t know if God will answer my prayer since I’ve been struggling with a sin this week.”

“I wish I could get this Christian walk thing down…then I’d have a good relationship with God.”

Are you ever haunted by these thoughts?  I write them because they have haunted me.  More so in the past…but they are thoughts that still come to mind. 

When these thoughts come…I preach the gospel to myself.

I’m praying about this today…for the week ahead and always…

that He would illuminate our hearts and minds with the truth that:

We can’t get any more accepted or closer to God than we are now.  That there is nothing we can do to make us more loved and accepted than we’ve already received the very moment He saved us.

He gave us a robe of righteousness and became sin for us (Isaiah 61:10, Romans 5:1).

We were transformed into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

He now loves us…to the same degree that He loves Jesus (John 17 :23).

It is finished.

The climbing up the rungs of the ladder that all other religions require. 

It is finished and we can rest.

Yes…we are still working it out and being worked on aren’t we?  Becoming more like Christ…slowly but surely.   “For by a single offering…He has perfected for all time…those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14).

This is the gospel that I need to preach to myself every day. 

This is the gospel preached by the disciples.  This is the gospel my pastor preached this weekend.  This is the gospel the 19th century British preacher preached…Charles Spurgeon…who said…

“Alas, say you, I have done wrong.  I know you have.  But Chrsit HAS NOT done wrong.  If your confidence were in yourself, that wrong of yours might crush your hope.   But since your confidence is in God, and He has not changed, why should you fear?  Oh, but you say, but I am so sinful.  Yes, I know  you are.  And so you were when He first looked upon you in love.”

He goes on to say…”If His love had sought to come to you by the way of merit…it never would have reached you.  But it comes to you, by way of free, rich, sovereign grace and therefore it will come to you ever more.”

Father, I pray that all of those who love you and read these words would be blessed with clear assurance of your love and acceptance for them.  We all have times when we feel weak in our grasp of this.  Lift us up once again when we do.  Comfort our hearts with your grace and strengthen us by your Spirit.  Illuminate our hearts and minds with all of your grace.  Amen.

*Taken from notes from Darrell Jung’s sermon: The Finished Work of Christ, 11/4/2012.

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