October 25

“Our faith does not induce God to forgive us.  It is not in any sense the cause of our forgiveness.  Faith is only the hand by which we lay hold experimentally of the forgiveness that is already ours in Christ.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 10/7

I may have written about this already, but it’s worth repeating.  Too many people don’t believe they’re forgiven until they feel forgiven.  Because of this, they do not change their behavior because they do not feel worthy of having all the rewards of being a forgiven child of God.  Satan must really love this.  He knows he can’t snatch us out of God’s Hand, but he sure can make our existence miserable.  In fact, I think we are more miserable than when we were lost.  At least then we didn’t feel guilty all the time!  This is why this issue is so important.  It destroys our witness to unbelievers when we act as though our forgiveness is dependent on our feelings.  And the only reason our feelings are so bad is because we don’t believe we’re forgiven!  How do we get off this merry-go-round?!  First, if we find ourselves in this predicament we must constantly remind ourselves of the facts:  If we’ve acknowledged our need to be forgiven and then believe that we are because of Jesus Christ, then we can ignore any feelings we may have to the contrary.  These are just old feelings of unworthiness that come with being human.  Then we must “grow in Christ” which means we must allow the Holy Spirit to make us into the new creature that we are---old habits have to be dispensed with and new ones established.  This is what it means to live by faith.

“Submit ourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”  James 4:7