Holding on

When Jesus said ‘It is finished’, He was not lying!  The debt requirement of all mankind was paid in full.  This does not excuse sin, it is payment and an open door to return to a Father who loves unconditionally and accepts us back right where we are.  In my walk with God I have learned so hard lessons about believing that God’s grace is an excuse for sin or that He is soft on it, and as a result I sometimes have gone the other way and been so hard on myself that I won’t let go remember that I belong to Him.  I don’t want to be separated from the Eternal Father, but what I am beginning to learn is that He has been with me this whole time and never left me.  He has been faithful in His promises for me, and He can see the end from the beginning.  He already knew the things I would be struggling with, and He finds purpose in those things to actually drive me deeper into Him in the long-run.  He always gives me the choice, that has never once been usurped from me, but He always at the same time chooses to chase after me and never let me go even when I’m running in a full sprint from Him.  That is how great my God is!  If you have a relationship with God and you’ve felt like you’ve fallen away, or even if you don’t have a relationship with God and maybe have never been introduced to a real friendship with the Creator as a possibility, there is Good News.  He no longer holds your sins or the sins of others that have effected you(i.e. parental divorce, family strife, abuse, betrayal, adultery and unfaithfulness in marriage, etc) against you.  You don’t have to carry that anymore, just let go!! He wants to give you His righteousness and justify you by the means of clothing you in the garments of His only Begotten Son!  You can do nothing to earn righteousness before Him, and you can do nothing to take back what you have already done wrong and what has been done wrong to you.  However, Jesus took the punishment both for everything that you have done wrong as well as the shame that comes with it.  Let go of trying to be good enough, of trying to earn love(love is a gift, manipulation is trying to earn love or approval).  You were meant to find your meaning in God, not in whether you do bad or do good – that is vanity!!  He calls you good because he made you, so let go of trying to identify yourself with your past mistakes and shame and watch an effortless change in you life come about as you begin to literally be transformed from the inside out! All you have to do is believe in His goodness, turn from sinful ways and trying to make it a go in life by your own means, and trust in His ability to work in you His goodness as you learn to walk with him and live from the inside-out instead of the outside-in.  It really  is so simple!  It can be hard, I’m not saying that there aren’t times where you will need to give up things that are hard to let go of and trust God that He’ll take care of it in His own timing.  But you don’t have to carry the burden anymore of trying to make people love you, of trying to earn acceptance, of trying to live to please others’ expectations while dying inside because you know who you are is being compromised.  You can move forward in life with the responsibility over your life being between you and God alone, not what other people think or depending on whether people you love accept you or endorse what you do.  Let others walk through their life and deal with God over their own issues.  Don’t get entangled in blaming yourself for what somebody else has problems with, and don’t blame yourself for how others treat you.  You can’t hold people together any more than you can hold your own life together.  Your responsibility is to choose God and trust Him and love others or not to choose Him and deal with the consequences.