God set in motion His plan of salvation from the beginning. When we accept Him as our savior and begin life with Him, He covers us in His undeserved grace. We are forgiven and washed clean. We are made new. The old ways, our old self are gone and we become a new person.
2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!
Joy of Salvation
Our joy is full and our hearts overflow. People notice and we want to share God with others. Our past is forgiven and as the Bible says we are made as white as snow. God takes our sin away as far as the east is from the west. He took it on himself on the cross and bore our punishment so we could be saved.
Psalms 51:7-12
Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be pure; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven. May the bones you crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Wipe away all my guilt. Create for me a pure heart, O God. Renew a resolute spirit within me. Do not reject me. Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me. Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance. Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey.
Psalms 103:12
As far as the eastern horizon is from the west, so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions from us.
Faith Within
We come by faith to God, believing He died for us and accepting Him as Lord and Savior receiving forgiveness. By faith we believe and receive God’s great gift of salvation. God’s peace floods through and surrounds us because we have been made right with Him through faith.
We are given a new standing with God. We don’t deserve His kindness to us. We don’t deserve the grace He continually shows us. But just like the woman at the well, God says ‘go and sin no more’. He offers new life, abundant joyful life with Him.
Romans 5:1-2
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.
John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Stolen Joy
Life and time goes on. Sometimes we fall, back into old patterns, slowly slip into sin, become complacent, compromise the truth of God’s Word and guidance of His Holy Spirit within us.
We go through hard times, maybe question or doubt God, our faith may waiver, but it won’t fail because God is still there for us. He is still faithful even when we are not. He holds us securely in His hands. He is our rock and will not give us anything we cannot handle with Him.
2 Timothy 2:13
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself.
Our Source
God sustains us through all. He forgives us every time we ask. He shows us undeserved grace and mercy. He encourages, gently He works within us, patiently He waits on us. He calls to us to live in Him forgiven and free.
We can reclaim our joy in Him and live in His grace again. Hope and peace are never far when we put our trust in Him again. He will freely give them to us. He will calm our fears, worry, doubts. He will be our steady hand and companion through all life.
Ephesians 2:4-7
But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved!—and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good thing you do or say.
Rejoice & Grow
Therefore we can rejoice in all things in life. In troubles, problems, trials, and pain we can choose to rejoice in God. To remember our salvation in Him and His grace to us. To remember how God has always been there will come through for us. To know God is working within us to make us more like Him.
Ephesians 1:17-19
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, —since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength.
God’s Love
God loves us so much so that He not only gave His son so we can have life in Him, but also that He wants to mold us as witnesses for Him, by working in our lives in every circumstance to develop us to reflect His character.
God gradually and patiently works in all things so we can grow. We develop endurance, character, strength, and confidence, all reinforcing the hope and assurance of our salvation. We just need to choose God in every situation and every day of our life. Through hard times and good times. God is our confidence and can be trusted through all things.
Romans 5:3-4
Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope.
God’s Undeserved Grace
His grace covers us. We can walk with our head held high in confidence in God’s faithfulness and forgiveness. God tells us to forget the past, don’t look back. Instead focus forward and look only to Him. Keep our eyes on Him. He takes our sin away. He faithfully forgives each one and removes them from our record. He washes us clean every time we repent and turn back to Him.
Romans 5:5
And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Forgiveness & Peace
God offers peace to our hearts and minds. He gently reminds us He has forgiven, forgotten and erased the stain of our sin. We are His as believers and He will always be faithful to us. Just as Jesus told Peter who asked Him how many times to forgive someone – 77 times, meaning always – more than you can count/keep track, God will continually forgive and help us to move forward.
Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to him and said, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother who sins against me? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, I tell you, but seventy-seven times!
Shame & Guilt
The Devil will whisper lies to us. He will remind us of our sin and fill our mind with doubt. But we can stop Him when we remember the cross and God’s faithfulness to us. His grace and mercy are always available. No matter what we have done or how far we stray from God, He is always there to help pick up the pieces when we sincerely return to Him.
We don’t have to get stuck in guilt and shame. We stand on our rock, Jesus, who has forgiven us and gives us grace to move forward. Through prayer and scripture we can rebuke the devils influence and look forward with God, overcoming our mistakes grow in Him.
Romans 5:6
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Hebrews 4:15-16
For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
God’s Compassion
When we were still rebelling against God and sinning against Him, God came down to us to offer Himself and take our punishment on Himself to offer forgiveness and life in Him. He died for us even when we were still in our sin. God had compassion on all people and gave His life so many could be saved.
We don’t deserve His love and care, His grace and mercy. We cannot earn it and our sin nature keeps us from being able to please God. But God graciously offers forgiveness and salvation to all who believe in Him. He draws us and works in us giving us a new nature to obey and walk with Him.
Romans 5:8-11
But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? Not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Our Mediator
God sent His son to atone for our sin. Jesus became the sacrifice once for all to anyone who believes. Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, breaking our relationship with God, but Jesus came and made the way back to God by standing in our place and taking our sin on Himself so we could have a path to God, so we could live through Him by believing in Him.
Romans 5:15
But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!
Jesus Our Advocate
When Christ came, He came on a mission, a mission to save us. He didn’t come to condemn, but to save. When He died and rose again, He returned to God in Heaven to draw all people to Him and be the bridge for all humanity.
Jesus sits at the right hand of God and pleads our case. He advocates for us when we sin. His blood is the atonement He gave to cover all our sin, past, present and future.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time.
1 John 2:1-2
(My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.
John 3:17-18
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
Power of Sin Broken
When we accepted Christ as our savior, He came to live inside us by His Holy Spirit. We were spiritually dead, dead in our sin, but God made us alive in Him from the moment we believed on. We were renewed and our old self removed. He created us anew.
Sin no longer can control us. We have a choice now. God’s power within us can break any temptation. All we have to do is ask and trust Him. Obeying God will seem hard at times, sin will seem better and maybe even right at times, but God’s Word, His Spirit within have the final say on the right choice and way to go. God has broken sin power through Christ and anyone who trust in Him has the power to overcome anything.
Romans 6:6-7
We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)
Romans 6:10-11
For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:12-14
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 8:2-4
For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Alive in Christ
Because we are in Christ we are alive and thrive in Him. Through Him we have everything we need in His riches. We lack nothing in Him. He is our provider, sustainer, encourager, and rock we can lean upon through all our life.
He takes us in, under His wing. We become one with Him becoming His child and heir to His Kingdom. He cares for us and is attentive to us throughout our life no matter what. He is always faithful. Through prayer and time alone with Him we can converse and commune with Him finding encouragement, strength and peace in Him.
We live in Him and He in us. His mercy and compassion are on us. We can confidently approach the throne of grace and receive forgiveness and redemption unconditionally. We can go forward in Christ in expectant hope and joy in Him knowing we are forgiven and free in Christ our Lord and Savior.
Romans 6:13-14
And do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness. For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:17-8
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
Romans 6:22
But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.
Hebrews 4:16
Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
Romans 8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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