Set Free From Second-Guessing by His Righteousness and Peace

The life I lived, I had lived in such terror of failure, or making a mistake, of doing something wrong.

I was constantly running my life by other people, asking for their opinion on so many things. It was really confusing, frustrating, a very trying life.

Where did this crazy idea come from?

Someone else was often interrupting the decisions I had been making in my life. This constant fear would grip me. As a result, I found myself not really doing much of anything anymore.

Yet the problem goes back to righteousness.

I didn't know about this precious gift. I never realized that God not only has made me as righteous as His Son.

This is a righteousness which He exhorts us to receive and keep receiving:

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:17)

That word "receive" is in the present progressive tense, which mean "who are receiving."

I never realized that this gift is something that we are called to keep receiving, and keep receiving even when we sin, even when we fail.

Yet this revelation is commensurate with what Paul writes at the end of Romans 5:

"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" (Romans 5:20)

Even when we sin, we fail, we fall short of the glory of God, His grace superabounds on us.

This is not a call to sin, but a demonstration that God's grace is greater than man's sin.

If man's sin could overpower God's grace, Jesus would have never come to the earth to die for us and to live for us!

"11For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:11-14)

I am not blessed by God because I am good.

I am blessed because God is good, and His Son has taken us into Himself!

"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;" (2 Corinthians 5:18)

We don't have to second-guess anymore with fear that if we make a mistake, that we are lost and out of fellowship, or something.

We have already been reconciled to God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Now, when I am faced with difficult decisions, how do I deal with it? Before, it was nothing but inaction and frustration. I just feared the worst all the time. I was so dependent on someone else telling me "good" or "bad" about any decision I made. Would I have to depend on someone else after the fact giving me the OK?

No! We don't have to settle for that. God guides us now by His peace in us!

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful." (Colossians 3:15, NIV)

"Rule" speaks of a judge presiding over a case. If there is no peace about something, then don't do it. 

I didn't feel peace for a long time because I was constantly worried about God being unhappy with me doing something that He would or would not approve of.

Now that I know that His never-ending gift of righteousness assures His peace with me, and mine with Him, I can allow His peace to act as a guide, a judge, an umpire in every case, in every decision.

Let's remember that our starting point with God is peace:

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 5:1)

and

"For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;" (Ephesians 2:14)

Let's rest in the truth of God's gift of righteousness. We need never fear that God will be angry with us again. We should never have a sense of fear or foreboding towards God. His peace is our constant now.

We need never play second-guessing ever again!

Nothing Can Separate Me From God's Love

God loves me, and nothing can separate me from His love.

In contrast to this truth, Alcoholics Anonymous teaches that to be angry, to be upset cuts us off from the "sunlight of the spirit."

That is not true.

I am certain that I have written about this topic many times before, but I am interested, invested in writing about it again.

Paul writes to the Romans:

"35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

"36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

"37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35-39)

Nothing can separate us from God's love at all.

Yet I used to think that I had to work as hard as I could to "feel" a certain way. I needed to get all the bad emotions out of my head, my mind, my anything in order to function in the world. This contortion brought me so much pain, so much frustration.

"What if I have that memory and I get mad all over again?" I would think. I was reflecting so much on myself, on my emotions. There was so much bondage that had overcome me on account of this. I felt that I had to go out of my way to tell someone how angry, how hurt I was about the different behaviors, the different pains, the different sentiments of outrage which I had gone through.

God, what a miserable life I led. I was so easily offended, that I just didn't want to interact with anyone anymore. The power ended up in other people's hands. People could say or do just about whatever they wanted, and no matter what happened, I could just get so easily upset, then I got upset about being upset ...

And what was the root of all this bondage?

That getting angry, hurt, confused, whatever was going to separate me from God, that it was going to bring into some kind of emotional bondage.

Yet I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:6).

I start at the finish line, I start with being complete in Him (Colossians 2:15), and this peace no one can take away from me. I can even tell my loving Daddy God that people make me feel bad, sad, mad, glad, whatever.

He is still there loving me, and He invites me to gain a greater revelation of His love for me, too.

This is just awesome and has given me a greater release into this life!

God is Good, God is Merciful--Therefore, Praise Him!

"O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever." (Psalm 118:1)

Many people think that they have to praise God in order for Him to do things in our lives.

The truth is that God is Good, that God is Merciful.

Consider that God sent His Son Jesus into the world for us (John 3:16).

In fact, Psalm 118 refers to God as our Salvation!

"14The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation." (Psalm 118:14)

He loved us before we even knew about Him or even cared:

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

We were still sinners. It's not just that we sinned, but we were defined by our sin.

"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51:5)

and also

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12)

Yet in spite of all that, God so loved us, that He sent His Son not just to die for us, but to become our life (Colossians 3:4) and our righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Consider what John writes in his First Epistle:

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another." (1 John 4:11)

and then

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19, NIV)

God is not just good, but He is good to us!

Notice in the next verses of Psalm 118 the different groups, the different people who are called upon to praise the Lord:

"Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

"Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever." (Psalm 118: 2-3)

First the entire nation, and then the priesthood, and then the Psalmist speaks for everyone who fears (believes on) God, and then He speaks for Himself:

"Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

"I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place." (Psalm 118: 4-5)

Again, God is good to us, and for that He elicits our praise.

Beloved, don't think that you have to flatter God to do something good in your life. He is our Life, and He is committed to blessing us in every way that He can!