Claiming What's Yours

  I'm going to write about something that's deeply spiritual today, so if you aren't a God follower, feel free to use the grocery store approach.  Take what you need from this post and leave the rest on the shelf.  And please know that no matter what religious beliefs you hold, I still love you and support you, and I am ok with agreeing to disagree if we don't share the same religion.  But today I do want to share with my fellow believers a revelation I had a few years ago which completely changed the way in which I read the Bible.
  When I was younger I used to read the book of Psalms and get a little discouraged.  Here's the reason why.  David writes a lot of Psalms talking about all the amazing things God will do for the righteous... protect them, bless them, lift them up, give them long life, children, and joy.  But I used to feel a bit defeated as I read, because if you are familiar with the Bible, we are told that "There is none righteous, no, not one."  (Romans 3:10)  I used to think, "Wow, if I could only be good enough then these could apply to me."  But, as I'm sure you all know, it's impossible for any of us to be perfect.  So, I was constantly feeling defeated when I read my Bible.
  Then one day God brought me to a revelation.  I was reading in 1 Corinthians, and here is the verse I read.  "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."  (1 Corinthians 5:21) Now, I had read this verse plenty of times, and even memorized it as a little kid in Sunday school, but I never quite understood it until then.  God opened my eyes to the major truth hiding in this verse that day.  Did you catch it?  "we...become the righteousness of God."  Meaning, if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are considered RIGHTEOUS by God!  You don't have to do another thing to earn this status.  Jesus already took care of the payment.  All you have to do is claim the free gift He offers.  We cannot do a single thing to earn God's love or make Him care more about us.   All those promises about the "righteous"  were already mine to keep and yours too if you believe in Jesus.  I just didn't know it before then.  What a huge weight lifted, and an incredible mindset shift when I was reading as I discovered I could claim all of the good things promised to the "righteous," because even though in and of myself I could never be righteous, this privilege had already been granted me and every other believer through Christ's redemption on the cross.
  Understanding that God considers me righteous because of Christ's gift gave me knew excitement and incite when reading God's promises.  I am worthy of all God's blessings and promises, not because of any action of mine, but because He has made me righteous through His sacrifice, and you can claim these blessings too if you have accepted Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sin.  I am hoping that there are a few of you out there who really needed your eyes opened to this today, and who will be set free by realizing, you are already righteous in Christ.  Stop putting all the pressure on yourself.  You are a child of God now, and you can claim all the benefits of being His child.
  Additionally, if you want to learn more about this idea, there is a great book by Joseph Prince called Unmerited Favor, which opened my eyes to so much more of this concept.  I hope that you know you are worthy today, and that if you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior, this free gift is yours for the taking.  You need only to believe that Christ died on the cross to take the punishment for your sins, and if you accept His free gift, pray and ask Him to come into your life as your Lord and Savior.  You can then begin to claim these amazing promises of God on your life also. You don't have to do a single thing to earn this status.  Simply accept it as a gift and begin to live your life from a place of gratitude and grace each day because you are deeply loved and completely forgiven.  
  If you have more questions about this, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook Messenger or to leave a comment on this post.  (They all get emailed to me.) There is nothing I love more than sharing truth with people and getting to be an encouragement in other's lives.  As always, I can't wait to see you succeed!

~K.W.