Focus on Righteousness, Not Sin

I asked God to change my heart today. I long to be more like him and less feeling driven. If I could only love with the purity and sincerity that only He can give.  He gave me this beautiful verse out of Corinthians. 2 Cor 5:21, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

I remember all the years I struggled with trying to lose weight. The more I tried, in the flesh, to give up my gluttony; the stronger my urge to overeat became. I really believe, from firsthand experience, that no struggle can truly be overcome without God's intervention. He does the hard work through and for us. There is no other hope. Consequently, when someone attempts to rid themselves of whatever bondage is in their life, its impossible to find freedom through our own strength.

I am thankful that God constantly intervenes in my life. I think as Christians, the best we can do when we attempt to "intervene" in the life of another person is to follow this same template. Introduce that person to Jesus and encourage them to pursue Him. We can't stop someone from sinning. We can encourage them, however, to purse Jesus.  Anything less than that, just leads to hurt feelings, attempting to serve as that person's Holy Spirit, and often creates more bondage in the life of that person. Build up one another in love.

I am changing for the better all the time. Its inevitable because God works in my life. This is true whether other people see it or not. Only God can see my heart. Only God can see your heart. Follow God's prompting. Allow Him to work through your doubts! Focus on whatever things are good, lovely, hopeful.... He wants you to focus on the positive, not on the negative. If your thoughts or words are not positive than omit them from your life.

If you get nothing else from my little post today, remember that we all have enough troubles, trials, and struggles. I know for sure that I am overwhelmed to my eyeballs on good days! :) I am sure this is the case for most people. We are all just velcroed to God doing the very best we can through Him. Do we really want to add to the troubles, trials, and struggles of someone else? Really? Surely, you can see that helping someone pursue righteousness in God through Jesus is more productive than trying to force them to stop sinning.

(Hebrews 13:15) Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

Be thankful.. Amplify the gratitude, baby.