Failing Miserably

This is the time of year when we make goals & resolutions to do better – eat healthier, exercise routinely, leave past sins behind us, read the Bible daily {do more of the good things, less of the bad}.  The New Year looks perfect & like a new fresh beginning… for a while, that is.  Then it happens, sooner rather than later, you fail.  You misstep, you get back into old habits, past sins reemerge, & resolutions are left by the roadside without change in their pockets for bus fare home.  Your new fresh beginning feels blotched, spotted, & stained.  It’s only the 17^th of January & I already feel as if I’ve failed miserably. 

In past years, when faced with January failings, I have thought somewhere deep down in my being, “Another year ruined.  I’ll have to try again next year to get rid of this stuff.”  You know what?  It’s a big bunch of evil one malarkey!  Sure, I’ve messed up, but I don’t have to wait until January 1, 2014 for a new start.  God renews His mercies each day!  He knows we will fail at times {it’s part of being a human in a broken world, unfortunately}, but Jesus’ blood holds the same power as it always has.  In fact, it’s pretty much like a pride issue, when we think we have failed so much & so miserably that our Savior’s blood can’t cover it.  Christ died for all sins: past, present, & future.  It doesn’t matter that we’ve already failed miserably & found ourselves in ugly sin this year.  Come to the heavenly Father with your hurting heart, admit your sins, & seek forgiveness.  If we are His, we have forgiveness & grace & our sin is not stockpiled against us.  We’ve accepted the free gift of God’s Son & we can live in freedom!   There is renewing each & every day in Him.  Today is a new day; strive to live it for Christ.  When you fail, there’s always forgiveness & a fresh start in Christ Jesus, no matter the calendar date! 

This passage of Romans 5:20-6:14 {& beyond that, too (look it up in your Bible)} =) fits well with this topic.  If you feel, like me, that you've already "failed miserably" this 2013, you just might want to read this...

"But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.  The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

Covered by His Grace,

-Bess-