Every reborn believer who walks in harmony with God has a limp.
We all struggle with worldly temptations and personal proclivities. To mask our pain, we sometimes indulge in unhealthy desires that overwhelm our convictions.
As a result, we often fail to uphold God’s moral standards.
We will give up on God if we think our unrighteousness means he is ineffective, that we are defective, or that this “God-thing” works for a select few but not for us.
These conclusions are incorrect.
Personal iniquity demonstrates the Scriptural truth that we retain our sinful nature after our spiritual rebirth.
The persistence of our unrighteousness merely affirms that our salvation is a matter of God’s grace rather than our personal merit.
Knots
Every reborn believer has knots of unrighteousness. Some are readily apparent and conspicuous to all. Others are hidden in our hearts and known only to us.
Some knots are tighter than others. Untying them requires sustained effort over a long period. Some knots may never unravel until we enter heaven.
Nonetheless, we should continually strive to untie our knots as best we can.
However, we must enlist God’s help in this effort because we cannot live righteously on our own.
This reliance has an added benefit.
As we seek God’s help, he draws near to us, refreshing our perspective of his excellence.
Toddlers
As toddlers, we often fell while learning to walk, but we stood up and tried again each time because, even at that young age, we recognized the value of mobility.
Likewise, we often stumble as we walk in harmony with God, but when we do, we should always get back up and try again because his communion satisfies our deepest longings.
God’s Foreknowledge
God chose to love us in eternity past, despite his foreknowledge of all our imperfections. Nothing we will think, say, or do will ever alter his affection for us.
His atonement for our sins—past, present, and future; intentional and unintentional; egregious and innocuous—is comprehensive and irrevocable.
His forgiveness always exceeds our sinfulness.
