A Presence Filled 2014: February 8

     Life has been flying by lately, but I have been really amazed lately by God's grace.  This past week was a blur of classes, running practices, extracurriculars and homework.  Sandwiched in there was a much appreciated snow day!  Regardless, I seem to keep messing up and falling short.  That's why God's grace has been so prevalent in my life this week.
     I am constantly in awe that the creator of the universe is so much in love with me, that He takes me back time after time when I choose something else over Him.  Because, that's what sin really is: choosing something else over God.  Whether it's worry or control or jealousy or bitterness, those things take God's primary place in life if we let them.
     I have been meditating on Hosea 10:12 lately, and this verse has been such a motivation in seeking the Lord in freedom:

{Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you}

     It is such a good reminder for me, and all of us, that if we seek God: we are going to get Him!  I'm reading a book right now about spiritual warfare, and one of the points that stuck out to me this week was the concept of the belt of truth, and how righteousness is the best defense against the devil's schemes.  If I choose to follow after Christ and Christ alone, I leave little for Satan to accuse.
     At first, that caused me to feel anxious.  I know I will never live free from sin in this life, and I also tend to get sucked into a perfectionist cycle that ends in condemnation and self-hatred.
     Yet, this verse doesn't condone condemnation.  In fact, it speaks to freedom.  Freely, I can seek after Christ.  I can't sow righteousness by myself; it's only possible with God right at my side.
     Today, in this moment: we are free.  All your sins are wiped clean with Christ's blood and you stand in righteousness in this very moment.  Doesn't that lift such a weight off your shoulders?  I know it does for me.
     I often see myself as a timeline of sin that extends far back and far ahead of current time.  But according to scripture, I am free and righteous.  In this very moment, I am free and blameless in Christ.  I can use this moment of freedom to sow righteousness and seek God or I can fall into sin and seek something other than God.
     I challenge you the same way I challenge myself: Take this liberty Christ offers.  Accept the freedom that has been given right now and leave the sin and condemnation in the past.  Let us reach forward toward Christ, because once He comes and rains righteousness upon us, we are going to love and desire more and more of Him.  It's part of the continuous separation from our fleshly selves and the continuous journey to being filled with more joy in the Lord.
     Woohoo!  Get excited: it only gets better from here!