Lost; But Found

Have you ever felt dirty? Like you’ve had a long day and your all sweaty, tired, and maybe you worked so hard that your legs are swollen from all the work that you did. The most refreshing thing that we do to ourselves is get home and take a long shower whether it is hot or cold depending on your preference. What the shower does is wash away all the dirt that we had on our bodies, making us squeaky clean and the feeling it leaves us is to die for like literally!! Every form of weariness, tiredness is instantly gone. What about soaking yourself in a bathtub thereafter? I don’t even want to think about the joy that I would feel. 

Did you ever feel as if you were filthy back then when you were a sinner? Or even now for those who are yet to give their lives to Christ? And the feeling of being filthy dirty only got worse whenever you kept doing things that were not right in the sight of God? I know I sure have had that feeling! Like would God ever want me. Would He ever want anything to do with me? Afterall all I do is go against His ways! All I do is missing the mark why would He want me? This week a message was dropped in my heart. God wants you just the way that you are! He knows you’re not perfect, He knows you keep messing up, He knows your trying hard to fight the battle in your mind in order to keep sane and He says, my child ‘all I want is you just the way that you are.’ 

You see when we give our lives to Jesus, we soon start seeing changes in the person we used to be, and the person God wants us to become. Why? Because slowly but surely, He starts removing the layers of your past that have bound you since time memorial. He starts showing you the right way of doing things and even though sometimes you may fall along the way, He still lifts you up and says, “my child, you got this, don’t give up.” What we don’t realize is that when He’s working on us, it’s symbolic to taking a shower. At first when you stand in the shower, the loose dirt will come out, but there will be areas that will need scrubbing and paying more attention. That’s what God does, when you get saved, your sins are completely washed away and you become a new creature, however, for some of us, it will take time before we start doing things differently and that’s because we aren’t used to the custom of being saved. But when the system kicks in, your dressing will change, you’re thinking will change, your way of doing things will change because Christ in you is working to make you become the best version of yourself. Not only that, but He wants you to reach your full potential which comes when we find our purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Indeed, all things do work together for good, the bad and ugly. God will turn everything for good why? Because the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God. 

In this process, sometimes I have felt like asking God why did you allow me to sin? Why didn’t you stop me? Am sure am not alone in this area, we have all felt that God should have intervened, but we forget that God has given us free will, He will NEVER impose or force us to do things, however, His Holy Spirit whispers to us every time alerting us when we are about to do something that we will regret. You may call it instinct, gut feeling, your feelings not settling in or anything else, but the Holy Spirit will always whisper to us. We on the other hand are the ones who ignore Him and the prompts that He gives us, and when we sin, we are filled with guilt, which the enemy will use to fill our minds with thoughts of, ‘you’ve already sinned God doesn’t want anything to do with you, so just be you, do you, that’s who you really are.’ Unfortunately, there are times we listen to the enemy’s voice more than we listen to the voice of God. What this does is, slowly by slowly we find ourselves digging a deeper pit for ourselves, instead of confessing our sins, we continue in sin, leaving us feeling filthy, worthless, dirty, unlovable, and we walk around with a load that is so heavy when we can trade it off to Jesus Christ. 

The salvation journey means, having everyday conversations with our Father and allowing Him to work in our weakness, remember He says that when we are weak, He is strong. We can’t walk this journey by ourselves, we need Him. He has given to as an Advocate and a Helper – His very own, Holy Spirit. When you can’t do it, you don’t need to fight on your own, you need to ask for assistance, and I can guarantee you it will come instantly. God didn’t intend for you to walk alone, no! Jesus said in John 14:15-18, ¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. He made do of His promise when the Holy Spirit came in Acts chapter 2 and even today, the Holy Spirit of God is within us. 

Are you feeling spiritually dirty and need some cleaning up? Jesus is the right guy for you. He will wash you squeaky clean. He will not leave any mark or dirt on you, and you will never be the same again. But it all starts with accepting Him into your life as Lord and Savior. ‘Lord Jesus I am a sinner, please forgive me of my sins, wash me with your precious blood, write my name in the Lamb’s Book of life, from today, I belong to you, I am a child of God.’

Don’t live in fear and condemnation, Romans 8 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” The flesh is weak and prune to sin, and anytime we give it priority and more opportunity to continue sinning, we will find ourselves in more trouble. But when we walk according to the Spirit of God, we close all the doors in which the flesh can thrive. Jesus crushed the law of sin and death through His death on the cross  ^2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

God has it all worked out, He has a plan, and it works out for our good, we are the ones who must choose Him, and live according to His Spirit. ^5 “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

As a child of the Most High, ⁹ “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Therefore, choose Jesus, choose life and have His Spirit in you!

God bless!