Do you ever find that sometimes who you actually are seems so different than who you are called to be? In times of sin, failure, and shortcomings, our sin looms so ugly and large that our sin can seem bigger, stronger, and more powerful than grace.
Though the sin story looks different from person to person, the ancient lament is the same. Through tears, we add our voice to that haunting, wistful melody of repentance: "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me" (Psalm 51:3).
Sometimes we forget we've been made new because we're looking within ourselves to see less sin instead of looking outside of ourselves to see Him who knew no sin.
And at the end of it all we find ourselves asking, "When? When, Lord? When will I be made new?" Sister in Christ, if you're struggling with sin today, listen to God's gentle and wondrously hope-filled words: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Sometimes we forget we've been made new because we're looking within ourselves to see less sin instead of looking outside of ourselves to see Him who knew no sin. When we're haunted by our sin and guilt and it feels like the old person has so much power, where do we look? An old hymn writer answers that question:
When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there, Who made an end to all my sin.
The answer to our shame and our failure and our guilt will never be to look within ourselves to see newness and goodness. The answer, always, is to look up, to see Jesus, and to remember that His blood has already made us new.
What about you? Are you looking within, or are you looking to Christ?
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