Not a Corinthian....a child of God

I Corinthians 6:9-11 is an amazing group of verses. I have to admit that upon first reading it I was not inspired. I felt like it was condemning and just reminded me that God is a God of wrath and judgement.

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do
not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor
male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor
drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And
that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
God.

But then, a small word was pointed out to me: were. The past tense of “are” meaning….no more. Once you WERE these things, but now you are washed in the blood and sanctified by God. I have a hard time separating myself from the things that I once was. Satan is good at making me believe that when I struggle with sin the old me is not really gone and that God knows I’m a hopeless case. This is NOT what scripture says. According to Paul we will all continue to struggle against the flesh, but it is that struggle that sets us apart. This is not a license to sin….do not misinterpret what I am saying. But it is FREEDOM in knowing that we are still God’s children and He is still perfecting the good work He began in us….even when we sin. News flash: we are all going to continue to sin. Just because daily it isn’t huge sin doesn’t mean we are perfect.

Recently I have fallen back into some of my old habits. I admit that this was due in large part to me not trusting the Lord to make me happy for fulfill my desires. As a side note to any of you who think you can make yourselves happy: YOU CAN’T. I knew I couldn’t. The decisions I was making were fun in the moment, but even then, and especially later that night or the next day when I was alone and quiet, my heart was in turmoil. Scripture tells me that turmoil was caused by the Holy Spirit grieving my spirit.

How amazing! Amazing that my God cares enough about my relationship with Him that he has the Holy Spirit GRIEVE me when I am at odds with Him so that He can bring me back into relationship with Him.