a cup of water

I’ve got a lot to unpack from this trip - spiritually, emotionally, and luggage-wise. I just finished reading a friend’s email, and his last paragraph was just what I needed to hear and be reminded of – Jesus’ death and resurrection and what that means for me. It sent me into a cathartic fifteen-minute crying session on the kitchen floor (I was going for the tissues in the drawer and decided to just sit down) with Jesus. It was good. It was raw. It was just what I needed. And then I read this:

a cup of identity

Besetting sins make me feel like I’m not a real Christian.
A real Christian wouldn’t sin so much, I think. A real Christian would have conquered lasting temptations.
Sin’s never a good thing. By definition, it hurts us and others. So when we’re stuck in a pattern of sin, bad things are regularly happening to someone.
Does habitual sin need to define us, though?
No. And that’s better news than we might first think. Besetting sins certainly feel like a master…and that’s precisely what Satan wants us to think. Believing that lie will send us into obsessive self-effort; it will sink us in depression by depriving us of our true identity.
We are not defined by our sins, even if it sometimes seems like that. We are the princes and princesses of a King, adopted as sons and daughters of God. We need to remind ourselves and each other that nothing – not even besetting sins – can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:35-39).

No matter what, as a Christian, I’m a child of the King.

101 cups of water: relief and refreshment for the tired, thirsty soul, by C.D. Baker

posted by Rebecca at 5:31 PM