By Marni Montanez
Acts 24:16 New Life Version
I always try to live so my own heart tells me I am not guilty before God or man
This is an admirable goal and with the help of the Holy Spirit it is an attainable goal; that is why it is imperative that we surrender to God. We cannot live a perfect or holy life without God’s intervention. Attempting to do so will cause us to slip into arrogance as the pharisees did. We must fall into the grace of God as He moves through us to will and to want for His good pleasure - Philippians 2:13.
The verse speaks of an honorable lifestyle guided by the Holy Spirit. God calls us to walk guiltless in our lives through His Son’s righteousness. Jesus dying on the cross was our bridge into the Kingdom of God and His purity. Once we step into this spiritual abundance, we can let our flesh; our carnal desires blow away in the wind of grace as we stand firm and strong in His acceptance.
We still have the freedom of choice and our choice to follow Christ is a decision based on all or nothing. We can’t sort of follow Him and in this world we cannot follow Him in our own strength or with our own wisdom; doing so means we willingly imprison our souls with our carnal nature.
There are ways we act or things we do that aren’t very Christian. No one ever sees or knows about these deep hidden flaws, and it takes a lot of energy to keep them well hidden and safe from public scrutiny. These kinds of un-disclosures can produce a weighty guilt that prevents us from being at peace. In order to have a heart that is not guilty, we must dig up those unnecessary secrets and allow God to clean every area of our heart.
We are supposed to be guiltless in all we do and say. This can only happen as we walk with God, surrendered and obedient. Only in this reflection of a pure heart will others be able to see God in us.
Challenge: challenge yourself to listen with your heart to what the bible is saying and what the Holy Spirit is saying directly to you and obey.
God bless
Marni
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The
purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate,
and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through
Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord
require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your
God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or
crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the
standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for
the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not
Christian.