I have written about this subject so many times. My mind is resting like never before.
There is new meaning to this verse for me:
"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)
Yesterday, after 6pm, I pretty much decided to rest for the rest of the evening. I decided that I wanted to catch up on rest. If I am tired, there is no need to fight against it. Just rest. That's OK. No condemnation.
I was resting and receiving greater and greater revelation about the New Covenant.
Here's the text of it in Hebrews 8:
"10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
"11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
"12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)
What enforces the New Covenant is not something that we do, but something that He has done:
"I will be merciful (literally, propitious, provide a payment) for their unrighteousness, and I will forget their sins and iniquities."
Every bad thing that we have done, wilfully or otherwise, God will not hold against us. He will not bear a grudge against us. He will not use against us. Our sins and inquities are gone forever. That is all sin. If anyone has a problem with that revelation, consider that when Jesus died for all our sins, all our sins were temporally in the future! All means all! Amen!
There is nothing in the New Covenant which dictates that we must do something to make it happen besides believe it.
None of these conditions are contained in the New Covenant:
1. As long as you keep your thoughts clean and pure.
2. As long as you keep your mind fixed on Jesus in some way, form, or fashion.
3. If you go to church every Sunday
4. If you confess your sins once a week to the local priest.
5. As long as you do not have lustful thoughts or feelings.
For the longest time, I bought into this horrendous, painful set of distractions, that I had to think, feel, imagine certain ways to ensure that God would be with me. A sense of doubt, panic, and fear would ensue every time my mind would waver or I would get distracted by angry, bitter, or lustful thoughts or feelings.
For years, I have been listening to Pastor Joseph Prince, and I have been learning more and more about the wonderful New Covenant which the Lord Jesus has cut for us.
Yet, it really is true: it takes a great deal of time for all of us to understand how fully forgiven we are. It was so difficult for me to rest in the truth that Jesus is taking care of me every step of the way, every step in the day.
So much has been changing in my life over the last year. Yes, there was the COVID-19 pandemic, and yes, there were ridiculous, brutish lockdowns which hurt businesses of all sorts across the country. Many lives were shaken to the core, and families which had coexisted peacefully had to learn to get along with each other more deeply, more intimately, for better or for worse.
I say without any evasion or suppression that my life went very well throughout the year 2020. No matter how bad things were turning out in the world, my life was getting better. Much better.
The New Covenant, in which God is very much a God to me, and I am one of His children, has played out more than ever. For all that hurts, pains, and setbacks which I have faced, life is good!
Even if I am tired, God is still a God to me. His grace, His power in my life is not contingent on what I do, or how I feel. It's all about Him!
Everything that Pastor Prince has been preaching, now all makes sense to me.
When I think about my struggles with sexual temptations, I see at its core, my deepest fears, and the most profound source of condemnation, was that those perverse sentiments were cutting me off from my loving Father, and that they were frustrating God's grace in my life.
The bondage, the pain, the deception is so strong. Today, thank you Jesus, I understand fully that all of that is lies. ALL OF IT!
For the longest time, I would get worried upset, frightened, tense if what I was thinking was wrong, bad, negative, etc. Now I understand that the New Covenant, the grace and peace which God promises to me, is not dependent, not contigent on how I feel, what I think, or even what I do.
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