Jeremiah 29:11 can be confusing for some. Taken out of context this verse can be confusing. If God has these plans for us, why am I not experiencing them? Am I too sinful? Do I not have enough faith? The context however, shows that this is a prophetic text showing Israel the ultimate plan God has for us. However that ultimate plan does not nullify the disciplining work that God needed to do in their lives to get them to the point of ultimate blessing.
See also 1 Peter 1:3-9
It has been a while sense I last wrote a blog post. I have been engaged in other studies, responsibilities and writing activities, but as I was reading this morning I came across a word from John Bunyan that I wanted to share with you. The thought espoused by Bunyan is one that was first most clearly revealed to me in “The Baptist Confession of 1689”
It should be noted that at the time of writing this thought, Bunyan could not find comfort in it for he was convinced that he had committed that one sin that could not be forgiven. Nevertheless, this thought has been one of the most blessed thoughts for my soul and has done more to encourage me in my battle with the flesh than most other things. Bunyan writes:
Now I saw, that as God had His hand in all the providences and dispensations that overtook His elect; so He had His hand in all the temptations that they had to sin against Him; not to animate them to wickedness, but to choose their temptations and troubles for them; and also to leave them for a time, to such sins only that might not destroy, but humble them; as might not put them beyond, but lay them in the way of His renewing mercy. But oh! what love, what care, what kindness and mercy did I now see mixing itself with the most sever and dreadful of all God’s ways to His people! (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners #157)
To know that even when I loose a battle with temptation I am still in the sovereign hands of God being moved by His providence toward His mercy…this is a great comfort to me and the very truth that encourages and drives me to my father when I have sinned. Without this truth seated in my heart, my sins would always drive me further from God, but now I know that my sins not only do not condemn me, but are part of God’s way of bringing me into His presence to experience His great mercy.
Praise Him!
Do you ever wonder how to go about “overcoming sin”? We are told in Romans that we are to “not let sin reign” in our mortal body so that we “obey its lusts.” (Romans 6:12). But, how do you do that. How do you stop sin from reigning supreme in you?
Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead is never to die again; death no longer is master over him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:6-11)
Notice that our belief about who we are is influenced by what we know. We believe we are alive in Christ, because we know we were crucified with Him. We also believe or consider that we are dead to sin because with Christ we died to sin, and sin no longer has mastery over us. Knowledge of who you are in Christ is the key to overcoming sin. The more you understand who you are in Christ, the more you will live like that person. In other words if you know you are dead to sin, you can believe that sin is no longer your master, and therefore, you are empowered by your knowledge to flee temptation and thus overcome sin.
