Your new life began when the Holy Spirit gave you a new birth. Why then would you so foolishly turn from living in the Spirit by trying to finish by your own works?

~Galatians 3:3 TPT

Salvation meant I had a new life.

My family moved several times during my childhood. Living in a new house and neighborhood, attending a new school with new teachers and friends was a challenge. I learned to look for clues about what others expected of me. Pleasing people and being good were my strategies for survival.

While the above two things are not the wisdom of the Bible, in the absence of true security, they made good sense to my heart. So, by the time I trusted Christ as my Savior in my thirties, I’d lived a lot of years depending on myself.

I came to the Lord out of failure. Divorce and single motherhood were not in my dreams. But when I heard the good news of the gospel, I knew I could have a new life.

 

God’s grace gave me such wonderful news. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for my sins, I was forgiven and accepted by God. The Holy Spirit came to live in me, but time would pass before I understood that I no longer had to perform and work to be safe or earn God’s love. Jesus would continue to please the Father on my behalf as I depended on the Holy Spirit inside me. Jesus would continue to fulfill the law on my behalf.

 

The one who is in a right relationship with God will live by faith! But keeping the law does not require faith, but self-effort.  

~Galatians 3:12 TPT

God didn’t want my religious self-effort. He can’t be pleased by anything but faith in Jesus. I had to stop depending on my efforts to keep myself safe by keeping the law. “For if the law could release God’s righteousness to us, then Christ would have died for nothing” (Galatians 2:21 TPT).

 

Putting our faith in what Jesus has done brings honor to Him instead of us. Everything about our new life and good standing is because of Jesus. Therefore, the good we do is because He lives inside us. All the glory belongs to Him.

It’s been hard to learn the lesson that I’m not supposed to be strong. The following words came as I journaled through sorrow over a season of so much failure. “I believe it’s true that my strength and ability are not what God wants to see! He wants me to cry out in my lack and weakness–‘Lord be all to me!'”

Think of ways your new life in Christ can change your perspective on your spiritual journey.   

Dear Jesus, thank You for living Your life through me as I trust and obey by faith. I honor You by choosing to live by faith in the Son of God and everything You’ve done for me. I cannot do it, but You can. You deserve the glory. Amen.

Genre: Non-fiction

Copyright 2024: A New Life: Caroline Power: All Rights Reserved