Do you have any gifts from last Christmas you have never opened? Of course not! You opened those gifts with great excitement and anticipation.
Yet, many who are in Christ have an incredible gift from God which they have never opened. We read about it in Romans 5:17. "Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." God gave us the gift of righteousness the moment we believed in Jesus Christ for our salvation. It is already yours, but is it possible you are one of those who has not opened it yet? Here is what I mean. When you truly believe that your identity in Christ means that you are righteous, only then have you opened that precious gift. In believing this, you begin to revel in the reality of God's unconditional acceptance of you.
From age 9, I knew that God accepted me into heaven because of my faith in Christ but I did not know that he accepted me as a Christian. Because I had not opened the gift of righteousness, I was blinded to the fact that I had a "work for God's acceptance" mentality. As a consequence, over time, I began to unravel. When God made clear to me at age 32 that He unconditionally accepted me, my self-worth improved, my marriage improved, my spiritual growth improved and my health improved. I have never been the same!
I asked a man one time, "How righteous are you?" He said, "It depends on the day." Like many Christians, he was equating his obedience to God with how righteous he was, but his life was falling apart. Counseling and discipling thousands of Christians, we have discovered at Grace Life International that this is a central issue for every Christian.
2 Corinthians says it this way, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Do you see it? God gave us His own righteousness so that it is now our righteousness. You can't get any more righteous than that!
A lady who recently learned that God had made her righteous the moment she placed her faith in Christ, cried with joy saying she had been struggling with God's acceptance and being loveable.
God made you acceptable and loveable to Him when He gave you the gift of righteousness! Why don't you do yourself a favor and tell God that you believe He made you righteous in Christ even if you don't feel like it is true? Then pray it as often as you can and watch what happens. Otherwise you will be working really hard to be more righteous and wonder why you feel so defeated. And if you want to help someone else truly celebrate Christmas this year, pass this on so they can choose to agree with God and open their gift of righteousness too!
Comfort and joy are available to those who open this free gift.
Merry Christmas in Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding
Yet, many who are in Christ have an incredible gift from God which they have never opened. We read about it in Romans 5:17. "Those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." God gave us the gift of righteousness the moment we believed in Jesus Christ for our salvation. It is already yours, but is it possible you are one of those who has not opened it yet? Here is what I mean. When you truly believe that your identity in Christ means that you are righteous, only then have you opened that precious gift. In believing this, you begin to revel in the reality of God's unconditional acceptance of you.
From age 9, I knew that God accepted me into heaven because of my faith in Christ but I did not know that he accepted me as a Christian. Because I had not opened the gift of righteousness, I was blinded to the fact that I had a "work for God's acceptance" mentality. As a consequence, over time, I began to unravel. When God made clear to me at age 32 that He unconditionally accepted me, my self-worth improved, my marriage improved, my spiritual growth improved and my health improved. I have never been the same!
I asked a man one time, "How righteous are you?" He said, "It depends on the day." Like many Christians, he was equating his obedience to God with how righteous he was, but his life was falling apart. Counseling and discipling thousands of Christians, we have discovered at Grace Life International that this is a central issue for every Christian.
2 Corinthians says it this way, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Do you see it? God gave us His own righteousness so that it is now our righteousness. You can't get any more righteous than that!
A lady who recently learned that God had made her righteous the moment she placed her faith in Christ, cried with joy saying she had been struggling with God's acceptance and being loveable.
God made you acceptable and loveable to Him when He gave you the gift of righteousness! Why don't you do yourself a favor and tell God that you believe He made you righteous in Christ even if you don't feel like it is true? Then pray it as often as you can and watch what happens. Otherwise you will be working really hard to be more righteous and wonder why you feel so defeated. And if you want to help someone else truly celebrate Christmas this year, pass this on so they can choose to agree with God and open their gift of righteousness too!
Comfort and joy are available to those who open this free gift.
Merry Christmas in Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com
All Content Copyright © 2012 Mark Maulding
