God's Not Building Character in You Ever!

When experiencing times of suffering, many Christians glibly proclaim, "God must be building character in me." Nothing could be further from the truth!  God is not trying to build character in you during times of suffering.  Why isn't He trying to build character into us?  It's because the moment we responded to Him and believed in Jesus as our Savior, He put all of His character into us.  It's already there. That's grace for you.

2 Peter 1:4a tells us:  "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature."  To partake of God's divine nature means we were united to God Himself at salvation. His character was given to us and became our identity in Christ.  

It's not that we became God nor did He become us at salvation. We remain separate but united. It's like making tea. The tea bag releases its flavor into the hot water and we have delicious drinkable tea.  The water takes on the character of the tea, yet, they remain separate. John 17:21 says, that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (NASB)

Hard times are still hard times. Yet, God remains good and can use these as opportunities for the character already in us to come out. In other words, we get to live like who we are in Christ and we can ask Jesus in us to live through us to handle these challenges.  2 Cor 12:9 Each time he said, "My grace is all you need.  My power works best in weakness. So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me."(NLT)

Our enemy may tempt us to believe that because life is difficult, God isn't really good, He doesn't love us or He's mad at us.  God is none of those. He loves us and is good. Because we are united with God and can't be separated from Him, we have the confidence that we can go to our Heavenly Dad and talk to Him all about it.  We can tell Him how sad we are, how angry we feel, how confusing life is, how hurt we are and ask Him to speak to us. if you don't know what to pray, take comfort, the Holy Spirit is praying for you according to Romans 8:26.  And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for.  But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.  (NLT)

We may also need to share our struggles with a trusted friend or our small group.  Someone asked me recently, who Ellen and I talk to as our daughter's autoimmune encephalitis continues into its second year.  Mostly, each other, but we both also have others we can pour out our hearts to for prayer and counsel.

This may be a new thought for some of you.  If so, I pray God will make it real to you that He is not trying to build His character in you when times are hard.  We may experience Him in a deeper way but His character is already in us.  2 Peter 1:3 tells us this,  By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.  We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. (NLT)

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2016 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

You Can Stop Trying to Be Like Jesus

The cause of great guilt, gnawing shame and grandiose failure in the Christian life is often from trying to be like Jesus.  It sounds spiritual and noble to pursue this.  Yet, it is actually the curse of many Christ-followers.  Some keep trying harder. Some give up. Others settle into the mentality that guilt and failure are the normal Christian life.

My good friend, Diane Bumgardner, tells her own story of how God reversed this curse in her well written testimony below.

By Diane Bumgardner

Good morning! Another beautiful, cold morning! I so love the sunshine!! Just makes me smile to look out and see the sun smiling back at me!

I was a Christian for many years before I "crashed n burned" and learned the meaning of the verse below! I tried for years to "imitate" Jesus. I prayed for and received the power of the Holy Spirit yet I continued to live out of my flesh trying really hard to be a GREAT Christian woman!! But I couldn't do it!! Despite all my great efforts -- I failed! Over and over! I failed! On my bedroom floor one morning, desperate for relief from guilt and shame for all my failures, I cried out to God: "I can't take it anymore!!! I cannot live the Christian life and bring you honor! I just want to die!" God spoke so softly to my heart: "Finally! You are right where you need to be"! Then He spoke this verse into my heart: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh (in this body), I now live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." From that moment, nearly 30 years ago to this day, God has been teaching me how that works; this "Jesus living in me, thru me, as me" truth! I am and will ever be a work-in-progress! So are we all! BUT GOD!! Yes, but God is faithful!! He will "restore my soul...guide me in paths of righteousness"! It is His WORD of promise to us! Makes me wanna shout: "SHINE ON!!" On this new day filled with promise! Blessings to all of you!!

I hope Diane's story encourages you today that you are not alone in this journey wherever you may find yourself in life.  And that God's answer is Christ in you!

Believe it! It's the Gospel.

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder    

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!

All Your Failures Are Erased through the Gift of Righteousness

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with regret, even for a moment, because of past failures?  I have and it can take your emotions down to the bottom of the ocean where there is no light and no life.  The great news is that though you may remember your failures, God doesn’t. 

There is a fascinating Scripture in Romans 4:19-21 that gives us keen insight into this issue in the story of Abraham.  You may remember that God promised good ole Abe that he was going to be the father of many nations, but for years nothing happened. 

One day, he and Sarah hatched what seemed like a genius idea.  They would help God fulfill His promise by using a custom of the day which allowed wives to give a female servant to their husband for the purpose of impregnating her.  When the child was born, the wife would be there and the child would be considered hers.  This was the ancient way of having a surrogate to provide a child to a husband and wife.

There was a problem though.  This was not God’s plan!  It was the plan according to the flesh of Abraham and Sarah.  God actually wanted Abraham to trust Him to get Sarah pregnant through Abraham, though she was past child bearing age.

When you read that story in Genesis 12-25, there is no doubt that Abraham wavered in his faith in God’s promise.  But, here is how God remembered it when the Holy Spirit wrote Romans 4:19-22 through Paul.

19 Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness.  NASB

Do you see it?  Because God saw Abraham’s righteousness, He says that Abraham “did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.”  And that is the good news of the Gospel!  As one who is in Christ, you may occasionally visit the land of regret, but God wants you to “set your mind on things above, not on the things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2)  In other words, let the Gospel guide your thoughts away from regret and into the confidence of your gift of righteousness in Christ before our Father!  And as one who is 100% righteous before Him in your identity in Christ, your soul will be able to rest in the peace of God.

What are you going to do the next time Satan brings regret into your mind?  Preach the Gospel to yourself remembering that because you are righteous, God sees you as one who has lived by faith, not by doubt.

Believe it!  It’s the Gospel!

Live Free In Christ,

Mark Maulding, President and Founder

www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2014 Mark Maulding