Romans 8:1 NIV
“Therefore, there is now no condemnations for those who are in Christ Jesus,”
As you may know I am memorizing Romans 8 in 2015. I am doing okay at this, not great, just okay. I am reminded by the Lord daily about Romans 8:1. There is no room in Christ for me to beat myself up if it takes me longer than one week to learn a verse.
This past week I had a stomach bug. At first I thought of everything I could have eaten that would have upset my stomach.
After a few days I began to think maybe it was me that was the problem. Maybe I was worrying too much and bringing on this upset stomach due to stress.
I have a lot on my plate right now, that must be it. From there my thoughts went from bad to worse.
- Why can’t I just give my worries to the Lord?
- How long have I been a Christian and I still struggle with worry?
- What does that say about me?
- I’m a fraud.
- I teach kids about God’s Word and yet I don’t believe it.
- etc.
Does your thinking ever spiral like this? Before I knew it I was swimming in a pool of condemnation. And rightly so. I deserved to have these thoughts if I couldn’t give my worries to the Lord.
I went to bed early one night and the Lord prompted me to turn on the Bible app on my phone and listen to Romans 8 while I fell asleep.
It was then that the Lord gently reminded me of the very verse I had learned years ago and was reviewing this year. “Therefore, there is NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Hello! I am in Christ Jesus! “Therefore, there is no condemnation!”
I wanted to shout with joy. It was then I had a thought, Maybe I really do just have a stomach bug.
Sure enough, Kurt came down with the same thing. When I went back to work, I found two of my students had the same thing.
This served as a great reminder to me that the last thing I need to do is beat myself up and walk in condemnation.
In Him I walk in freedom! I choose to replace the lies I was believing with the truth of Romans 8:1.
