New Things, Even Old Things Made New
Have you ever wondered if anything really matters at all? Why does everything bad keep happening to me? What's the point of having hope? I've asked myself these questions many times. I've dealt with depression for years, and even if I'm not enslaved to it anymore, it still creeps up like an angry beast inside of me. It's that darkness that I dwelt in, like walls were closing in around me. I couldn't reconcile my feelings of depression and loneliness. I even resorted to taking anti-depression medication which I thought would fix my "chemical imbalance." I had contempt for my mom when she told me that I needed to trust to God more. This response and others that revealed that other beasts lurked in the closets of my heart. Their faces looked like pride, arrogance, rebellion, impatience, and stubbornness.
It is only by the grace of God that I understand my position now. I realized and continue to realize that there's nothing good about me. One of the ways that proved this to me was the fact that I called myself a "perfectionist." If you know what I'm talking about, then you know it doesn't take long to fall flat on your face. It's pretty much a foolish way of thinking, like I could perform perfectly in my own ability. It sounds silly just typing it.
The gospel says that I'm not righteous, in fact, no one is righteous. That might be offensive to some people, or it might sound like bad news. It is offensive to most people because many people think that they are good. If you ask someone why they think that they are good, and they will more than likely tell you why they are better than someone else. But the gospel says we are not good. It is because, compared a truly perfect God, we are actually not good. God also demands perfection, and we cannot go to heaven unless we are perfect. Well, then how do we go to heaven?
The answer is the gospel. Jesus, the Son of God, came down to live the life we can't live. He was tempted in the same ways that we are, yet He was without sin. He also came to die. Not just to die, but to suffer, ultimately bearing the weight of our sin, all of the badness that has caused a divide between us and God. It's that wickedness in our hearts, the complete inability to live a perfect life. Jesus absorbed the wrath, the righteous anger of God towards our hatred of him.
Please accept Jesus by faith alone. He's not impressed with your efforts to be good. Check into Rehab. We all need an intervention, a Divine intervention.
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