I need to decelerate a bit, God!

We have been made right with God because of our faith. So we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through our faith, Christ has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we are very happy because of the hope we have of sharing God’s glory.  (Romans 5:1-2)

Been made right - that is past-tense, my friends. We have right-standing with God ALREADY. In the day-to-day living we continue to do on this earth, God is still at work in our lives, not to change our 'standing' with him, but to help bring us out old patterns of living into the freshness and joy of living by the standards he proclaims over our lives. Sin is still at work around us - temptation still exists. Our 'standing' with God is good in spite of all the evil around us, attempting to pull us back into old patterns of living. If we trust in Jesus, having placed our faith in his 'finished work' within us, we are 'made right' and stand 'right' in God's eyes. 

Do we always 'do right'? Unfortunately, no. We sometimes give into that temptation to live according to the old patterns sin had established so well in our lives. It doesn't make us any less 'right' with God, though. It makes us weak, in need of his strength to overcome those temptations, but it doesn't mean we are outside of God's grace. We may not 'feel' much different at times, simply because those old patterns have a way of leaving us feeling rather guilty or shameful over some of our actions. Know this - what God begins, he brings to fruition. He doesn't leave stuff 'half-done' in our lives. 

What we do with moments of weakness matters. If we wallow in the self-pity of 'woe is me, I've sinned again', we will soon wallow in all manner of shame and the heaviness of our guilt will somehow convince us it is 'impossible' to live without that sin in our lives. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it may be an uphill battle for a bit until we finally realize that God has a better plan, helping us break the cycle of temptation pulling us into sin one link at a time. Just as a car's engine must go through the gears one at a time in ever decreasing deceleration of the engine, we might find ourselves going through temptation's 'deceleration' one 'gear at a time'. 

Don't be overwhelmed by sin, but if you find yourself headed into that territory from time to time, know that you have a God who is merciful and wants to show you how to 'decelerate' when you are headed toward your next temptation! You might find you never reach your intended destination as he does! Just sayin!