“God doesn’t want you to be self-reliant; He wants you to ask Him for your daily bread.” -Jim Newheiser
So often I feel like I need to be able to please the Lord and live a righteous life in my own strength… and when discover that I can’t, the failure becomes discouraging. But God is not looking for self-reliance; He is looking for dependence on Him. And not just a one-time dependence on Him. This dependence is daily, hourly, minutely dependence. My own strength cannot compare to the power I have in Christ!
Satan condemns–and even my own heart condemns me, but Christ speaks for me.
I have failed, but Christ never fails.
I don’t have to be perfect, because Christ is perfect for me.
He is constantly interceding for me.
Romans 8:33-37 — the Living Bible:
Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? Will God? No! He is the one who has forgiven us and given us right standing with Himself.
Who then will condemn us? Will Christ? No! For He is the one who died for us and came back to life again for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us there in heaven.
Who then can ever keep Christ’s love from us? When we have trouble or calamity, when we are hunted down or destroyed, is it because He doesn’t love us anymore? And if we are hungry or penniless or in danger or threatened with death, has God deserted us?
No, for the Scriptures tell us that for His sake we must be ready to face death at every moment of the day—we are like sheep awaiting slaughter; but despite all this, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us enough to die for us.