Condemnation?

Yesterday, a person accused me that something I did was wrong. I’d not been convicted that it was, so was totally surprised and had nothing to say. The devil, a liar and accuser of God’s people added a few more hits and I began to feel totally condemned. After calming down, I realized this was a spiritual battle, one of Satan’s attempts to provoke me to self-protection and stop me from praying.

My enemy is not flesh and blood, so I prayed for that person and the misunderstanding. I also asked God to show me if there was something in me that needed to be brought before Him in confession and repentance. The pressure eased up and sleep came easy.

However, I woke around 3:30 a.m. with that heavy sense of internal pain again, feeling as if I’d been wounded. With my hubby’s wise help and the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, we began to understand more fully what was going on in my reaction. The Lord also showed us what was driving the person who did this. Peace.

This morning, I was still not sure if I had been in the wrong. The thoughts in my head were vague. God reminded me that conviction from the Holy Spirit is clear. I always know what He is telling me. However, the enemy’s accusations are usually fuzzy yet emotionally painful. I asked God for clarity and He answered in the first verse of today’s devotions: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

This was a big hug. God assures me that even when I do wrong, it is forgiven. Was I wrong? Not if I was following the lead of the Holy Spirit. Was I doing that? I think so. Yes, I know I was. While our actions can never be a hundred percent free from personal desires and hopes, this time what I did was an act of love rather than selfishly motivated.

The passage goes on:

“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1–5)

More hugs from the Lord in those verses. Even though He might possibly have something else in mind to later reveal, right now He knows what I need to hear. What a loving God!

The rest of the reading takes me to the end of Romans 8. After verses 28-29 that tell me God will use all things including this ‘thing’ to transform me into the image of His Son, He says this:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39)

^^^^^^^

Jesus, dear Jesus, because of You, I am more than a conqueror over what happens to me. This event will build my spiritual life, not destroy it. I need to abide in You and trust You. Because of You, no one can get away with a false accusation. Any sins I have committed You have also covered. There is no condemnation against me and nothing or no one can separate me from the love of God.