Welcome back to this week's Faithful Friday encouragement.
"No More"
We are just a couple days from the new year and for some that means beginning new habits and stopping old ones with a goal in mind: New Year resolutions.
In the last year , I have started learning more about accountability and have made several blog posts on the subject, and the ways I stay accountable. This year for 2024 I can't wait to track my progress and see what it will look like after a full 365 days.
We will never be perfect this side of eternity, , but I am reminded of Jesus' words to the woman caught in adultery.
John Chapter 8
Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman taken in adultery. Having set her in the middle, 4 they told him, “Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.* What then do you say about her?” 6 They said this testing him, that they might have something to accuse him of.
But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger. 7 But when they continued asking him, he looked up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground with his finger.
9 They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. 10 Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, “Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.”
Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more.”†
"Sin no more" Jesus knew she and we still sin, but He also knew that those who trusted Him as Lord and Savior, would soon have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them. The promise of a way of escape from temptation. We must choose whether we will obey or sin, at any given moment. You cannot sin and obey God at the same time in any given minute of time.
Romans 8:1-17
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.† 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 5 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, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; 7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. 8 Those who are in the flesh can’t please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. 10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. 15 For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba!‡ Father!”
16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
What better time to start to live for Christ than now, to say "no more" to those things that displease the Lord and keep us in bondage?
There is freedom when we begin to live for the Lord and obey His commands. Let's say "no more" to the sin and choose life today as we get closer to the New Year. 2024 may be coming , but it's never a promise. The King, the Son of God is coming soon, that is a promise with an unknown date. Let's be ready!
*All Scripture from the World English Bible
*Here is a link to some printables I made that have been helpful to me this year