Bible Verses to Explore: 2 Timothy 1:12
Are you afraid to give Jesus control of your life because you don’t think you will be able to live up to God’s expectations?
God can handle it if you make mistakes. God doesn’t expect you to change overnight or do the things He asks you to do all by yourself.
When you have faith in God, (when you believe that God will do what he says), your old desires leave. God not only forgives your past sins, his forgiveness extends to cover all of your future shortcomings, too. Then the Holy Spirit begins to gently lead you in the direction God wants you to go. He will never leave you to struggle alone. He’s always there to hold your hand and help you along. The Spirit will guide you and protect you from future temptations and even from your own weaknesses.
Also, once you have confessed and turned away from your sin and made Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life, you no longer need to feel ashamed of your past. The
Prophet Micah wrote, “You will again have compassion on us: you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” Micah is saying that if we have faith in Jesus, He has removed our sin so completely that it is as if He hurled them into the depths of the sea. Then, in Hebrews 8:12 God said, “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” When we confessed and repented of our sin, God forgave us and chose to never even think about our sin again. It is gone! No more guilt. No more shame. If God forgives us and forgets our sin, we should give ourselves the same grace.
Finally, you don’t need to feel ashamed of being an imperfect Christian. Paul, the writer of today’s Bible verse, 2 Timothy 1:12, was in prison because of his faith in Jesus. While he his imprisonment wasn’t due to any crime he committed, Paul had a past of having committed serious offenses against God and Christians, including approving of the murder of those who followed Jesus. Even with all that baggage, Paul said, “I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” Praise God! God is able to forgive our sin and remove our guilt and shame - eternally!
Luke 9:23-25 gives us the key to living a forgiven, shame-free, guilt-free life: Put ourselves aside and focus on living in obedience to God with Jesus as our center. These verses read, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” This is a daily, moment by moment decision – confess, repent, put the past in the past, and follow Jesus whole-heartedly. When we intentionally choose to live this we, we can put guilt and shame to rest in the depths of the sea, and replace them with the joy of being a child of God.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, I believe You will forgive all of my sins, past, present, and future. I trust You with my life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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