"Trials and Doubts"

 "While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:" (Ecclesiastes 12:2 KJV)

  "Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with you, O God? You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again." (PSALM 71:19-21 NLT)

 If there is one thing I have learned, it is the fact that we have our ups and downs, no matter how hard we try to remain consistent, there will be days when we have doubts: even though we remain steady and work on keeping the faith, our ability to sin, makes us very vulnerable and confused. Which is really normal, as it should be. We should always be concerned when we mess up, for ourselves; but we should never forget that our righteousness is from Jesus, not ourselves! 

 It is hard to walk the narrow path; but the path we walk is not ours, it belongs to Christ; which is why it is so narrow! Jesus says, "Pick up your cross, and follow Me," because He has conquered sin, so now we must die to sin, and follow closely and narrowly behind Him. How is that working for you? If you are like me, it is a pretty squirrely road; in and out, with hills and valleys everywhere I go. 

 However, He is never too far off to find me! That is the thing we must never give up on, believing that He never leaves up or forsakes us, no matter how far off the path we might go, He will always love and forgive us, over and over again! You might have some doubts about your own salvation, based upon your ability to mess up, again and again; but your salvation is based upon His righteousness, not your own. 

 If we could be righteous on our own, then He wouldn't have needed to pay the penalty for our sins...

"So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am too human, a slave to sin. I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong: it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it." (Romans 7:14-20 NLT)