Don’t Worry About Your Ability To Live The Christian Life by Maxie Dunnam

We have been pondering the way Jesus’s resurrection can crack through our worry. An important perspective on hearing Jesus’ word, “Don’t be anxious,” is to know that he is certainly saying  Don’t borrow the trouble of worrying about your ability to live the Christian life. This is something most of us have thought little or nothing about. Yet, I think it’s a big problem in many of our lives.

Recently I counseled with a psychologist who thirteen months before had been freed from a gripping drug addiction. He was thankful for his deliverance, but was almost paralyzed by his fear that God was going to place in his life something to which he would be unable to respond.

Worrying  about our ability to live the Christian life is a big problem for many of us. It expresses itself particularly in anxiety about the fact that we will fall into sin again. We know that we are weak and that we do give in to temptation. Our problem comes when we adopt a poor me attitude that says, “It’s always going to be like that. I’m simply not able to live the Christian life.”

To be sure, we sin. Hopefully, we feel guilty for our sins. But we must not remain in our guilt. Scripture promises that when we confess our sin, God forgives and “remembers our sin no more” (Jer. 31:34).  The fact is we are adding sin to sin if we choose to remain guilty after confession and repentance. We can exchange our guilt for praise because “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

So we should not borrow the trouble that comes from saying, “I’m sure I’ll do it again.” As Christians, we are in Christ, and we must live believing that in him we live one day at a time. We don’t dwell on the possibility of succumbing to temptation tomorrow. Jesus has set us free now, not tomorrow! Christ is our keeper today and tomorrow. We are living in him; as long as we do, he will keep us. So don’t borrow trouble by worrying about your ability to live the Christian life.

What are you worried about? Rehearse the lessons we need to keep in mind

Don’t borrow trouble.

Don’t borrow the trouble of worrying about your ability to live the Christian life.

Be aware of, but don’t give into anxiety about the fact that we may fall into sin again.