{"id":5193,"date":"2014-07-28T03:31:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T03:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5193"},"modified":"2014-07-28T03:36:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T03:36:56","slug":"the-power-of-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=5193","title":{"rendered":"The power of righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0while back as I was praying, out of\u00a0the blue\u00a0a thought invaded my quiet time. This thought\u2014straight from the enemy himself\u2014began to remind me about a recent prolonged attack I’d gone through and all of the time I\u00a0had wasted while agonizing through it all. Without realizing it, I started stepping right back into oppression as I prayed,\u00a0\u201cLord, show me how much of my life I\u2019ve wasted\u2026if I can handle it!<\/em>\u201d The devil was busy at work, weaving a new web of condemnation, hoping to ensnare me.<\/p>\n

Well, I didn’t see it at all until the Lord spoke up in my spirit.\u00a0He said, \u201cYou\u2019re wasting time right now<\/em>!”<\/p>\n

“What?!<\/em>” I wondered.<\/p>\n

“You’re wasting time by focusing on how much<\/em> time<\/em> you’ve wasted!<\/em>”<\/p>\n

This \u00a0jerked my thoughts to a screeching\u00a0halt\u00a0and brought me back to reality: I am\u00a0loved! I am forgiven! I am cleansed! His mercies are new every morning!<\/em> He isn’t counting that against me!<\/em><\/p>\n

As I soaked it in,\u00a0a\u00a0familiar song floated up from my spirit. I sang, \u201cI worship You, Almighty God. There is none like You. I worship You, oh Prince of Peace\u2014that is what I want to do\u2026<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

I knew He was helping me. I kept singing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give You praise, for You are<\/em> my righteousness<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And then in a flash, I saw it.\u00a0All of my concern over\u00a0my<\/em> time use, my<\/em> fruit, my<\/em> impact, my<\/em> output, my<\/em> results\u2014all of it\u2014was allowing the enemy to sneak in to set up shop in my mind all over again. And I realized that every bit of\u00a0“my, my, my<\/em>”\u00a0was simply\u00a0dust and rubbish in the grand scheme of things. “My, my, my”<\/em> good stuff was never really mine in the first place (apart from Him I can do nothing); “my, my, my<\/em>” bad<\/em> stuff (including wasted time!) was nailed to the cross! What really<\/em> matters here and now\u2014and on into Eternity\u2014is one simple truth: Jesus<\/em> is my righteousness. Upon Him alone<\/em> rests my right-standing with God.<\/p>\n

As I meditated on that phrase in the song\u2014\u201cfor You are my righteousness<\/em>\u201d\u2014I sensed again\u00a0His cleansing, lifting presence surrounding me, soothing me, comforting me, and refilling me with hope and grace and strength.<\/p>\n

I knew<\/em> this truth about righteousness. I had\u00a0walked<\/em> in this truth. But I almost allowed the devil\u00a0to\u00a0rob me of that truth again despite the fact that I\u2019ve walked with the Lord most of my life. Never<\/em>\u2014not even if I walk with the Lord for\u00a0a hundred <\/em>years of\u00a0wonderfully fruitful service to God on this earth\u2014will I ever <\/em>be able to rely on my own <\/em>righteousness, my own <\/em>fruitfulness, my own<\/em> impact, my own<\/em> output, or my own <\/em>results. The only truth worthy of reliance is this: Jesus Christ willingly died for me<\/em> and because of that, I am free to lay\u00a0aside my own feeble attempts at producing righteousness, fruit, impact, output, and results. I have received\u2014free of charge\u2014His<\/em> righteousness, and therefore, as I\u00a0humbly follow\u00a0Him, I can leave whatever good that may come out of my life\u2014and every bit of wasted time, as well\u2014in\u00a0His hands.<\/p>\n

And that’s an offer I refuse<\/em> to refuse!<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that might become the righteousness of God in Him<\/em>. 2 Corinthians 5:21<\/p>\n

…not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit<\/em>. Titus 3:5<\/div>\n
100mg xanax<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0while back as I was praying, out of\u00a0the blue\u00a0a thought invaded my quiet time. This thought\u2014straight from the enemy himself\u2014began to remind me about a recent prolonged attack I’d gone through and all of the time I\u00a0had wasted while agonizing through it all. Without realizing it, I started stepping right back into oppression as I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-walk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5193"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5215,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5193\/revisions\/5215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}