Many people loose sleep worrying about where they stand with God. Our conscious is desigend to inform us when temptation, lust, or the lack of purpose has led us into a place where you can find no peace with God. There is no amount of money, or popularity, or physical pleasure that can replace the peace of knowing that God is pleased with how you are conducting yourself in this amazing world where he has placed us to be good to ourselves and others. However, there are times when everyone does fall into temptation or when we carry the burden of maintaining a habit or lifestyle that we know in our hearts is not approved of by God. When the habit is stronger than the ability to resist, you can then expect a healthy dose of guilt and shame to soon follow. At that point people either choose to allow guilt and shame to force them to find a way to make ammends for their sins, or they can sear their conscious with a hardness that eventually turns a caring heart into a cold heart of stone. If there is any good in you or certainly any God in you, then it's impossible to live your life without considering what He thinks of you. It is also impossible to blind yourself to clues that God gives you that you are outside of his boundries. it's also impossible to not want to do something about it. If you are struggling with feelings of guilt over mistakes you've made or habits that seem almost impossible to break, then here are three things you must know in order to have the peace you need to effectively move towards real spiritual growth and a healthy relationship with God. 1. Accept God's Unconditional Love- One of the greatest things I ever learned about God is that there is nothing that we can do that will ever surprise or catch him off guard. That's not to say that he does not disapprove of our bad behavior but what it does say is that there is no shortcoming that will cause him to abandon us. The Bible actually says that God will never leave or forsake you. It also says that God's hand is not too short to reach down and get us no matter how low we fall. That means that unlike friends and family who may grow tired of us for our shortcomings, God won't. God has high expectations of you, but He also understands exactly where you are in your life and how you got there and what it will take to bring you out. That should give you comfort to know that you don't have to fear God, and you don't have to hide anything about who you really are, because He already knows anyway. Every Christian should bring all of their sins and shortcomings to God and allow Him to show you the way out by learning to do things in life according to His instruction in order to get the best results and in order to get the kind of results that can give you peace with God. 2. Apply yourself to spiritual growth- The Bible says that God requires us to study his word so that you will know his standards and guidelines. You have to know what god says before you can do what God says. A regular Bible Study, church service, Christian programming, or even spiritual books are all great ways to feed your spirit so it can grow. And just like when you are serious about loosing weight you must eventually cut the junk food out of your diet to make room for healthier calories, and still stay within a reasonable amount of food intake, the same is true with your spiritual diet, you have to cut out many things on television or even in your activities to guard your mind against ideas and concepts that encourage you to do things that are not in line with God. You then have to fill your mind with spiritual things in order to get a better spiritual understanding. 3.Embrace Change- If you are committed to God your life and lifestyle will change. If you have been a Christian for a while and you have not noticed any differences in your friendships, your activities, or your behavior then there is a good chance that you are not seriously committed, and in that case why bother. Why half do God. God says that we should either be hot or be cold, but be lukewarm and he will spew you out of his mouth. That means that God does not need people who will call themselves Christians while doing more things that represent what the heathens do. There are enough Christians who are confusing people about right from wrong, rather than actually serving as witnesses for what God says is right. If you are seriously committed you have to be willing and ready to make some changes.
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