{"id":28600,"date":"2023-11-02T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-john-3_9-17-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T17:02:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T00:02:15","slug":"1-john-3_18-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-john-3_18-24\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Do with a Self-Condemning Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 John 3:18-24<\/strong>\u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 John 3:18-24.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

1 John 3:18 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n18\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 18:\u00a0 One of the big themes of 1 John is that true love is shown not just with our words but with our actions.\u00a0 When it comes to love, actions speak louder than words.\u00a0 I encourage you to memorize this verse.<\/p>\n

1 John 3:19-20 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n19\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 19-20:\u00a0 \u00a0Has your own heart ever condemned you?\u00a0 Have you ever wrestled with the thought, \u201cmaybe I\u2019m not a child of God after all or maybe God is not with me\u201d? The first way John says we can reassure ourselves is by focusing on the fruit of our lives, instead of on our feelings.\u00a0\u00a0If you have a tendency to be very negative and critical of yourself, if you are prone to beating yourself up and wondering if God is still with you, focus on the good things you have been able to do with God\u2019s help as a reminder that you belong to God.\u00a0 Focus on the fruit of your life, not on your feelings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But be careful how you apply this, for notice that John is writing here to Christians, not to non-Christians.\u00a0 John is not telling non-Christians that you can earn a place in God\u2019s kingdom by your own performance.\u00a0 He is telling Christians who have a tendency to doubt their own salvation or to doubt God\u2019s presence in their lives to focus on the good things that God has done in and through them as reassurance that God is with them.\u00a0 On that note,\u00a0let\u2019s remind each other often of the good things we see God doing in and through each other<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1 John 3:21-22 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God\u00a0<\/em>
\n22\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 21-22:\u00a0 The problem with having a self-condemning heart is that you lose your confidence before God and you become unwilling and hesitant to ask God for anything.\u00a0\u00a0God does not want you to live with a self-condemning heart.\u00a0 He made you to be confident before Him, to believe that through Jesus Christ God is pleased with you and that you can ask Him for anything and receive it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 John 3:23-24a (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n23\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.\u00a0<\/em>
\n24\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 23-24a:\u00a0 God is not neutral on whether or not people should believe in Jesus.\u00a0 He isn\u2019t like those who say, \u201cYou can believe in Jesus, or you can believe in something else \u2013 up to you.\u201d\u00a0 No,\u00a0God wants us to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, for only in Jesus do we have life with God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God commands us to do so.<\/strong>\u00a0 God is also not neutral on whether we should love one another.\u00a0 That\u2019s why He commands us to love.<\/p>\n

1 John 3:24b (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n24\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0\u2026And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 24b:\u00a0 The first way John says we can reassure ourselves that we belong to God even when our hearts condemn us is to focus on the fruit we are bearing, not on our feelings (see verses 19-20).\u00a0 Here John describes a second way: it is \u201cby the Spirit he gave us\u201d.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0whenever you get into a self-condemning mode, one of the best things we can do is ask the Holy Spirit to speak into your situation.<\/strong>\u00a0 I find that whenever I am feeling insecure or unsure of myself, I will ask the Holy Spirit what He thinks and find Him often speaking words of comfort, encouragement and love for me.\u00a0 For \u201cthe Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God\u2019s children\u201d (Romans 8:16).\u00a0 Since the Holy Spirit speaks words of love and encouragement better than anyone, ask the Holy Spirit to speak into your situation whenever you\u2019re tempted to condemn yourself.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You that You didn\u2019t make me to live in self-condemnation but with confidence before You.\u00a0 Whenever I get into a self-condemning mode, Holy Spirit please reassure me of who I really am in Christ.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 John 3:18-24.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\n1 John 3:18 (NIV)\u00a0
\n18\u00a0\u00a0Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.<\/p>\n

On verse 18:\u00a0 One of the big themes of 1 John is that true love is shown not just with our words but with our actions.\u00a0 When it comes to love, actions speak louder than words.\u00a0 I encourage you to memorize this verse.
\n\u00a0
\n1 John 3:19-20 (NIV)\u00a0
\n19\u00a0\u00a0This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
\n20\u00a0\u00a0whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.<\/p>\n

On verses 19-20:\u00a0 \u00a0Has your own heart ever condemned you?\u00a0 Have you ever wrestled with the thought, \u201cmaybe I\u2019m not a child of God after all or maybe God is not with me\u201d? The first way John says we can reassure ourselves is by focusing on the fruit of our lives, instead of on our feelings.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28600"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28609,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28600\/revisions\/28609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}