Joy

God’s grace is a vital aspect of our rejoicing; as the foundation of our rejoicing. Depression is the opposite of joy, and we should never allow people, circumstances or things to rob us of our joy. Grace is the very foundation on which the entire believer experience is built.

There is a glory that belongs to God’s grace, and the glory that belongs to God’s grace is to be praised on the bases on what God’s grace has accomplished. Sin is a done deal! God made Jesus to be sin for the entire world. Jesus was judged for those sins and died for them, taking them out of God’s sight forever.

Salvation is freely given to us the moment we believe the gospel of the grace of God, and no works are required or desired. The pride nature of man is such that man will always have that tendency to think more highly of himself then he ought, and everything we say and everything we do is filtered through that sieve of self, it is just our sin nature.

Rather than recognizing the unworthiness of the flesh and the imputed worthiness of the new man, we spend our lives trying to convince ourselves and others of our value. One of the ways we do it is by elevating self through the denigration of someone else. The unseen put down.

That is a major tool in our ego preservation toolbox. Being critical of others is an intricate part of maintaining that fantasy that we are perfect and others are somewhere a bit beneath us. That is why we are immediate in our defense of self, a wiliness to aggressively find fault with others, a way to be superior, to fell safe.