A Bad Dream

Have you ever wondered what a three-year-old dreams about?

Our son TJ awoke in a panic during the night recently after having a nightmare. He was crying and yelling for his mom because I had thrown his prized Finding Nemo chap stick outside. I tried to tell him that I had done no such thing, but seeing me only made him more upset. "You're mean," he screamed at me. Even when I produced the chap stick in question from the shelf where it always resides, his only response was, "Please don't throw it outside again."

Sometimes it can be hard to separate fiction from reality. What we know must be true doesn't always pan out. Sometimes the reason for this is we have been deceived.

Satan loves to make Christians think less of themselves. He will endlessly remind us of our past mistakes, and try to convince us that we are no better than what we used to be. Don't identify yourself by what you used to do; instead, we should understand who we are in Christ—forgiven children of God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. 

Paul told the Thessalonian believers that the ungodly will not inherit the kingdom of God, and his list of offenses included drunkards, murderers, sexually immoral, thieves, and pagans. He continued, “Such were some of you, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. (1Thessalonians 6:9-11).”

Paul made their sin past tense. They were no longer immoral because they had been washed; they were no longer pagans because they had been sanctified; they were no longer thieves because they had been justified. So the next time anyone tells you, “once an alcoholic (or any other form of sin), always an alcoholic,” remember this verse. Once you have been set free, you are free indeed.

Believing you are still what you once were is as silly as thinking I threw chap stick outside at 2:00 AM.