Piper-How to approach God when I feel bad
This article(link above) reminded me that the Christian life is designed by the Designer to be a fight. He has set it up that way. When we expect it to be anything other than a fight, we’re not expecting what he has promised will happen. We will have to always be wrestling to enjoy, love and appreciate God in the way He deserves. The cool thing is that He gives us grace through his Spirit (the comforter) to endure-and more than endure the fight. Steve (a friend of mine) said something interesting to me the other day. He said that as Christians, when we are feeling weak, unworthy, insecure and lame, it is because we are probably more aware of our performance than Christ’s performance on our behalf. Over-focusing on our performance leads to feeling bleak, but focusing on his performance leads to gratitude and wonder and before we know it, the good stuff-worship from the heart, not just the lips. Spurgeon: ‘For every one look at ourselves we should take ten looks at Jesus!’
In our striving to be humble and repentant of sin (which we should do!), let’s not forget that that our righteousness is not our own. Let’s kill sin by trusting the promise of God, that He remembers our sins no more. I think this glorifies Jesus and His shout that it finished!
