When my eyes and my mind were so focused on my sins, all I could do is “fear” God, telling myself what now I am going to suffer due to this sin or that sin. But when the grace of God brought my eyes and mind to what Christ had done with my sins, all I could do then was to love God and rejoice in Him. Only then that I started to truly love and rejoice in Christ living in me. Only then I was not ashamed of my own self. Because of Jesus, I am newly made.
This is why this simple verse is so meaningful to me:
“Rejoice always.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16)
