We are all sinners. We know that innately. Our heart tells us – our conscience bears witness.

When we do wrong our heart condemns us. We feel shame and guilt. And we should.

But the good news is that God is greater than our hearts. He lifts the condemnation when we confess our sins. He erases our sin when we accept Christ. He cleanses us from sin.

Your heart, and the devil, will try to keep you down – keep you feeling guilty and unworthy. But God’s power of love and forgiveness can break that bondage and set you free in forgiveness.

God is greater than your heart.

We are often pressured by ‘religious’ people to do the ‘religious’ thing. We are pressed to follow the religious crowd. But following the religious crowd is not always the thing to do. Jesus didn’t. Martin Luther didn’t. John Wycliff didn’t. And they paid the price. But someone has to stand up for God’s truth against the current religious mindsets that may not always be correct.

Don’t let the Christian Coalition, of the Moral Majority, of any other organization or person do your thinking for you. Get in touch with God.

We are also pressured by tradition which is basically the same thing.

And often we develop convictions about things that are not really spiritual in nature.

i.e. One may decide it is a sin to watch TV and try to impose that conviction on everyone.

i.e. Smoking is not necessarily a sin. It’s not primarily a spiritual issue, but a health issue. It may become a spiritual issue if you are controlled by it or if you are destroying your body – the temple of God.

My point is, sometimes our hearts condemn us when God does not. God is greater than our hearts.

If your heart does not condemn you, you know you are living rightly before God. That is, if you are saved, and you are doing everything you know to do to please God, then you have total confidence before God.

We all know what it’s like to lack confidence because we have done something wrong. The fact is, none of us is perfect before God. That’s what his grace is all about. He loves us and blesses us anyway.

And of course we don’t live by the law, but we should do our best to live in total obedience to Him and live to please Him. When we do our best, then we are confident that nothing will hinder our spiritual life. When we are not sidetracked with dealing with guilt and temptation, we have much more time and effort to actually serve God.

Prayer is dependent upon faith. Faith is affected by how you live. If you live right, your faith is high.

We all know that God has blessed us many times when we were undeserving. Answered prayer does not depend upon your deserving it, but upon your faith in God. But your faith is affected by how you live before Him. When we please God, we are confident that God hears our prayers. And when we are confident of His hearing us, we are confident that He will answer.

Remember this, your prayer life will be greatly determined by how you live.

Does your heart condemn you? Come and let Jesus make you clean and whole.