For this week’s memory verse, I’ve chosen a passage that has really been on my heart over the past several days. Though it’s definitely not one of the most popular verses in the New Testament, or even one most of us our familiar with, I believe it beautifully encapsulates the feelings of self-doubt and insecurity most of us face from time to time, as well as the best way to overcome these obstacles:

“For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.”

               -1 John 3:20

What Christian can deny ever feeling burdened with the guilt of passed sins? How many times do we dwell on what God has forgotten, and allow yesterday’s failures to obscure today’s blessings? Yet John reminds us in this passage of his first epistle that God is greater than whatever doubts we may be facing and, in His omniscience, already knows of our tainted past. When God chooses to forgive a person it’s not because the fact of their past sins momentarily evades His memory; He simply chooses not to hold them against that person any longer.

Whatever doubts you may be struggling with, let this Scripture remind you today that, if you have been washed in the atoning blood of Christ, a guilty conscience should be one of the furthest things from your soul. As John continued, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” (1 John 3:21) In other words, though we may not always feel forgiven, we need to be confident in it just the same so that we may “come boldly unto the throne of grace.” (Hebrews 4:16) When we find ourselves standing in the light of God’s amazing love and mercy, the shadow of yesterday’s sins will have to flee.

After letting the idea float around in my head for quite some time, I’ve finally decided to begin a bimonthly, continuing series called Scripture Memory Monday. Twice each month I will select a short passage of Scripture from God’s Word that has been a special blessing to me lately and expound briefly on the lessons God has taught me through it. It is my prayer that, through this series, we not only get into the Word, but allow the Word Itself to get into us by literally making God’s thoughts our own! For this week I’ve chosen Galatians 3:26.

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

                   -Galatians 3:26

For me, this verse is one of the most encouraging reminders a Christian can be given of who they now are in and through Christ. When the world gets you down, all you’ve got to do is remember Who your Father is and know He’ll always be with you (Matthew 28:20). Your problems may still persist and your heart continue to question outward circumstances, but you’ll have the perfect peace of knowing your faith in Christ is all it takes to make you a child of God. Just as an earthly father has compassion on his children when he beholds their weakness, so our heavenly Father has compassion on us and delights to show Himself strong in our lives (Psalm 103:13).

Wherever you are and whatever you’re facing in life, don’t let the fiery darts of the devil (Ephesians 6:16) get you so distracted from what really matters that you forget Who it is you’re serving. We aren’t serving a religion, a church, or even our own sense of moral obligation; we’re serving an Almighty God Who, by the Spirit of adoption, now calls us His own sons and daughters (Romans 8:15). The greatest honor in the universe has been given to the most dishonorable of all Creation. Certainly that can brighten up your day a bit.