The King and i

"Because I have cleansed you, and you were not cleansed." Ezekiel 24:13

Wow. This one stood out to me this morning! The Israelites were God's chosen and beloved people that He had brought out of Egypt. Over the years they began to worship other gods as well as the One True God. Basically, they were having an affair with their Beloved. God likened them to a prostitute because they choose to break the covenant they had made with Him. Even though He had cleansed them, they were not cleansed...they choose to not be clean.

So God can do something and I can choose to go against what He has done. He can do something and I can choose not to believe it.

That got me thinking about some things.

Just like the Israelites, I too made a covenant with the Most High God when I asked Jesus to live in my heart. I am His beloved.

God says I am a new creation.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And because Jesus lives in me I am really righteous!
"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I am really chosen.
I am really royal.
I am really holy.
I really belong to God.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." (2 Peter 2:9)

I can choose to really set my mind to agree with these truths, or I can choose to believe that I'm unworthy, that I'm not righteous, that I'm not really God's daughter, that He really doesn't hear me, that He doesn't really move on my behalf, that my prayers aren't effective and powerful, etc. The list goes on and on and on and on...

"Lord, thank You for Your encouragement! You have cleansed (purified) me! You have made me into a new creation! I am not the 'old me'. I will choose to believe what You say about me and about the circumstances I face today. I will set my mind and renew my mind in Your truth. I'm tired of washing my mind with dirty water--the thoughts of my flesh and the thoughts of the world. You wash my mind with the cleanest, most purest, most freshest, most Living Water. Thank You Lord!"