Wait a second, you're thinking. Did you not hear what the doctor told you?
And I'm wondering, Did you not hear what heaven told you?
Christ indwells you! "The blood of Jesus . . . purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7 NIV). Then why the guilt on our faces? Why the regret? Why the shadow of shame? Shouldn't we live with a smile and a skip and a sparkle in the eye?
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That response to the doctor about my trembling thumb? I made it up. Quite honestly, I gave my physician a handshake, smiled at the receptionist, and called Denalyn with the good news. And now, when I see that thumb shake, I chalk it up to an aging body and place my trust in the doctor's words.
Do the same. For just as my thumb will occasionally tremble, you will occasionally sin. And when you do, remember: sin may touch, but cannot claim you. Christ is in you! Trust his work for you. He took your place on the cross. And trust his work in you. Your heart is his home, and his home is sin free.
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Max serves as senior minister at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, TX.
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Adapted from Come Thirsty: No Heart Too Dry for His Touch by Max Lucado (W Publishing Group, October 2004). For more information on Max Lucado, visit www.maxlucado.com.
1. I. D. E. Thomas, comp., The Golden Treasury of Puritan Quotations (Chicago: Moody, 1975), 266, quoted in Bruce A. Demarest, The Cross and Salvation: The Doctrine of Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1997), 29. 2. "Secrets of the Dead: Mystery of the Black Death," Public Broadcasting Service, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/index.html and http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/clues.html.