When Your Heart Condemns You – by Desmond Ford
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Nov 30, 2015 3500
There is a great verse in the first epistle of John, “If our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts” (1 John 3:20).
Have you ever had that experience – that your heart condemns you? I have it many times a day.
What is John saying? He is saying, “Listen, you cannot help but be aware of how far short you fall. We are not praising God as we ought, we are not praying as we ought, we are not as thankful as we ought, we are not patient, loving, peaceful, we are not self-controlled. We are often intemperate. Our hearts often condemn us but God is greater than our hearts.”
The Christian is always a sinner, but not a wilful one. A Christian hates sin and fights sin; but slips, fails, and makes mistakes. At the same time a Christian is accepted in the Beloved. He is complete in Him.
Until we learn to keep justification and sanctification distinct, we will not see this glorious truth.
When the blood and the water came from the side of Christ, that is what it was, not bloody water. I am not being profane. It was blood AND water: the blood representing justification, and the water representing sanctification. They were distinct but not separate. And unless we know that when our hearts condemn us, we will never really be persuaded that still God accepts us.
The heart of the Gospel is that erring, fallible, slipping, sliding, and falling short though the genuine Christian be, yet he or she stands 100% spotless and immaculate before the holy God, because Christ has paid the price of his or her sins…
Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
The Lamb of God does not have to come and die again today because I said a word unadvisedly. He took away the sin of the world, He did it! He has paid for your sins and my sins of today, yesterday and tomorrow.
– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32. Adapted from, “The News That Shook The World – Part 3.
Chinedu Okonkwo
Jan 26, 2025
I woke up the morning of January 26, 2025, with my heart condemning me. I have been going through this for years; even on things as not waking up early enough to pray. Whenever it happens, I feel spiritually miserable; always accepting I'm not good before the LORD or the LORD isn't happy with me. I felt a nudge to search online on topics that could deal with such struggle. As I read through this article, the LORD began to bring healing and reassurance that I'm His own irrespective of what my heart spills. The LORD used your piece to heal me, especially as I encountered the truth of the Blood AND the Water from the LORD's side representing Justification and Sanctification. May the LORD be praised.