Raised so we can continue

READING 1 Romans 8:1-2,10-11

There is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. The law of the spirit, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, has freed you from the law of sin and death. If Christ is in you the body is dead because of sin, while the spirit lives because of justice. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will bring your mortal bodies to life also, through his Spirit dwelling in you.

  What exactly does it mean to be raised by the Spirit? How can we be raised when we have not yet fallen? But we have fallen. We stumble every day. We constantly do our best to live our lives as good disciples of Christ. But we all have our limitations. It is our humanness that makes us fall short. Yet the Spirit lifts us up. The Spirit feels us with the strength to move on. To pick our selves up and brush the dust from our sandals and move onto the next step.

  The hardest thing about moving on is forgiveness. Not the forgiveness of others.  Not the forgiveness we receive from God. It is the ability to forgive ourselves. It is the ability to understand that our humanness makes us prone to failures, and yet God still loves us, still walks with us, still supports us, and still has faith in us. Jesus taught forgiveness of others, but He also taught sinners that they needed to move on with their lives. They needed to forgive themselves in order to truly experience the forgiveness of God. Ad we need to learn to forgive ourselves in order to experience the raising up the Spirit offers.