We are not finished products yet!(1)

Philippians 2:12-13 …continue to work out your salvation …for it is God who works in you …
The accuser of brethren, the devil, keeps a lot of God’s children in the valley of despair, regret and anxiety because they have sinned. They believe or they have been told that no real Christians is supposed to do what they have done.

Consequently, they find themselves trapped in a prison of hopelessness believing that they have somehow committed an unpardonable sin. By so doing they continue to sink deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of despair as they expect no remedy or redemption. But is that the teaching of the Bible? Does not the Holy Word of God talk about falling seven times and rising up? Does not the gospel talk about free forgiveness of sin after repentance and confession? This is not to condone sin but to emphasize repentance and the power of God to restore sinners back into fellowship with their Father God.
Sometimes we Christians treat ourselves and others too harshly. We set for ourselves and others targets of holiness and righteousness that cause us to sink into despair and hopelessness when we fail to attain them. Apostle Paul pinpointed the root of our problem as pride, which is thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to. When we declare consciously that we will never do such a thing or that we will never say that counting on our personal strength, we make ourselves prime targets of failure in the very areas we profess to have strength. We also cause others to sink into despair when we have unrealistic and unjustified high expectations of them which they may fail to meet. Let us not grieve to the point of depression, run away from God and vow never to forgive ourselves or others because of a fall from grace. Do not be too hard on yourself; you are not a finished product yet.
The issue of holiness or sanctification is a progressive work. Holiness is a work of grace that commences at spiritual rebirth, continues in lifetime and consummates in heaven. This is a knowledge that, when one possesses it, finds deliverance and liberation in times of confusion and anxiety after some spiritual and moral failure. As Christians we are not to live in sin but we can sometimes choose to sin. When we do that we feel bad. However, our problem lies in the failure to understand the meaning of our bad feelings. We interpret our misery after failure to mean that we should have never done that bad thing in the first place and that because we have done it we have no remedy. Do you see the trap in this kind of thinking? It has no way out. It is full of condemnation. And it is in its failure to leave a way out and to clean up condemnation that it goes against God’s will and thoughts of forgiveness, restoration and holiness.
The right interpretation of bad feelings after failure is that you have the nature of holiness in you. It means you are alive to God and the bad feelings you have confirm that you have acted out of character with who you really are. The remedy is apparent. You do not have to continue regretting but you need to admit you have done wrong and run back to God. You are like a person who has taken a wrong road and must not waste time worrying and complaining about why and how they have taken the wrong road. All they need to do is to admit they are on the wrong road and turn back towards the right road. The other options are not helpful. Continuing in the same wrong direction will not solve the matter but it will worsen the matter instead. Remaining stationary at one spot in the wrong direction will not solve the matter because you are still in the wrong direction. So returning to the right road is the only positive right course of action to take.
Likewise when you feel bad because you have sinned, your only remedy is to acknowledge your failure and return to God. You should rejoice not because you have done wrong but because you have something inside you that indicates you are alive to God. Godly sorrow after sin is proof of your living relationship with God because dead people do not suffer misery.
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