One of my friends wrote this as a note on Facebook. It was encouraging to me, so I thought I'd share it. Hope it encourages y'all too.
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Grace Abounding: How we should respond when we sin
For about two and a half years after being saved, I struggled with works-based righteousness. That is, not in the sense that I did good works in order to gain favor with God. I knew fully well that was impossible. "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly." (Galatians 2:21)
Instead, my works-based righteousness was like this: Whenever I would stumble and sin, I would lose my joy because I felt condemned. My standing before God, as I saw it, was ruined because of my iniquity. This led me to become very depressed, which led me to sin even more. This created a vicious cycle that would seriously harm my walk in Christ. But by God’s grace, acting through the discipleship and Biblical counseling of two very godly men, I learned how I should respond when I sin.
John Bunyan also learned this lesson after much toil and anguish. In his testimony, “Grace Aboundingâ€