Friday June 2, 2023
John 3:9
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
I am prepared to hear some one say: “I have begun to seek God; I tell Him everything and conceal or spare no sin from Him. But the things you have described during the past week as God’s new creation, these things I have not experienced. Not the nearness of God, not the peace and rest, not the joy and bliss, not the aversion toward sin, and not the desire to do the will of God. What I have experienced so far has been principally fear and restlessness, even anxiety, with a few brief seasons of rest between.
“What then is my condition?”
In reply I would say first that every birth is painful. And the spiritual pains which you are experiencing in the form of restlessness, doubt, fear, and anxiety, are birth pains.
The Holy Spirit is in the full process of creating the new life within you. But this new life cannot be born unless the old at the same time dies.
That which you are now experiencing, the pain and restlessness of your soul, is life’s beginning: death. You must be made aware of the sinful things in your life and in your heart, that these things must die. Only to see this is a terrifying experience which may well cause you despair.
But do not permit yourself to become frightened or bewildered. It is the work of God in your soul. It is painful, but necessary. Thank your merciful God who is now putting to death your old life and transforming you into a soul that hungers for His grace.
And remember this: you experienced the new birth the moment you turned in all sincerity to your Savior and confessed your sins. But that which you have felt so far is essentially only the mortifying aspect of this birth.
But it, too, is part and parcel of the vital secret of Christianity.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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