Receiving God's Love

 

I grew up and then married into homes with conditional love. As a child, I wished on the first star every night that I would be good, so my parents would love me. As a young bride, I tried to do everything my husband wanted, so I would earn his appreciation and love. As a baby Christian, I made continual lists of every commandment, which I discovered in God’s Word, so that I could earn God’s love.

I strove for half my life to win approval from those I loved. It was ten years after I came to Christ that I finally realized that God’s love is not only a free and unconditional gift, but that it also lasts forever (1 John 3:1). We trust in God’s love for Salvation, and we can trust in His love for every area of our life (Psalm 86:14; Galatians 3:1-3).

We do not need to spend time or energy on trying to earn God’s love (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). Even when we were dead in sin, God’s great mercy and love reached out and saved us (Ephesians 2:4-5; 1 John 4:9-11). Nothing in heaven or earth can separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:35-39). We are crucified with Christ and He loves us too, and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).

We cannot be good enough, holy enough or spiritual enough to deserve God’s love (Hebrews 4:9-12). It is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). If the Christian walk depended on us, then we would have no need for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. As we allow the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit to fill our soul and spirit to the point of saturation, we bask in the Sonshine of His love.

Prayer:

Father God, as baby Christians, we continue to experience negative thoughts and attitudes, but we want to have Your mind within us. Remind us to set our boundaries to protect us from the negative people in our lives that tear us down (1 Corinthians 11:1). Please bring us to a place of inner healing and help us to walk in complete serenity through faith in Your goodness (Jobs 34:19). You live in us, rejoice over us with joy, quiet us by Your love and exult over us with singing (Zephaniah 2:17). You diminish all of our fears and insecurities, because You care about us (1 Peter 5:6-7).

 

Since God in us is love, we can love and forgive our self and love one another. – 1 John 4:7-8

 

 

Flexing Our Wings

“Our life is hidden with Christ in God.” - Colossians 3:3

In the various stages of a butterfly, we can see a beautiful analogy of our death, burial and resurrection in Christ. Our growth in spiritual awareness finds an interesting parallel in the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly. We come into this world selfishly devouring everything this civilization has to offer. Even if we codependently care for the needs of everyone we meet, we trust in our goodness rather than in Christ’s sacrifice (Ephesians 2:8-10). We continue in this meager existence until we realize our depraved state and call out to God for Salvation.

Many of us repent of our willful disobedience; but then, in the flesh we vow to spend the rest of our life in strict adherence to God’s law in a regimen of self-effort. We encase our self in the silken threads of our chrysalis of scriptural mandates. Forsaking the gift of grace, which God so freely bestowed on us at salvation, we seek to reach perfection through the Law (Galatians 3:1-3; 5:3). We feel the restriction of the shackles that we spin, but we continue to wrap the glossy threads of legalism around our life until we are completely bound up in the dark.

Fears and anxieties, which we successfully evaded in the past, begin to haunt us day and night. We feel changes taking place within our innermost being that we do not understand. Imagine being a caterpillar. Your score of chubby, little legs change into six long, skinny ones. Your round supple body shrinks to a fraction of it normal size. Suddenly wings protrude from your back. They seem to be useless appendages that will only be an extra burden to carry through life – if indeed there will be life after this dreadfully dark time of confinement.

We cry out to God in desperation, but He seems beyond our reach and unable to hear our muffled cries from within the chrysalis of the law and dead works that surrounds us. In actuality, He does hear us, but it is not time for Him to intervene. Our nature is quite changed by the power of Christ’s blood, but we do not yet appreciate this fact (2 Corinthians 3:18). The chrysalis of dead works is our prison (Hebrews 9:14). However, it also provides a certain sense of security, which we are loath to surrender.

Eventually we get fed up with our imprisonment, and we start the struggle for spiritual freedom. Slowly, we see daylight as we methodically emerge from the chrysalis of bondage to the Law and works (Galatians 5:1; Hebrews 6:1). Our personal struggle to free our self from these dead works equips us for our existence outside of our chrysalis. It is a vital part of the spiritual process. The exertion brings us to the ultimate realization of our utter helplessness and desperate need for Christ to live in and through us. We hesitate, poised on the edge of His new world. (To be continued :)

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for opening Your arms and welcoming us to come to You. We find rest in You, freedom in You and abundant life in You. We realize that this life of faith does not entirely exclude works (James 2:18). However, we only work in obedience to the promptings of Your Spirit within us (Romans 8:2). You set us free from the law of sin and death, so that we can live in constant victory through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, as your ambassadors in this world (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Thought for the Day:
As we look at where we came from and remember our bondage to the Law and self-effort from which God freed us, we find peace and joy unspeakable and full of glory. – 1 Peter 1:8