Truth is... I can't see Jesus. I can't truly "feel" Jesus. I can't "call him up and tell him what I want" as the song implores us to do. This relationship requires faith for operation, but the journey is all about starting with little and learning how to put it to work in every human situation possible. Then, just when I think I've got a better handle on faith, a new situation comes into play that totally challenges and trumps my previous faith experience. To take it a step further... it's not even our faith we're working with, but the faith God gives us for the task of making this relationship effective. I'm grateful for it, but because of my humanity and need for all things tangible through the senses to feel secure... I fall short of using that gift of faith to its potential. I don't always know how to use it or apply it correctly, even though I've read most every five to seven step book on how make faith work. And... like most people, my heart condemns me when I fall short. Through the years I've tried to pick myself up and do better after failing before taking it to Jesus for consideration. Then I have to use the faith I've been given when I confess my shortcomings to trust that God keeps me plugged-in to right relationship. Almost like a viscious circle. The Bible says have faith, my mind says "do better" and my church friends give me umpteen million rigorous spiritual exercises to undertake that are guaranteed to make me more spiritually fit and fail proof than before. And I stand before God wanting to do my best, and feel condemned for not acheiving the goal.
Consider this. The Bible teaches us in Romans 5 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." This verse was the writers golden opportunity to speak the truth and tell it like it really is. It could have read, "Therefore being justified by BEING GOOD... or justified by being RELIGIOUS... or justified by keeping the LAW... or justified by paying your TITHES... or justified by going to CHURCH... or justified by sacrificing your first born child into the fires of... " The eternal truth was cemented in that verse. We have peace with God by the simple means of being justified by faith. Faith alone. Not faith PLUS something else.
God knows everything about us and is fully aware of our inability to continually do the right thing the right way at the right time in the right place for the right reason. But, he still loves us. We have to have faith in the fact that he knows all about us and sees everything we do. Good and bad. And he still loves us. While we were his enemies, he loved us. Herein is love, not that we loved him, but that he loved us first...
I was always taught to believe that what gets in the way of my relationship with God is sin. That somehow each time I sin I short-circuit the lifeline of his connection to my being, causing the need to start all over from the beginning. In the church I grew up in, we just got saved over and over again to compensate for our inability to keep getting it right. That perspective became like a concrete block around my neck and impossible to carry. I just couldn't get it right all the time, not to mention the unbearable weight of my heart under the condemnation of my own mind telling me, "There you've gone and done it again!" But I've come to relate to the Apostle Paul who explained his own struggle so clearly in Romans chapter 7. "When I want to do what's right... I don't. I'm forever doing the wrong..." Paul's insights should help us all to grasp the fact that sin is not the factor that causes us to become separated from God. However, a lack of FAITH, preventing us from resting in the assurance that he loves us is detrimental to the foundations of our relationship. Faith dares us to look at ourselves in light of the mirror of the Word of God and stand assured in the truth that his love is unchanging for us when we are good or bad. He has made the provisions we need available on a daily basis through the sacrifice of Jesus as the only spotless substitute. If we say we have no sin, we call God a liar and the truth is not in us. If we sin, we confess our moral and spiritual failures, and the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us of our unrighteousness. Simple. Sin doesn't seem to get in the way, but only a lacking of confidence in God's ability to provide in the situation.
Our best efforts to maintain a sense of perfect uprightness will always be met with futility and frustration. We are just not made up of the stuff necessary to accomplish such a noble task. We may have good intentions, but we just don't have the moral currency to acquire such perfection. But, we never cease to strive for following the perfect example of our heavenly Father whose ways are above our own. His perfection compels us to be elevated in our efforts to be the best with all that we've been given, to showforth the praises of him, while never accepting for a moment the arrogant need to believe that we have the means to achieve that goal in and of ourselves. I don't even believe that we have the means with God's help... not in this body. The body we live in will forever draw us away from all that is right, good, holy and righteous. That is why in the eternal relationship we have with God here and now, the just shall live by FAITH. (Never by works, lest we boast.) For all these things, he has given us GRACE. And grace is sufficient.
All this said, we come to the conclusion that 1 John 3:19,20 is deeply relevant to our human and spiritual condition and needs. "...so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, even if our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything."
God is good. We can't fool him, or hide anything from him. Face it... our best efforts are always less than perfect. But perfection is not key for pleasing God. Faith is the key. We continue daily to walk by faith during the good and bad times, success and failure, when openly upright or utterly fallen and remain constantly aware that when trying our best to live in love we can stand before the Lord in all confidence, even when our hearts condemn us. He is still faithful and greater than our hearts. And he knows everything. And he still loves us. Faith can have a foundation in our hearts and lives if we embrace his everlasting love. Fear and condemnation fade into the background when our minds become fixed on God's love. After all, it's not my works, or goodness, or religious fervor, etc. that matters here, but the assurance or faith that God loves us in our best efforts and our worst failures. So, even when our hearts condemn us, we can still stand confidently in his unsearchable love. He knows everything.
May the God who knows us and made it his perfect will to justify the wicked, cause our hearts to believe in his eternal love and rely on his eternal Word of truth.
Drink deeply,
JP
