A Little Morning Reflection

     I lived most of my life not trusting that God loves me... even though it's the foundation of the good news found in the Bible. The church mostly reinforced that misguided perception and gave me religious prescriptives on how to better myself to earn and merit blessing and favor. "Do's and don'ts... Rules... Laws... Etc." A complete guide on how to earn and merit blessing and favor. THE most important day in my life was when I finally turned my back on these misguided and useless means of getting Gods attention and simply said to myself, "His promise is enough!" If God cannot make me and KEEP me in good standing with himself through faith alone... I have nothing else sufficient to accomplish that fact. No currency, no gift, no sacrifice, no offering, no work... nothing. It wasn't easy to come to that conclusive place, or to rest in that decision after years of depending on my own religious self-improvement (or self-righteousness). But, in time, it slowly began to sink in. I often feared when knowing I had done something wrong, out of character, or hurtful to others, as we all do from time to time, and would consider opportunities to take matters back into my own hands to try and fix things that I needed to trust God alone to accomplish. We've all found ourselves in that place. Left unchecked it can lead to becoming more deeply entrenched in every kind of irrelevant and destructive religious practice and pattern that, when applied, makes us feel better about ourselves through pride of accomplishment, but truly brings no greater position of right standing with God. What it DOES do is frustrates His goodness and grace in our lives, and cancels out the need to trust His love. There is no need to trust the promise or accomplishment of another when we depend on our own merit. And with God, you can't have a little of both!
      After all these years I'm still not without that urge to fall back into this practice. I'm human... But it's become much easier to trust Gods love than it used to be, even though I'm not perfect and often get it wrong. I no longer have to live with a self-inflated notion that I am such a "good Christian" and, as a result, I am much happier and at peace for having a more realistic outlook on myself and life in general, and how it all relates to a relationship with a God who has and always will love me. I'm no longer trying to follow all the religious prescriptions for being "holy" but living to know the heart of Him who did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. Romans 5:1 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through of Lord Jesus Christ..."

Finding Approval: Like a Mother with a Son in Prison

Coming to a place of actually believing that God loves us is difficult. Many will say they believe it, but their conversation will betray what they claim to believe if you listen closely for a matter of minutes. There is always a catch, a stammering, a "but" or "however" injected somewhere, which promotes the notion that there is always a need for change or improvement before we can seriously find a resting place in the concept of God's love toward us. It essentially causes us to believe that "God loves us, but doesn't approve of us." This has been a problem all of my life. Most of us live with this attitude and are willing to allow that mindset to be the guiding force of our relationship with him. Kind of like the notion that a mother will always grievingly love her misguided son who is serving a life sentence in prison. God is the mother and we are the kid in the big house. He loves us, but we have to become something different and pay our dues before he will bestow approval. It just seems like common sense in most religious perceptions.

Arriving at the TRUTH that he APPROVES of us is altogether different than coming to the realization about his love, and where most have the greater difficulty, causing us to jump through never-ending hoops of religious self-denial, self-loathing and castigating behaviors. None of which promote the peace that simple faith in his unchanging love affords. So, when you go to bed, turn off the light, and lay in the darkness with nothing but your innermost thoughts, THAT is the person God knows perfectly. God is not in a different room or building curiously awaiting your return to see what you've been up to. God knows the person that you allow NO ONE ELSE to discover. You may even try to live in denial of who you really are because the truth doesn't fit the expectations and definitions of what meets your own standards for public display. That is why we have trouble with this notion of God's favor... his grace... his love... his approval. IF others knew what we know about our hidden selves, our darkest desires, our selfish ambitions and codependent needs, you know, the "real" us, they would unanimously agree on our unworthiness to meet the requirements of God's approval. Yet he gives it anyway.

He can do this because the covenant we possess is not based on sin and punishment as in the Mosaic covenant of the Law. The Law says, "If you will do THIS.. then I will do THAT..." For this reason, according to the the book of Hebrews, God found fault with this system, because people cannot keep their end of the bargain. Heb. 8:7 "For if that first covenant had been without defect, there would have been no room for another one or an atempt to institute another one." His love for us is so great that a new and better covenant was developed and ratified, setting aside the former one, so that God's love, favor and approval could be poured out richly upon us by faith in his promise, Heb. 8:12 "I will be merciful and gracious toward their sins and I will remember their deeds of unrighteousness no more." 

God has given his love, favor and approval. There is no need to fear. We are NOT likened to the son in prison who is somehow still loved by a poor grieving mother. This love and approval is real. It is eternal and unchanging. So much so that his own life within supplies us with the very things we need to make it in this world. He works within to will and do his own good pleasure. Take a breath, exhale and breathe again... This is not "to good to be true" as most religious traditions would have you believe. There are no catches, hitches, exceptions, "buts or howevers" attached. Can you allow yourself to embrace it? Can you let yourself be set free in the truth of this powerful reality? Can you live in the glorious lifestyle of acceptance that allows others to be released from religious bondage as well? It's time to see God in the light of his own definition of love. (1Cor. 13) And it's time to believe he gave himself that definition for our benefit. Believe it, trust it, depend upon it, fall upon it, and know there are no means of adding something by your own self-effort to make God's love more stable, secure, sufficient or trustworthy. It's a gift for the taking. So why not make it yours?

Drink deeply...