Don’t let your disappointment in who you think Jesus should be, distract you from who He is.
My passion in life is that God did not create us just to fight our sin nature; He put us here to bask in the glory of His love. There are enough Christians around to remind you of the fire and brimstone that accompanies an unrepentant heart. We know that the wages of sin are death. I want to represent a more positive corollary proposition. For those non-math whizzes, a corollary is a proposition that can be readily deduced from the original proposition or is self-evident from its proof.
Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
MY APPROACH
Shorthand – Do we do good so God will love us, or because God already loves us, we do good?
Do you believe in God to avoid the pain of damnation, or has God’s love been so incredible in your life that you want to share it with others? You will never be good enough to save yourself or anyone else, but you are already good enough to love yourself and others. You are God’s creation, the work of His hands.
1 John 4:19, “We love him, because he first loved us.”
Once we stop fixating on the things we shouldn’t do, we open our eyes to the things we should. Once we cast off the chains of fighting against sin, we free ourselves to freely and openly love others. Rather than spending our lives trying to demonstrate perfection, how about we spend our lives sharing the love that God is raining down on us.
It is impossible to sin and reflect God’s love at the same time. We can spend our time beating ourselves up over sin or spend our time loving God and demonstrating that love to others. In my opinion, the second approach is more rewarding. The second approach leads to a life worth living.
Because of God’s love, we will want to avoid sin (which separates us from God), and we will want to attract others to that love. We will not be tied legalistically to rules, but we will want to please God and show His love to everyone.
HEALTHY FEAR
Proverbs 16:6, “Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the Lord evil is avoided.”
When the Bible refers to the “fear of the Lord,” it means having deep respect, reverence, and awe for God’s power and authority. Rather than causing someone to be afraid of God, a proper “fear of the Lord” leads one to love Him.
We cannot find our purpose in life if we do not grieve for those God has put on our path. If you only “care about people” or “worry about people” in the mission field God places you, is that enough? Do we feel compassion and love because we understand, from our own experience, the condition of their hearts?
Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor inspirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”
To be the person God had created you to be, you have to focus on the right things; you have to free yourself from worldly perceptions and bias. When you understand the original condition of your heart and the pain associated with it, you can become more compassionate with others. Forgiving and loving others starts with understanding what got you here. What got you here is God’s unconditional love for you despite who you were or what you had done. When you stop running from damnation and start running toward love, you begin to live the life God has always wanted for you.
CONTRITION AS A BLESSING
Requirement for a humble and contrite heart: (The Essential Commandment “A Disciples Guide to Loving God and Others”, Greg Ogden)
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- A person with a “broken heart” has given up the pretense of pretended goodness.
- The person with a “broken heart” has no room for self-righteous judgment of others.
- Those whose hearts are broken are eminently teachable.
- Finally, the humble and contrite heart draws delight from the Father.
It is not and will never be about us. It will always be about Him.
Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”