In my last post, I wrote that we cannot really obey God fully and genuinely without a true trust in Him. We cannot truly trust Him if we are not convinced that God loves us.
So, love is where it all starts and ends.
Do you know that God loves you, friend?
Do you believe that God loves you?
1st John 4:9-16 declares how we are to know:
“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him and He is us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”
I always tell my students that if ever they wonder if God loves them, they have one place to look: the cross. Jesus died for our sins, in our place, so that we could have a restored relationship with God. God’s love for us is proven in the fact that He gave us Jesus so that what had been broken and messed up could be resurrected.
What had been broken? Our fellowship, communion, and intimacy with God.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given the choice to obey God or to disobey Him. The presence of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, allowed Adam and Eve to express their free will and decide to love God in return through obedience. If all the trees had been good, they would have had no choice but to obey. The presence of that tree presented them with a choice to make: trust that God, as the Creator of the garden and of them, knew how His creation was to work OR trust in themselves and operate in their own wisdom. Basically, do whatever they wanted.
Unfortunately, humanity chose to trust in themselves. Eve ate the fruit and then gave it to Adam. Sin entered the world. What had once become whole was shattered through one decision.
But the decision had been so cloaked in deception! If we knew the full impact of our disobedience, we would never be disobedient. If Eve knew the full ramifications of her choice, she wouldn't have made that choice. God had said that they would surely die if they ate of the tree, but the serpent came along and said the opposite. Plus, the fruit looked good to eat. I once heard a pastor say that it’s the good part of sin that entices us, not the bad. That, of course, is what the devil emphasizes when he tempts people. Look at the GOOD that God is withholding from you. How dare He?
All the while, Satan tries to downplay the evil part of sin. It’s not that big of a deal. God doesn’t care about you so you’re entitled to do this. Take what you need. Do it yourself! Trust your heart. You know what’s best for you.
Deception is so effective because when you’re deceived you don’t know it! I’m sure if people got to see the entire picture of their lives post-disobedience, they would certainly make different choices.
I believe that most, if not all sin, originates from this same place - the desire to get what we want when we want it. The trust in our own selves over God. The belief that God is somehow withholding from us and not only that, but that He’s not enough and we need whatever it is we want to be complete.
All of that is lies.
When obedience looks boring and disobedience looks exciting, we’re on a slippery slope on the path to hell. I say this so dramatically, because if we believe that to obey God is a chore and to disobey God is freedom, we are indeed the most deceived. In reality, obeying God is the greatest freedom and disobeying Him leads to the greatest bondage.
When we come to Christ, we are coming to a Savior who willingly laid down His life for us so that we could walk in this freedom. So that we don’t have been to defined by the sins of our past, but that we can be made new by His blood and redeemed into a restored relationship with God, our Heavenly Father. We don’t have to live as orphans anymore. We don’t have to live as slaves to sin. We don’t have to fall for the devil’s lies any longer. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free (Galatians 5:1).
Following Christ doesn’t mean that we are perfect, but that we are being perfected. We aren’t perfect; we’re faithful. We are being continually transformed into His image and likeness. And that means we are learning how to continually submit to God’s will over our will. When our will and God’s will bump into each other and disagree, which one wins? With the power of the Holy Spirit, we have to allow our hearts to submit to God’s will over a circumstance, trusting that because of His love for us evidenced in the death of His Son on the cross, we know that He is fighting for His best for us. We know that we can trust Him after all that He’s done to show us how far He would go to save our souls from the pit of hell and the devil’s manipulation of our free will.
Can you look to the cross today, perhaps for the first time with fresh eyes, and see that as the place where your soul was bought? See Him hanging on that tree for you. See Christ breathing His last breath before His glorious resurrection with you on His mind. See the love of God poured out in Jesus’ passion for you to live free from the chains of hell and to fulfill the reason why you were created.
See His love. Trust His heart. Obey His voice.
Live the life you were created to live. Don’t miss it.
It’s your choice.
You’re so loved by Jesus,
Colleen