We Do Not Goad Ourselves, He Causes Us to Grow and Go in His Love

  I am learning so much  about the truth of all that Christ Jesus is ... and is doing.

So many Christians think that we need to "goad ourselves" to achieve our goals, or to live this life.

I was one of them, and I was taugh to live this way.

Jesus was not mincing words or simply saying something nice when He declared:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6)

Jesus is our life.

He is living in us and through us.

He propels us, and He guides us, by the power of His Holy Spirit:

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." (John 16:13)

For the longest time, though, many of us still feel goaded by the law, by commandments, by condemnation!

Yet we are not called to be motivated by force, law, pressure, shame, condemnation.

We are called to walk in love:

"1Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour." (Ephesians 5:1-2)

God wants us motivated by His LOVE, not by His Love. God our Loving Father does not want to goad us with the law, but He wants us to grow and go in His Love:

"We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

What has changed for me, and has helped me to grow and go in His Love is the ever-increasing revelation that His love is a rich and present, never-ending, always-flowing constant!

His presence, His pre-eminence in my life does not go away just because I am feeling bad, or have bad thoughts, or even when I do bad things.

For the last two weeks, I have felt a great and growing freedom in my life. I am not supposed to answer, contend, fight with every bad thought that goes through my mind. Those thoughts are not even my thoughts, but rather the fiery darts of the Enemy. They come from the outside, so I should not internalize them inside. Why should I take offense or responsibility for thoughts that are not mine.

But then I still have some lingering premonitions of past wrongs, and I knew that those thoughts were not mine, but the fiery dart sting would still linger sometimes. 

I then learned that bad thoughts have no place in my mind, at all. I do not have to entertain them. Paul exhorts us to think on things lovely (Philippians 4:8)

But now something more has been revealed to me this morning. For practical reasons, I would allow myself to fall into condemnation, to allow bad thoughts and senses of guilt and shame to goad me. Why? Because I felt that that sense of shame, guilt, and condemnation were the only ones that I would be motivated to get anything done!

Kind of like in this allegory which Paul shared to the Galatians:

"23But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Galatians 3:23-25)

The term "schoolmaster" refers to an older tutor who would walk with the students to get to class. However, he was not just some companion, but was in fact quite rough and would deal harshly with children to ensure that they stayed on track to get to class. 

Sadly, so many people in the body of Christ that that kind of rough treatment is precisely what is needed. Why did I believe this? Why did my parents believe this? Because they did not see the vibrant, flowing, never-ending, ever-enriching love of God flowing in and around them. 

Today, I recognize that I was goading myself with shame because I felt that I needed those "reminders" to stay alert and watch out for myself. Today, I understand the fullness of walking by faith, which means that I see Him taking care of me every step of the way, every day! 

THANK YOU, JESUS!

Let Him Love You

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37)

Jesus so longed to care for His people Israel, and yet they refused His love.

Even today, sadly, Christians still think that God is someone whom they must serve, especially if they want to be loved, to be cared for.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Jesus, the great King who came down to minister to us all, announced Himself:

"For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

Notice that Jesus came to minister.

We in turn minister to others--when we allow Him to serve us:

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19, NIV)

We need to repent of this mindset, that we must do something for God to love us.

That is crazy!

Paul wrote:

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

We were sinners, and yet God loved us enough to send His Son for us!

We didn't love God, we didn't care about God, and yet He loved us.

John the Beloved writes:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

Love begins with God, and it was manifested to us in that He Sent His Beloved Son to die for us -- and that through Jesus we would live! (1 John 4:9)

Consider further what we see in the Luke 15 parables.

The sheep repented, in that he consented to be carried,

The coin repented, in that it consented to be found.

The son repented, passing from death to life, in that he consented to be loved.

That's all you need to know!

It's Not About Our Love for God, But God's Love for Us

"We love because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

I wrote in a previous post about maturity in Christ Jesus.

We need to see how much God loves us. It's not about how much we love God.

We cannot give what we do not have. We cannot give what we do not think we have, either.

Consider what David declared in his final prayer as he passed on the kingdom to his beloved son Solomon:

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." (! Chronicles 29:14)

We cannot give but what we have freely received from Him.

Paul did not pray for the Ephesians to love more.

He prayed that they would understand how much God loves them!

"14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Paul did not pray the following:

1. Do more for God.
2. Love God more.
3. Give more to charity.

Paul's prayer is incredible, and incredibly power.

To the best of my knowledge, this passage contains the only time when he wrote "I bow my knees", to show how earnest, how heart-felt, how emphatic his prayer is!

1. Be strengthened with might by His Spirit
2. Let Christ be at home in your hearts
3. Be rooted and grounded in love--His love
4. Comprehend, take into understanding His love in all directions
5. To know--to understand with greater awareness, even intimately--the love of Christ

NOTE here - it's Christ's love for us, not our love for Him. This revelation skips over so many people. We are so busy trying to love God, when we need to get "busy" understanding how much He loves us.

This deeper knowledge reminds me of a scene in The Wizard of Oz.

Towards the end of the movie, when Dorothy Gale returns with her three friends, she finds out that the Wizard is just an old humbug professor from Kansas. He doesn't really have any power, and there is not much he can offer to the four weary travelers who sought home, brains, hearts, and courage.

When the Wizard finds something for the Tin Man, he provides him a clock-working heart medallion.

Then the Wizards says:

“A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.”

Many people I know struggled with this statement. Isn't love about what you do for others, not the other way around? Isn't love an action?

No!

Love is about our ability to receive -- from God the Father!

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

Love is not about us or anything that we have done or will do.

God loved us, and He sent His Son to be our Mercy Seat. He is the atonement for all the sins of all the world. He loved us first!

Love is defined by what God did, for God is love! (1 John 4:7-8).

It's not about our love for God, but God's love for us!

God's Love is Unconditional--Independent of All Circumstances

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

This is yet another difficult message, a difficult revelation for me to accept.

It really is easy for us to believe that God loves us when things are going well.

Do we believe that He loves us when things are NOT going well?

His Love for us has nothing to do with what is going on around us.

God sent His Son into this fallen world without our knowledge or permission.

He loves us passionately, even if we don't get what is going on all the time.

I have received some interesting news, so who knows what will happen.

I used to wonder if God loved me when things were not going the way that I wanted them to go.

Now I realize the full meaning behind "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."

We love because He First LOVED US!

I love God because I know that He loves me. He loved me first! (1 John 4:19)

Part of the struggle has also included seeing God's love as something that cannot coexist with trouble.

That's not true at all.

Let's start with the truth. God loves me! God is in love with me!

From there, we take into account everything else that is happening.

His love came first, regardless of what is happening. At this time, it has become more than essential for me to trust, to believe in that love, regardless of circumstances.

To Be Rooted in God's Love, Be Established in His Righteousness

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love" (Ephesians 3:17)

God wants us to know how much He loves us. It's hard for us to imagine, the great Creator of the Universe wants us to know how much He loves us!

It's not about loving Him, for our revelation of His regard toward us is essential before everything else:

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

Now, how do we get the best foundation for knowing how much He loves us?

When we are established in His righteousness!

"In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee." (Isaiah 54:14)

When we know that we have been declared righteousness, that we are justified despite our failures and sins, we can know that God the Father accepts us fully. Love means nothing if you don't believe that you are accepted, too:

"Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." (Psalm 32:2)

Paul declared to the Jews during his ministry:

"38Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39)

Be established in the truth that through Jesus, you have been justified, and that your sins have been forgiven.

Then you will have no problem being rooted in God's love for you.