Obstacles to obedience

"Are you sure?"

Are you one of those people who cringe at the word obedience?  Because I grew up feeling on my own emotionally, I developed trust in myself to know what was best for me.  I was obedient in the sense that I wanted to please adults and not get into trouble, but it was to protect myself from rejection and shame.  I believed that if I never caused a problem I could be secure.  As soon as I was old enough to experience alternatives to the way my family lived, I left to try them out.   On the other hand someone with the confidence to believe they will measure up may be motivated by rewards and praise which may have been used to manipulate them.  And on yet another hand, obedience can be manipulated by the fear of punishment if you have encountered harsh discipline from authorities in your life.  In any case, the Bible itself says that the law actually triggers resistance to submission and that is why God wanted to remove it from His relationship with us.  

 

sweet dove

Genuine obedience comes from trust that whoever is in charge has your best interest at heart and is blessing you with guidance for living a satisfying and successful life.  I don’t think it is about expectations, rewards, punishment, or laws at all.  There is nothing to live up to, only the unfolding and becoming of our true selves made possible by the Spirit of Christ in our surrendered hearts bringing about the transformation.  This is the picture of the relationship God desires to have with us as we grow up in faith.
 

Even when God gave the law to the Israelites it was ultimately from mercy.  To my new eyes the Old Testament laws look like God spelling out the many ways a heart of love for self and others can wisely handle various situations of life and relationships.  An “uncircumcised” heart doesn’t see God’s heart – only a picture of control.  It receives Him that way and reacts.  But surrender to Christ gives us new eyes and a new heart to see God’s love and wisdom and His care.

everything stored in our files

It's the knowing of our hearts more than the information in our heads that makes a relationship what it is.  Our child-hearts are filled with experiences of all kinds before our minds are mature enough to understand or accurately interpret what the experiences mean.  Moreover, the conclusions we draw are influenced by the enemy who whispers lies to us.  Beliefs form and become part of the subconscious foundation of our souls.  There they contradict and sabotage our attempts to install Biblical truth.  So what are we to do?

One key to removing the obstacles to faith-filled obedience is the fact that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and that he does not live constrained by time as we do (John 8:58).  The Holy Spirit and Jesus working together help to make us aware of buried hurts and lies in order to heal them.  The memory remains, but the pain is taken away and unbiblical beliefs are replaced by the truth.  The truth in these instances does literally set us free. 

exposed roots

 If you have become stuck and find that something is blocking your experience of God’s love and the faith to see the fulfillment of His promises in your life, you can turn to Him as David did in Psalm 139:23-24.  Ask Him to search your heart, reveal your anxious thoughts and your hurt-filled ways, and ask Him to lead you into the way everlasting.  The process is not a quick fix, but the only path I know to true change of heart, mind, will and emotions. 

When I first prayed these verses, I was really afraid of what would happen.  I was afraid to know what was in my heart because of shame.  I was honestly afraid that I would die if I felt the pain buried in there so I had become an expert at denial and dissociating from my feelings.  I had hardened my heart to disappointment and therefore to hope; to rejection and therefore to love.  I felt unblessed even though in reality God was with me.  These lies guarded the strongholds that God wanted to take down.

the old ways are gone

Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 when he stood up to teach in the synagogue in his hometown (see Luke 4:16-19).  His anointing to bind up the brokenhearted, release prisoners from the darkness, proclaim freedom for the captives (of satan) and comfort those who mourn remains today.  That passage in Isaiah 61 goes on to paint the picture of what the obedience of faith leads to:

“…They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated;

They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”  Isaiah 61:3b-4

from a garden

And Isaiah 58;11-12 foretells what would happen for whosoever came to believe and receive God’s love in Jesus Christ  with an undivided heart:

 “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”  And because our healing affects the way we live and relate to our children and the generations that follow, he foresees that   “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Street with Dwellings."  Hope for the future of my children spurred me on many times in my healing process!

We can’t afford to be deceived about obedience.  What a lovely word when it flows out of a beautiful relationship!

Perfecting Holiness through Love

the sun setting on another day of grace

If you have been reading all my posts on God's love for us, I hope that you are taking it personally!  This love is the foundation of our relationship and if there is fear in it, we will not realize our potential in Christ - our personal destiny.  The world needs to see Christ in us, and know that he is real.  The Bible says they will know it by our love.

Describing our life in him as a branch connected to the vine, Jesus says  "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you."(John 15:9)  Love is our life source.  How can we doubt that it is always there for us, or think that it can depend on our good behavior?  It is the enemy who wants to plant those doubts.  God does not hold the threat of His displeasure over our heads for any reason.

fruit from the vine

Continuing in John 15:9-10, Jesus says "Now abide (or remain) in my love.  If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love".  I always heard that to mean that if I obeyed the law, I would be loved" but that's wrong.  That would contradict the rest of the Gospel - the whole New Covenant.  It means that if I heed what God tells me, I will continue to experience His love and not stray from the intimate loving fellowship I am meant to have with Him.  John continues to quote Jesus, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."(15:11)  Jesus' joy was in being close to His Father, in obeying His Father totally and completely, enjoying their oneness.  The true motivation and the power for obedience is the joy of abiding fellowship, not fear.

imagine perfection...

We are meant to be the same way!  God wants joyful abiding fellowship with us, too.  God sent His son to open the way for it.  Jesus gave his life so we could join him in it!  This is so important and it is so easy to let it slip away.  We are loved.  We can know and enjoy God, our Father.  We can know and enjoy Jesus, our Brother and Bridegroom.  We can know and enjoy Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Counselor.  We cannot be fully alive in Jesus with our Father unless we let ourselves be loved fully and completely.

Because love is so often linked with our behavior in human relationships, it can be hard to understand that stressing God's love is not being soft on obedience.  Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:1 "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."  A verse like that used to press down on me with the full force of the law.  I couldn't do it.  I didn't understand how radical grace really is, and I didn't understand how grace leads to obedience that flows from the heart.

everything askew

What if obedience begins with believing that God loves you and you do not ever have to be afraid?   I am seeing that temptation toward disobedience gets it's strength from our fear.  And fear feeds on doubt and unbelief.   It works like this:  If I am not sure that God loves me and takes care of me in every circumstance, I start taking things into my own hands.  Efforts to be in control lead to conflict with others who have their own agenda for control.   An insecure heart will take a self serving approach to relationships, becoming manipulative to meet its needs.  Fear leads to anger when a person feels threatened.  Without love's softening it becomes harder to forgive.  Idols spring up when something we do seems to work really well.   But think what can happen when we feel loved well enough to ignore the threats and accusations of our enemy who steals the joy of our salvation, and the security of our relationship with the Almighty God of the Universe - who is our good Father!

staying on that road that leads to life

No wonder the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)  It takes faith to believe He loves us enough to let go and just surrender.  What a great day it was when I was able to see that surrender is not giving up in failure, but the only way to win the battles of the Christian life.  When I surrender my efforts, God can take over.  The Holy Spirit can fill the places I've held onto.  It takes faith to open up and receive His loving grace.  It takes faith to relinquish my trying to do it myself.  Surrender lets Christ do it through me, for he is the only one who can live the Christian life.

Of course seeing it and doing it were not necessarily the same thing.  It may not be so for everyone, but it took time for my desire to let go to become real surrender.  It is so simple, but can still be a long journey -- that of knowing God loves me.

(Next time I hope to write about overcoming the roadblocks to a surrendered and victorious life)

More on Love

life spilling over

Something very simple is becoming more and more real to me.  And the more real it becomes the more my faith grows.  What is it?  God loves me.

I can imagine a reader saying "You've written about that already!  Don't you have something new to write about?!"  But I have nothing new or more profound than this.  The more I see it, the more everything falls into place.

How much does it matter that we know how much God loves us?  I think we can forget how imperative it is to living an authentic Christian life.

Look at Jesus' relationship with His Father.  Jesus was a real man.  He had human emotions and thoughts and a will like ours.  I do not pretend to understand how Jesus' divinity and humanity worked together, but I believe that He had to depend on his relationship with his Father to live the supernatural life he led.  The Bible says he was tempted in every way as we are, but did not sin.  He was fully and vulnerably human, but he lived without sin.  My premise is that it was all about His relationship with his Father - because he knew how much he was loved.

wedding blossoms for His bride?

Jesus knew His Father.  He knew his Father was all good all the time, and that he was loved all the time.  Haven't you wondered how Jesus felt when he was lied about and plotted against and misunderstood at every turn?  How did he keep his joy (!) and compassion (!) and focus on his mission?  Why was the power always there to heal when he saw the needs?  It had to be rooted in the loving, trusting relationship he had with His Father.

I see the same thing with the apostle Paul.  There were frustrations and disappointments and opposition everywhere he went, but people were born of the Spirit and churches were planted.  Paul was able to love the unlovely and able to do miracles which backed up his claims about Jesus.  How can we ever have the same effective impact on our part of the hurting world unless we are also living out of that love?

creatures living with playful joy

God clearly commands us to love one another, to love Him, and to love even our enemies.  1 John 4:19 says "We love because he first loved us."  Verse 16 says "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."  There is no way for us to become like Jesus, his true brothers and sisters, his true Bride, if we are not filled to overflowing with love!

The writer of those words, the apostle John, referred to himself as the one whom Jesus loved.  I think he really got it and is trying to help us get it too.  In the short book of 1 John he uses the word "love" 33 times (according to my count in Strong's concordance), and 42 times if you count "loved" and "loveth".  In chapter 4:18 it says "There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love."  How are we made perfect?  Is it fear of being disobedient and losing God's love?  Absolutely not! 

a reminder of His fiery passion

Your Father knows you totally and intimately and comprehensively.  He created you and chose to bring you to birth twice.  He is an expert on you and He is delighted with what He knows.  But it's more than that.  It is your faith in who Jesus is and what he did for you that pleases the Father.  He loves that you love His beloved Son.  He sees your life hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3)  I don't care what you think is turning Him off about you -- it is not.  He loves you so much that you would blush if you saw it all at once.  At least that is how overwhelming a glimpse of it is to me!  Though we can never plumb the depths of God's immense love,  I believe the key to our journey beyond the narrow gate is that we are seeking to.

Destiny

time to reflect

This summer I have been enthralled with reading a couple of old books by Agnes Sanford (The Healing Light and Behold Your God).  I would love to share more about her remarkable experiences with healing prayer which make me want to re-visit my John 14:12 blog, but right now the message that is being formed in my mind is about our destiny as children of the God of the Universe.

  

not meant to just go 'round and 'round

I looked up destiny and the dictionary said “The predetermined course of events often conceived of as a resistless power” and “that to which any person or thing is destined”.  Destine means “to decree beforehand, as by divine will”.  So how do you and I think about our destiny or  the  purpose of our lives most days?  If you are like me, it’s probably in terms of things we do, schedules to keep, commitments made, relationships we're in.  But in quiet moments of prayer or worship, I think more deeply about who I am and the purpose of my life. 

he is uniquely and beautifully made!

Psalm 139:16 has been powerful in my journey of psychological healing -  “your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”   That is such a comfort because it says that it’s not up to me to invent myself!  People talk about re-inventing themselves, and if that means having the freedom to change, then I can see the positive in that.  But if you believe that you’re just plopped down on the earth and expected to make something of yourself, then that feels like a lot of pressure to me.

So what might God mean about his children having a destiny and days ordained for them?  I think that everyone restored through Christ has a part to play in God’s original plan for His children to be fruitful, subdue the earth, and rule over the other living creatures (Genesis 1:28).  And in Christ we are part of Jesus’ plan for His brothers and sisters to make disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:19).  The part of these plans that each of us is built to fulfill is something which becomes more apparent as we grow in our relationship with God, develop the skills we have, use our gifts and discover our passions. 

God has created each of us with a calling beyond ourselves, and it is a truly glorious purpose for our life.  Do you hear it as a loud and clear desire, or has it been reduced to a faint whisper in your heart?   Be strengthened and encouraged that you have unique wiring and unique experiences that give you a perspective on something that God wants to use to bless others. 

heading for the heights

There is no way to miss the messages bombarding us about life and our place in it, but if we truly believe what God says (and who God is!), what might happen?  Where might He lead us and what might He accomplish through us?  I heard a friend say that the concept of limits on her life had no meaning to her.  I had to track her down and ask her to explain this bold statement!  She said that God’s potential to do something through her was so far beyond her own imagination that the idea of limitations seemed irrelevant.  She was thinking in terms of what would limit God, not what could limit her.  She saw no limit to God’s acceptance and love of her or God’s desire to use her for His Kingdom.  Therefore she saw no limits on what she could do in life.

 What might you do if you knew from the outset that you could not ultimately fail?  That's a great question because in Christ, we can't.  We may have hardships and challenges and pain, but because Christ is our victory, we cannot fail -- unless we give up or don't try in the first place.

what lies ahead in your land?

I have always thought the story of the Israelites first look at their Promised Land was so tragic.  The men who went to explore found it as wonderful as God had said it would be, but they had no faith that He would keep His promise to give it to them.  They saw very real blessings and very real obstacles, but not a very real God with them.  They looked at the giants in the land and felt like grasshoppers.  They forgot the miracles God had done on their behalf.  They forgot that He was giving them the land destined to be their home.  They had only to believe and stand firm in God’s promises to possess that home.

So it’s all about God and all about His love.  So, once again let us stand firm!  Let us not be moved from God’s love! Stand firm in God's love, in your forgiveness, in your blessedness, in your righteousness before Him.  Take up your helmet and shield and sword.  Praise your God and Savior for his outrageous grace.  Boldly defy the enemy who has lost the battle already.  Eat hearty at the table God has prepared before you in the presence of your enemies and drink from your overflowing cup.  His goodness and love do follow after you and go before you all the days of your destiny pursuing life!  For you belong in his house forever!! (from Psalm 23:5-6)

Standing Firm

Have you ever been just zipping along the path of life, and wham - you are hit by something you never saw coming?  It could be a shiver of unexplained anxiety or a paralyzing dread; a melancholy mood, or a black hole of depression; a disappointment; a crushing diagnosis; an accident.  I wonder if your first thought is "I am so loved and blessed by God!" ?  Well, maybe not, but the command to "stand firm" is about getting there as soon as possible.

weapons of earthly warfare; White Sands, NM

We definitely have an enemy called the “father of lies” and our “adversary” and “accuser” who wants to separate us from our comfort and strength in God anytime he can.  Whether or not he is involved in the events that happen, he is behind every attack on our faith in Christ.  His Word says that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, ESV).

Christ triumphed over him by the cross (Col 2:15)

We who have put our trust in Jesus know that God's love is as important to our life and well-being as is the air we breathe.  We can survive physically without love, but we only thrive as living souls when we are loved well and have enough to give away to others.

Before we know God, the spiritual forces of evil fight to keep us fearful of Him, doubtful of His love, blind to Jesus, feeling unworthy, guilty, rejected, and/or angry, rebellious and proud.  Beyond the narrow gate of eternal life they still seek to distort and disrupt the relationship that has been established with our Father by drawing our focus to shame of our shortcomings, attempts to earn acceptance and love, and dependence on ourselves to find meaning and satisfaction in life.

Our Father knows that we are vulnerable to the enemy's lies and schemes.  The Bible is filled with encouragement and truth, and examples to ground us in His unfailing love.  Ephesians 6:10-18 describes God's provision for protection in terms of supernatural armor.  In this passage God commands us (through Paul) to stand firm and God doesn't command unless He gives us the means to obey.

God's love is a strong tower

Standing firm became a clear, powerful and effective weapon for me when I saw that it just meant "hold fast to the love of God for you".  It's not about my behavior and whether I've made the right choices, or whether I feel strong or weak, good or bad, because my actions and my attitudes will falter.

“Stand firm, then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist”.  The truth is, God’s love is not conditional.  He is with me always.  Because Jesus took all the penalty of my sin, He will never leave me or forsake me.  I belong to Him and in His family.  Every promise in the Bible is “yes and amen” for me because I'm His child (2 Corinthians 1:20)!

“With the breastplate of righteousness in place”.  My righteousness is from Christ in me.  He met every requirement of the law for me – it is as if I have fulfilled the law in God’s sight.  It is as if I never sinned.  This is my position in Christ.  It is unassailable.  All the enemy can do is lie to me and hope that I will believe him.  He is quick to accuse when I fall short, but it doesn't matter because God loves me and nothing can separate me from that love -- ever.  God's love is my lifeline and He is holding on to me.  How simple that is.  How profoundly and powerfully true. 

2 Corinthians 1:21

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.

James 5:8

"You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near"
2 Chronicles 20:17
You will not have to fight this battle.  Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem..."
Exodus 14:13
Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid.  Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today..."

1 Corinthians 16:13
Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong..."

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you...