Embrace the Within no. 200

It doesn’t matter if you believe in Jesus.

“Jesus answered, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me’” (John 14:23-24 CSB).

“'He said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands’” (Matthew 22:37-40).

You can’t be bad with relationships and be a Christian. Christianity is all about relationships. Some folks want to have a quality relationship with God BUT won’t have a quality relationship with their parents. Some folks want to have a quality relationship with God BUT won’t have a quality relationship with their family. Some folks want a quality relationship with God BUT won’t have a quality relationship with their coworkers.

“BUT you don’t know what they did to me. You don’t know what they say about me. You don’t know how much they hurt me. I can’t forgive them and just let that go.” Stop showing your BUT and forgive. I do not understand this false Christianity that parades around as if believing in God makes everything okay. Jesus didn’t say believe. Go ahead and reread the scripture again. He said love and obey. And that has nothing to do with believing. That has all to do with action.

So you can talk all you want about believing in God. You can show up every weekend and do your spiritual gymnastics that can pave the way for your week of mental gymnastics to justify that you believe. OR you can forgive and love. EVEN when you are right and others are wrong. Doesn’t matter. Forgive. EVEN when they hurt you and you did nothing. Doesn’t matter. Forgive. EVEN when it is the worst thing that can ever happen to you. Doesn’t matter. Forgive.

“'Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me’” (Matthew 16:24 CSB).

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

Embrace the Within no. 199

“For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11 CSB).

God is good all the time. He has a plan even when I don’t. He has a path through when I am doubting. He has it all figured out while I am grasping at understanding. And when I fail to recognize just how good He is, that is when I find myself struggling. Faith is an action. Hope is my confidence. Courage is choosing to change.

Paul continues in this epistle to question how pointless it is for Christians to doubt His goodness when he asks, “What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword” (Romans 8:31-35)? Too often I get overwhelmed by a situation. And I think sometimes that God has more important things with which to concern himself. I don’t want to burden God with my feeble and insignificant problems. And then I remember that He cares enough to sacrifice Himself in order to justify and reconcile me. He made me in His image for a purpose. And He wants to spend time with me. He wants a relationship with me. The force behind everything, the reason for everything, the Word and the Truth, the person in charge just wants a relationship with me. And I don’t know about you BUT that is something I will probably never be able to comprehend.

The idea that God cares enough that when I was open rebellion against Him, He still sacrificed to save me. And He wants nothing in return except a relationship with Him. And I don’t want to bring Him my concerns because that would bother God? How simple I am at times. If I was a burden to Him, then why would He give so much and ask so little in return? I need to recognize that there is nothing that I accomplish on my own. I get to boast about what He has helped me to accomplish. He has given me the opportunity to reconcile and the opportunity to be an Ambassador of His Kingdom. And through Him, “ . . . all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26 CSB).

I pray that I stop acting like I am a burden to God. I pray that I take the time to fully enjoy the opportunity to bring my concerns to Him. I pray that in sharing who I am with God in prayer and action that my relationship with Him will grow deeper and stronger. I pray that there is nothing that I find to be too insignificant to bring to Him because there is nothing I can do without Him.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH