We had a great day at church yesterday. Most of the time, I always Intend to blog about what God was showing me in church, but so often that does not happen! I get so busy with *LIFE* that I forget to share ;). In Sunday School, we are going through the book of Ephesians. We were in Ephesians 1:3-6 yesterday. There was a lot of meat there!!
When you really stop and think about it, what an amazing thought that God has chosen and accepted us into His family--and that His acceptance of us is not based on our performance but on what Christ has done! I think that latter part many of us struggle with the most.We will say we were saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9) but we live as though our works will be what keeps us saved. However, if we weren't good enough to earn salvation, how on earth can we possibly be good enough to keep it on our own? Such a thing just isn't possible!
My husband and I were involved in lots of different churches over the years...we were just talking about it, but we have been at our current church the longest! That's a scary thought, as I still feel so new; however, we've been here for almost 7 years. There are a lot of variations on this teaching. I've been in churches where you could feel both saved and lost dozens of times each day--every errant thought sent you back to damnation. I've been in churches where only the "really big sins" made your salvation unsteady. I've been in churches on the other end where, because of God's grace, we were told we weren't supposed to change anything of our lifestyle or do anything the Bible teaches because we're saved already. So many teachings...and yet they didn't sit right with me as neither seems to me to be teaching the character and heart of our Lord. Is He a mean, abusive Father who stands over us with a big stick, waiting to beat on us for messing up and rejecting us the second we don't keep a standard only His Son has been able to keep? Is He a jolly Santa figure, who plays the permissive parent, and delights to let us run wild because "it's all grace, anyways"? Or is He a firm yet loving parent, guiding us step by step, loving us even when we fail, but loving us enough to gently chastise us when we go astray, and lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake?
Maybe it has something to do with upbringing too--that is how we were raised affects how we view God. Growing up I heard "I love you" a lot, but I didn't feel loved or accepted.There was verbal abuse that undermined any affect those three empty words ever did in my heart. For a long time, it was hard to accept that God did in fact love me unconditionally, that he didn't dismiss my hearts desires with a cruel "Don't be so foolish!" and realizing that He didn't look down on me with a look of rejection whenever I screwed up. I think everyone's upbringing, to one way or another, colors how they view God until they mature in the faith to the point where they know God well enough to know His character is contrary to the flawed ways earthly parents raise their children.
In churches where eternal insecurity (the doctrine that you can lose your salvation) is taught, usually the argument is made that if we are saved by grace, what reason would we have to obey God? How about love of a father? Imagine this: if you were a teenager, and your daddy indicated to you that every time you messed up he was turning his back on you, and no longer your father, what sort of feelings would you have for that guy? If you are like me, you'd say, FINE! I'll take my chances down at the soup kitchen and homeless shelter, and you'd move out. If you aren't so outspoken, you'd maybe silently resent that, and leave as soon as you were old enough or maybe harbor some bitterness. You'd NOT be motivated by love to please your daddy. If you obeyed at all, it would be just to keep a roof over your head. However, if you know that you are loved even if you were a teenager, and you came home to tell your parents you were pregnant or if you called them from the county jail for stealing cars, you'd probably be more motivated NOT to screw up and disappoint them. For a while, believing that God would cast me out if I were to mess up "too badly", I lived paralyzed in that fear of rejection. When I did mess up, I usually didn't quickly grovel back to Him...I ran from Him. I messed up and have lost my salvation, so time to live like an unsaved person for a few days (or months)! However, when I know that God, in His mercies, loves and accepts me, and sent His son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins (that is, every sin I ever committed and will commit!), then of course I am going to not want to disappoint my heavenly father.
My heart's desire is to please Him, and to bring Glory to His name. I so often fail...but He still loves me. Father God looks at me and sees Christ's blood instead of my failures. We thrive in the security we have as believers. We are not worried about earning God's love, or performing. Practical truth in light of positional truth, we were taught yesterday, means that I have freedom to live securely in Christ. Amen and amen!
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