Live in the Light of the Fathers Love
Your key for growth is to live in the light of the Fathers love. This is the place of connection where you daily receive God’s strength.
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Condemnation is a Dead-End Street
In my early Christian walk I read the classics on how God moved mightily through men of prayer. Everything in me wanted this deeper life of being one of God’s great saints. Daily I would try to spend significant time in prayer and fasting. Most days I would not fast as much as I wanted to. I would feel so condemned as I didn’t reach the goals I’d set for myself.
I thought, “How would God ever use me if I couldn’t even pray as the saints of old?”
I would seek out hard preaching hoping for enough motivation to finally pull myself up by my bootstraps and do what I felt I was supposed to do. One night it all came to a head. I had failed again and was crying out to God.
“God, I have tried repeatedly and I just can’t do this. I want to follow You with all my heart and live radically for you but I can’t. You’re going to have to do it in me.”
At that moment I saw a vision of myself going over the top of a mountain and God spoke to my heart:
“Robert, my path for you is a path of rest. You have been trapped in works and legalism but you have now come over the top. You are still learning to walk in My rest but that stronghold no longer has the upper hand on you. Simply keep walking down the other side of that mountain into greater rest.”
I realized that night that condemnation is a dead-end street. If I have a stronghold in my life I cannot overcome and God is the only one who can help me overcome it, living separated from God in condemnation can never be the answer. That would be like trying to force a plant into growth by denying it sunlight until it somehow does what it is supposed to.
Consider these thoughts:
- God sees you as a new creature in Christ Jesus.
- Your life is not a mystery to God. He is all powerful and all knowing and is not concerned or confused about how to finish the work He began in you.
- Your freedom is in seeing yourself as God sees you – loved. Willpower and self-condemnation will not produce your freedom.
Problem Solving but not Problem Focused
I understand that I need to work out unresolved heart issues. Yet, that is never to be my focus. My focus is staying connected to God’s love, not because I’m good enough, but because I’m under the blood of Jesus. If a hindrance arises in my heart, I work it out, and then continue focused on being a son of the most high God, created in His image.
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