Wondrous love inspires forgiveness, keeping on

We've been looking at some practical questions; practical matters to do with forgiving others and ourselves. The next question is one that some people differ about....

Do we need to tell the person, "I forgive you."?
Well, yes and no.
Obviously, if they have asked for our forgiveness, and we intend to forgive them, then we should definitely respond with "Yes, I forgive you." But what about those times when we have been hurt by thoughtless comments? Or when someone's unkind actions have hurt us? What about that?
I'm thinking that most of the time, it really isn't helpful to tell them we forgive them -- because a majority of the time, we would be picking a fight!  That person may not know they hurt us. They may reply, "I didn't do anything for you to forgive me for." Or they may say, "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything to you!" I guess the best thing is to remember that our forgiveness doesn't depend on them.....we don't need their permission. We don't even need for them to agree that they have hurt or wronged us. We just forgive them. We choose to. And then we move on with our lives.

Some people may say, well, then, how do we forgive them if they don't confess? They say, that last paragraph, where you say you just choose to do it.....that's hard for me.
Ahem.
It's difficult for all of us.
What about when people do not, or will not, or cannot, own up to what they did to us? I mean, after all, we live in a cruel world, and it is filled both with good people and with mean people. We all know that there are people out there who will stomp on us and then walk away laughing. (And they will come back and do it again and again, too.)  Perhaps we have a relative who abused us and who has never admitted it. Perhaps the hurtful people have moved away. Perhaps the hurtful people have died.....
John Calvin may have lived and written four hundred years ago, but I truly believe that he was writing from experience when he addressed this: he said there are two kinds of forgiveness. The first is the kind where the person who was wrong admits it, comes to us and asks for forgiveness, we grant it, and the relationship is restored. Wow! That's the best kind. There is healing there for both.
But Calvin noted that in this world of sin, the ideal isn't always possible. Sometimes people won't admit their guilt no matter what -- they will lie to cover it up; they will cut off the relationship; they may even keep right on hurting us.
What's a believer to do?
Calvin said that we forgive in that situation by letting go of the anger. Turning loose the bitter feelings. Refusing to let the hurt dominate our lives. While it's true that the relationship will remain broken, we can wipe the slate clean. In that way, we keep our lives free from bitterness, and we don't keep living in the past as far as that person or relationship is concerned.
It's not easy.
I don't mean for anyone to take that away from our study. It's not at all easy.
Some people don't know what they're doing. Some know quite well. They just don't admit it.

The heart is deceitful above all things,    and desperately sick;    who can understand it?  “I the Lord search the heart    and test the mind,to give every man according to his ways,    according to the fruit of his deeds.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10)

God looks into everyone's hearts and souls, and if we are wondering why someone does what they do? Even when it makes no sense? Trust that God knows. We can place our trust and faith in His hands.

Last question for our study: What about the feelings of anger that keep coming back into my head and my heart? Oh, what a common problem this is! When we are hurt deeply, or when we are repeatedly mistreated....
I love reading in the writings of Corrie ten Boom. Here is a story from her pen:

.....some Christian friends who wronged me in a public and malicious way. For many days, I was bitter and angry until I forgave them. But in the night I would wake up thinking about what they had done and get angry all over again. That memory just would not go away. After 2 sleepless weeks, help came in the form of a Lutheran pastor to whom I confessed my frustration. He told me, “Corrie, up in the church tower is a bell that is rung by pulling on a rope. When the sexton pulls the rope, the bell rings . . . ding-dong, ding-dong. What happens if he doesn’t pull the rope again? Slowly the sound fades away. Forgiveness is like that. When we forgive someone, we take our hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for awhile. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”

Even after we forgive someone, the memories can keep coming back.....but if we refuse to dwell on them; if we ask Him for help in letting them go, they will slowly fade away.

Do you recall the story we started out with? The story of Graham Staines, the murdered missionary, and his wife, Gladys?
She told someone, "I've heard many stories of people who have come to Christ after seeing the way that I have accepted it all. I heard of someone in a neighboring region who was witnessing to a man, and the man asked, "Is this the same Jesus that she (Gladys Staines) believes in?" The believer answered him, "Yes, it is." The man told him, "I want to know that Jesus."

Lord, help me to be an example that points others toward You!!

(We'll finish up this study next week.)

Wondrous love inspires forgiveness, continued

We're studying this week about forgiveness. We've noted that if we are going to be generous with our forgiveness for others, we need to gratefully receive God's forgiveness.
It might be important for us to continue building on the foundation of the last two days, by looking at some practical matters.....

First, how do we know for sure we have forgiven someone?
Really, truly forgiven them.
I think about it this way......if we no longer think about it at many times, day or night; if we no longer feel like we need to talk about it; if we no longer are tempted by thoughts of revenge; if we no longer are living in bitterness or in anger; or (and this one is the biggest one) if we can recall those who hurt us and can wish them well.

Wow. Tall order, huh?
The only way to do it is to ask for (and rely upon) the Holy Spirit's help.
So, then, is forgiveness an event? A one-time thing? Or is it a process?
Both. (Grin)
We can consider it an event, because we must at some point decide to forgive. And, then it is a process that often must be repeated over time. (Remember those verses yesterday!)
A third practical matter....... Some people will mouth the words "I forgive you," and then they will craftily manipulate people. They will make them feel guilty, and then use that feeling.
But wait!
Forgiveness is not a tool for manipulating people into having a good relationship with us, or for doing things for us, or anything like that. No one can be forced to reconcile with anyone else. Reconciliation must come from a heart that is prompted by the Holy Spirit.....in fact, when we get right down to brass tacks, as my grandma used to say, there are three very, VERY good reasons to forgive, and they have NOTHING to do with the other person!!

You may recall these from our verses yesterday:
Forgive others because God has forgiven us.
Forgive others because God commanded us to do so.
Forgive because it's good for our heart, soul, mind, and body.

Any other benefits (like a happier relationship with a friend, or anything like that) are just the frosting on the cake of forgiveness. It's really nice, but it's not a necessary part of the recipe!

Now, that brings us to another practical matter: does forgiveness always lead to reconciliation?
Nope.
It's like two different animals that are related but not the same.....ummm, like a spider monkey at the zoo, and the occupant of the next enclosure, a marmoset. They are related, but they're not the same.

Forgiveness is one thing, and reconciliation is another. To have reconciliation, we must first have forgiveness, but we don't need to be reconciled to forgive someone. See, forgiveness depends on us. Reconciliation depends on both people...... it implies repentance, forgiveness, restoring of trust, and probably a passage of time. Often reconciliation is not possible.

Here's another practical matter: What about when someone (maybe us) says "Well, I can forgive him/her, but I just can't forget!"
Nodding your head here?
Have you heard it before?
Have you said it yourself?
It's a very common problem! I mean, we can all understand that God forgets our sins when He blots them out, puts them behind His back, stomps them, and then casts them into the depths of the sea:

I, even I, am he who blots out    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)

Surely it was for my benefit    that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me    from the pit of destruction;you have put all my sins    behind your back. (Isaiah 38:17)

You will again have compassion on us;    you will tread our sins underfoot    and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19)

I love it when the Bible is so descriptive!!
Ahhh, but He can do that....He is God, and has the power to do those things. But we're not God.... quite often our painful memories and hurts can return to haunt us.

Hmmmmm, let's explore this. We have trouble forgetting. Perhaps we do need to be inspired by our Father God Who actually forgets nothing!! He never forgets anything!
Wait a minute...... didn't I just contradict that verse up there? Nope.
Look at this.....God is speaking here:

Then he adds:“Their sins and lawless acts    I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17)

"I will remember no more." That means He is choosing not to remember our sins!! The God Who knows all, and is all powerful, is choosing not to remember our sins. We've mentioned that forgiveness is a choice that we make; it's not a whim, a passing notion; it's not how we feel or what mood we happen to be in.
And it doesn't mean that we somehow wipe clean our minds so that there is no record of what happened. Forgiveness means that we choose not to remember it.  There is a pretty big difference in remembering something, and in dwelling on it.  We probably can all remember things in the past that have really hurt us deeply.
Forgiveness means that we choose not to dwell on those things. It also means we choose not to hold a grudge against someone who has wronged us.
Oh, that's a tough one.

I heard a great illustration one time.....I'll close today with this: Clara Barton was the founder of the Red Cross in America, and one day was talking with a friend. The name of a mutual acquaintance came up, and it was a person who had done mean things to Clara some years earlier. Clara's friend asked her, "Don't you remember when she did that to you?" Clara replied, "No, I distinctly remember forgetting about that."

Mic drop.
More tomorrow!

What are we listening to, today?

This week we are building.
Building the heart knowledge of forgiveness.... not the head knowledge. I expect that we all know in our heads that we should forgive others, right?
But it's not that easy, sometimes.

In fact, sometimes it is really, really difficult.
What is the foundation of our offering forgiveness to others? To ourselves?
Let's listen today to what the Spirit wants to tell us....

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22)

 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,  24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift."  (Matthew 5:23-24) 

Our lives will be blessed through forgiving others. And our lives will also be blessed when we seek forgiveness from those we've hurt or harmed.
And the lives of those other folks may be changed, as well.....sometimes forever!

So many verses about forgiveness -- are we listening to the Spirit today?

Wondrous love inspires forgiveness

One of the amazing results of God's wondrous love for us is that we can learn to forgive others. I don't mean to be flippant, but think about it: if He forgave us as freely as He did, shouldn't that inspire us to forgive others? Each day we rise with renewed determination to be more like Him.....

Lately I have given a lot of thought to the concept of forgiveness, and I prayed about if it might be a good thing for us to study. We're coming up on the Advent season, and I believe the Spirit would have us focus here.....to focus first on forgiving those who may be unbelievers, then on forgiving brothers and sisters in Christ, and lastly on forgiving ourselves. I hope you will stick with me as we study!

Probably most of us will never be forced to endure the type of situation that missionary wife Gladys Staines has dealt with. Her story truly gives us pause to think, to consider, and then to think again. Almost thirty years ago, the Staines family was ministering in India with people who suffer from leprosy. Gladys and Graham (he was a 34 year veteran of the mission field) had come from Australia to bring the Word of God to the people at the leper colony, and had been conducting open-air meetings in a nearby village. Graham and his two sons were asleep in their vehicle, and a group of militant Hindus soaked the vehicle with gasoline and set it afire. They went even further than that -- they prevented onlookers from rescuing the missionary and his sons.

The horror of the killings spread and called attention to the increasing violence against Christians in India. But the witness of Staines' widow, Gladys, has called attention to the power of God's love and forgiveness. Here are Gladys' own words:

 "When Christians show that they are determined to continue in their faith, when people see that believers have a peace that others don’t have, and when people see a complete lifestyle change on the part of believers, they start asking, "What is this all about? We’ve taunted you and done this and done that, and still you stand here for Christ. Tell us what it’s all about.
After Graham’s death, everyone expected me to go back to Australia. They also expected me to take the bodies back and bury them in Australia. It never occurred to me to do such a thing. Graham and I would rather be buried in the country where we were serving. So we buried them in the cemetery at the leprosy home.
It is a tremendous witness now, as people come to the cemetery. We’ve got a gravestone inscribed with "Where, O grave, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?"
When I was explaining to my daughter that Graham and the boys had been killed, we agreed that we would forgive those who did it. And I can say from my own experience that forgiveness brings healing."

To me, that is amazing.
To some, it may even sound too good to be true.
How can someone just make up their mind to forgive another person, or a group of people?
Especially when they have killed your family?

I've come to believe that forgiveness is similar to love.... it is a choice, not a feeling. I believe that we choose to forgive or not to forgive. And forgiveness is not always fair, by our human, earthly standards.
We know that the Bible encourages us to forgive. Urges us, exhorts us. But that's head knowledge, right? And what about when our hearts are hurting?
I found a quote that I'd like to share as we start our study.....this if from the book, "What's So Amazing About Grace" by Philip Yancey:

"At last I understood: in the final analysis, forgiveness is an act of faith. By forgiving another, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out. I leave in God’s hands the scales that must balance justice and mercy” (page 93)

Humanly speaking, forgiveness is hard for us. We are angry. We are hurt. We are sad. We want to see that other person suffer in our way, and in our timing, but as Yancey noted, forgiveness is really an act of faith in a loving God.

Are we intrigued? Is this a concept that we think we already know about? Are we ready to embark on a study that may change the way we think about forgiveness? I hope that you'll join me next time.

Thanksgiving week - the truly rich

Do we consider ourselves rich? Or poor? Do we struggle to make ends meet, or are we comfortable?
So many of us are wealthier than we realize. When we compare our lives with those who truly don't know where the next meal is coming from, or even if there will be a meal, we are blessed beyond measure. When we snuggle under our quilt and sleep, there are many who shiver under cardboard.

Christ told us that the poor "would always be" with us, and He commanded us to tend to His lambs. James' letter encourages us to pay attention to those who are in need of food or clothing. Poverty was a crippling thing in the time of the New Testament church, and it still is now. We should look for ways to assist those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written:“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;    their righteousness endures forever.”
10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God.... (II Corinthians 9:7-13a) 

Wait a minute. This is good. This is right. But are we missing something?
Should we be concerned about the rich, too?
Quit shaking your heads.....I'm not totally bonkers here!
Jesus said that it's very difficult for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. He said that those who love their life too much find it hard to lose it. James reminded his readers that it was the rich who dragged them into court; and the word "miser" is the root of the word "miserable."
The love of money isn't just the source of evil, but it can contribute to depression and dissatisfaction as well!

Doesn't that mean that the rich have just as many spiritual needs as the poor? Who will tell them of Christ? Who will train them to cheerfully give their wealth to others? Who will teach them to stop keeping score in who is richer than whom? Who will urge them to help at the soup kitchens? To assist with a clothing drive?

Imagine with me, if you will, how many millions of people will be making a trip this week, home to family and friends. A turkey or ham in the middle of the table, and wonderful side dishes surround it. There will be many who talk about their lives and share and catch up....they'll focus on what they do to keep their lives going and cover up that big unfulfilled whole inside of them.
Some will spend a few minutes at the table saying how thankful they are; that they are glad to have their health; that they are glad to be with family. Then they will eat their meal, stare with glazed eyes at a football game, or fall asleep. Some may try to avoid certain hurtful subjects, get annoyed, or even have a row and shout at each other.

Or, if we are truly rich, there will be genuine thanks,heartfelt prayers, true giving, and worship of the Father God Who has blessed us so abundantly.

although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything. (II Corinthians 6:10) 

I'd like to challenge all of us this week (including our friends in other countries....I know that this is the United States' Thanksgiving week, not y'alls!) to take the love of Christ with us to the poor and to the ones who seem wealthy. While you're all together, figure out a way that your crew can do something for the impoverished. Find a soup kitchen and help serve a meal. Go through the closets and find warm clothes and blankets to donate. Take a stint at a bell-ringer post and wish everyone a Christ-filled Christmas. Go through the pantry and pull together the largest donation you can for the local community assistance group.  While we're at it, this makes an excellent time to share our testimony of love, redemption, and blessings from Jesus.

I promise, our Thanksgiving will not only be full of good food, and warmth, but also full of comfort, peace, and joy in our Savior.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving    and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God,    the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth,    and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it,    and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship,    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care. (Psalm 95:1-7)

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! We'll be back next week for more studies! 

Friday slowdown

We mentioned this song this week; I thought it might be an appropriate way to end our week of study.

Responses to His wondrous love, conclusion

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (I John 4:11)

(Hear that claxon horn? That's a warning.....it's a band-aid alert! The Spirit really got my toes on this study, and He may be speaking to you, today, too. Just sayin'.)

Now that we know what wondrous love is; and now that we've been compelled to love Him by putting Him first in our lives.....that should also change how we operate in our relationships with others. Like we said before, that means we show love to Mr. McCranky, and Tommy Whinesalot, and many others!
Before we met Jesus, and before we understood what real, wondrous love looked like, our love for others may have been based on a lack of real understanding. Our love for others may have been conditional ("I love you if you do this and this for me." Or, "I love you if you change to be what I think you should be.").
Or our love for others may have only been reciprocating ("I love you if you are loving toward me.")
It may even have been based only in feelings ("It's rainy; it's Monday; and I had a fight with my kiddos over their curfew; I don't feel like being loving toward others today.")

Anyone nodding their heads at some of those?
Now, since we are believers, our love for others needs to be based in the kind of love that we have experienced from God.

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. (I John 3:16-18)

It struck me as I studied that John wasn't just referring to the cross when he wrote about Jesus laying down His life. Maybe that was already evident to you, but it hit me afresh and anew....
It wasn't just His death on the cross. It was also His dying to self -- on a daily basis.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

Taking up our cross means putting our "self" aside. Dying to self. That is what Jesus did; He humbled Himself and washed feet. He said that He came to serve and give His life as a ransom.
We've mentioned before how flippantly "love" is used today; like the soup when we try to stretch it to feed more people, it's watered down! The same word we use to describe how we feel about our precious children is the same one we use to describe the pumpkin-cinnamon muffin we had for breakfast.  I'm sure that all of you already know about the three Greek words for "love:" agape (parent and child), phileo (brotherly/friend), and eros (husband and wife).
Agape love is the love that God shows to us. And that is the love that needs to be what we show to others -- it needs to be what we strive for in our earthly relationships.
Agape love is deep. It's sacrificial. It's unconditional.
And John is telling us too, that love is a verb. It's an action word, like we mentioned a couple of days ago. We can tell others "I love you" but if it is real? We will be showing them. How? By how patient we are with others, how forgiving we are, how generous we are, how much we are willing to be inconvenienced, and more. In short, it will show in how well we are doing at living what we call the Golden Rule.
Showing love in this way is very different from making donations and doing good deeds. We can pretend to be generous and we can rack up loads of good deeds.....in the eyes of the world we can be super-awesome-good folks. But in the eyes of God, have we done anything at all?

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 12:33)

If our service isn't done in love, perhaps God is not pleased, but disgusted. In the Old Testament, and in the New (I'm thinking of Revelation, too) there are references to God's displeasure over religious activities wrongly motivated, and over lukewarm devotion, too.

Wondrous love motivates a response to love and serve Him; it motivates a desire to love and serve others; dying daily to self is not optional. I found two quotes that seemed really appropriate as I studied. William Barclay was a Scottish theologian (love it when I find something awesome in my heritage!):

More people have been brought into the church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world, and more people have been driven from the church by the hardness and ugliness of so-called Christianity than by all the doubts of the world.

Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and take up His cross.  William Barclay

Love will be the most convincing factor in winning someone to Christ. Our loving response to His love is so important. In the words of a song, "What's love got to do with it?"
Everything. Just everything.

Responding to His wondrous love -- now

We've been studying about God's wondrous love, and about our response to it. Today we'll see that we should respond promptly.....now!

Our God is an active God. He is at work in our lives always....encouraging, inviting, directing, and guiding. He pours out His love for us in blessings each day.
Our response to God's wondrous love should happen now. We should not be inhibited by our own weakness, or by past failures. We should not be discouraged, and dwell on our unworthiness.

Jesus showed us this when He called the first disciples. Remember the scene at the Sea of Galilee, when Peter and his men had been fishing and had not caught anything? In fact, he had been so singularly unsuccessful that he had given up and was going to come back in to shore. Jesus directed Peter and the others to cast those nets right in the same place where they'd had no luck at all.....so Peter did, and immediately found the nets straining to the breaking point with a huge number of fish! Jesus, after showing him this sign of his calling, tells Peter to follow Him.

Does Peter cast cares to the wind and joyfully agree?
Nope.
He immediately raises the ole "unworthy" objection. (Don't many of us use this one nowadays?)

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)

Ummmm, well, yes, that's true.
But Jesus doesn't pay any attention to that truth.....

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”  (Luke 5:10b)

In fact, we are familiar with the fact that Jesus surrounded Himself with sinners. Remember when He called Matthew? Matthew was a tax collector; as such, he was an agent of the hated Romans, and people hated him just as much as they hated the Romans. Why? Well, he made his living prying money out of the hands of destitute peasants! And he may have been like some of the tax collectors who over-taxed and then kept some for themselves.....we don't know for sure. Jesus met Matthew sitting at his counting table and said very simply, "Follow me." That unworthy sinner responded by getting up from the table and following Jesus.
Matthew was happy with his new life, and threw a nice party to celebrate -- he invited all of his old friends to come and meet his new Friend. Well, those ole busy-bodies, the Pharisees, objected and Jesus replied:

 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  (Mark 2:17)

We see very plainly that Jesus entered into people's lives and invited them to follow Him....right from where He found them. In boats, working with fishnets, from tax desks, and other places, too. And there is something really wonderful for us to notice there: He doesn't demand that they do anything first. He doesn't say that first they need to go to church (the synagogue).
And we shouldn't think that we need to delay our response to God until we deal with our character defects. We don't need to have a scorecard that we keep that shows we've been a pretty good kid for a certain length of time first....then follow Him. Yes, we are unworthy. Yes, we are sinful. But He pours that wondrous love over us and into us, and we are ready to respond to Him.

Will we fall down?
Yes.
Will we fail Him?
Yes.
But our response to Him grows and matures. It deepens over time. Our salvation is a process -- not a one time event.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he fed them milk, not solid food, because they were not able to take it. (I Corinthians 3:2) And so we know that God will give us what we need; if we are beginners, or if our hearts are troubled or weak, He will give us milk. Later on, we will receive solid food.
But all along the path, we will be answering His call to follow Him.
You see, it doesn't matter if we think we are unworthy. He sees us as His children, worthy of His love and His sacrifice on the cross.
And we don't need to worry about "doing" anything in particular. Following Him doesn't automatically mean that we'll be heading off to Zanzibar, or a jungle mission, or anywhere else. Sometimes it just means that we'll be watching. And waiting. And listening.

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,    as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress,so our eyes look to the Lord our God,    till he shows us his mercy. (Psalm 123:2)

Please don't get me wrong here, when you read the verse above. We are not slaves to our God -- we are willing and cheerful in our voluntary service to Him. That service arises from that fire that we mentioned last time -- a desire to be like Him, and to serve Him, because of His love to us. I showed that verse because that attentiveness is how we should watch and wait for His guidance.

Perhaps the question that most embodies our response to God, is "what more does God want of me?" We love a God Who loves us without limits....we love Him in return. What more can we do to love Him? The rich young man in the Gospels asked Jesus that.....he wanted to do MORE. Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said to get rid of his possessions and follow.
Jesus was challenging the young man to be free of what he claimed as his own.
He challenges us, too. What do we call "ours"? What do we cling to? It may be our worldly possessions. It may be our ideas. It may be our desires. (If we put any of these in front of God, they have become an idol.....we need to be free.)
God calls us to offer these things to Him. That doesn't mean He will take them away. When we offer them to God, He may shape and form them and use them for His purposes. We may receive them back as tools to use in His kingdom.

He looks on us with love. What more can we do to respond to His love? Now?

Verses that inspire

As I have been studying for this series, I have come across a couple of verses that I'm sure are familiar to you, but I wanted to point you to them yet again!

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  (I John 4:16)

What an awesome promise, and also an awesome responsibility!
This is how it happens:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

We know with our heads that He loves us, no?
But does the devil sometimes get a hold of us and shake us like a tea towel? Make us doubt?
We need to believe the love of God for our lives.....
Let me explain:
God loves us more than we can imagine. We are His children! The first thing that we need to do is to actually receive His love -- every single day.
We need to stop putting up little walls that prevent us from receiving His love. Satan will try his hardest to make us fall for the "God is angry with you because you have failed. You've sinned." Then we kinda put God in a box and say well, He might love us, but not in His complete fullness kind of way. We just can't believe that He wants to love us completely, fully, pour out His love on us.
Because we can't fully comprehend the love of God, we need to really dive into prayer and a quiet time each day. Don't limit the time we spend with Him, just like we shouldn't limit His love for us. Sit in His presence and allow Him to speak, to comfort, to give us His peace.
We will find that we understand more and more about His love, and we will see His blessings in our daily walk. We will recognize all the things He does for us during the day.

Believe that God loves you. He is within us as believers. When we love God with our entire being, we will allow Him to lead us, and we'll become the self-giving people that place others before ourselves. We will lay down our lives and let Him live through us -- and I'm warning you, be ready! He will use us in ways that we could never imagine, if we will allow Him.

If we will believe that He loves us, and that He lives within us.

Has a verse inspired, comforted, or convicted you recently? Will you leave a comment to tell others?

Responding to wondrous love

Last week we concentrated on God's wondrous, (to be marveled at, according to the dictionary definition of wondrous) love for us.
What should our response to that love be? We discussed His amazing commandment, and how we should emulate His unmatched, sacrificial love for those undeserving of it (us).

How about our relationship with this loving God? What should our response be to Him?

What can we do?
And then, when we've done that, what more can we do?
Let me explain what I mean..... I do NOT mean that there are any works we can do to deserve His wondrous love. We've covered that before, so as my grandma used to say, we don't need to re-plow that ground. (Grin)

BUT.
When we accept His wondrous love, it should light a fire! Look at what Paul tells us:

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (II Corinthians 5:14-15)

Whatcha think about that word, "compel"?
Merriam Webster: "to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly," for example, "Hunger compelled him to eat."
Wow.
Paul is highlighting the fact that because of Jesus' love, and what He did for us, there should be a response. If we understand the love behind that sacrifice, and we truly understand our opportunity to escape depravity here on earth, and destruction in eternity, then we will be compelled.  Oh, it may take a while for us to really grasp the depth of what He did for us....to understand that what He went through is something that no one could have done for us.
We've been rescued.
Adopted into the family of God.
That should light a fire in us that drives us to do everything we can to please Him!

Forcefully.
Irresistibly.
Out of a sense of duty, or obligation?
Nope.
A fear of the consequences of our refusal?
No way.
Our devotion, our love, our obedience need to well up from our love for God. If it is from any of those other reasons, it will be a "flash in the pan."
Here's what I mean: many, many years ago, those upstart colonists here in what came to be called North America used flintlock muskets. Those guns had tiny receptacles that held charges of gunpowder. Any attempt to fire the musket in which the gunpowder flared up, but no round was fired, was called a "flash in the pan."  Prospectors later used the phrase to describe something in their pan which glinted momentarily, but proved not to be real gold.
Either way, if our devotion to God is motivated by the wrong reasons, our obedience and our fervor will be short-lived....it won't result in any real value as far as service to Him......it'll be a flash in the pan.
There is a contemporary Christian song that says these words:

“Give me rules, I will break them. Show me lines, I will cross them. I need more than a truth to believe, I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes; to sweep me off my feet. It's gotta be more like falling in love, than something to believe in. More like losing my heart, than giving my allegiance. Caught up, called out; come take a look at me now. It's like I'm falling; it's like I'm falling in love.Give me words, I'll misuse them. Obligations, I'll misplace them. Cause all religion ever made of me was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet. It never set me free. It was love that made me a believer in more than a name, faith, or creed. Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me.” (Jason Gray)

There's truth there: our response to God needs to be based in our love for God. We don't need to question His love. We don't need to worry about that. He has loved us from the beginning. What we need to be looking at is this: what is our response to Him built on? If it is built on anything other than love, it won't stand the test of time.
Are we Christians just to escape the flames of hell?
Are we believers because of what we think we can get from God?
Do we think God is great until life gets tough, and then we wonder if we want to continue to serve a God Who allows these things to happen?
If any of those are true, our relationship with God is based on feelings.
Not our real, grateful, loving response to His wondrous love.
Love doesn't change with varying circumstances. It's constant. We might not like our circumstances, and we might even be upset with God over them! But if we love Him, then we will stay with God, because we know He loves us all the time.
We will love what God loves, and hate what He hates. We will be zealous for the cause of Christ, and we will have that fire lit within us to love Him and tell others about Him.
Perhaps each of us should examine our lives in our quiet time, and make certain that our response to Him is motivated by love.....the "right" response to His wondrous love.