Every Believing disciple of Christ needs to know that his past is forgiven. So, in order to Love others in any given situation, it is imperative that we know we, ourselves are loved and forgiven. It is in this way, walking with Christ on a daily basis, surrendered can we truly care about someone else. All selfishness seems to vanish when we realize we have been forgiven and released of our own guilt and our past. Of course, it is only by grace through the sacrifice Christ made on the cross….because HE is God’s son that you can be forgiven. In order to be forgiven and be released from all guilt and condemnation forever, you must understand that complete surrender is necessary. Surrender to the ALMIGHTY YAHWEH, ADONAI, KING OF kings, and LORD OF lords, otherwise it is a waste of time and an exercise, in what feels like futility. You will struggle all your believing life unless you surrender everything. The surrender is the KEY ELEMENT in being able to live a life that overcomes guilt, condemnation, fear, disillusionment, missing the mark (also called sin) and anything else you might encounter. To continue this theme, ……even the grace to exhibit Go’ds love toward the unlovable and let them know there is hope for them, too, must flow out of a life surrendered to the Holy One of God or Yahweh.
- FAITH – So, “How do I know I’m forgiven?” It is first of all, by faith.” In Hebrews we find it written in Chapter 11:1 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” What in the world does that mean?” you might ask. I’ll try to explain to the best of my ability what I feel God has shown to me what it really means and then might add other’s comments, as I’ll for sure need some help from some others that have gone on before me. ….learned way deeper lessons that I have learned.
Faith really means trust. So what is trust. Some of us have had faith explained in this way. When we sit down in a chair, we have used many times before, we know when we bend our knees and put our butt on the surface of the chair it will hold our body. What if one day it doesn’t? Then there will be a chance that in the future that you might consider pressing down on the seat of the chair before you sit down, before letting your weight relax. testing if the pressure on the seat will hold. That isn’t trust. Only after we test do we trust the seat will hold us since we have checked it out. But what if we don’t check it out? What if we sit right down and it holds us anyway? Faith and trust usually go hand in hand, along with hope.
Consider the woman in Mark 5:25-28: The woman with the issue of blood said, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be made whole.” She continued to speak that till she could see herself whole. This woman was hoping, as she made her way through the crowd, scared that she might be found out before she reached Jesus, to touch the hem of his garment……i.e., his tallit. If we read the passage from the Amplified Bible, it says’ “She kept saying, ‘If I only touch his garments, I shall be restored to health.” That was her faith working toward her goal along with her hope but she didn’t feel healed, she didn’t look healed….but she began to be filled with hope with faith-filled words “I shall be restored to health.”
When you come to the Lord ….maybe on your knees…..you “must know that HE IS and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek HIM. If you don’t KNOW that you will not be able to have the “FAITH” or HOPE to “BELIEVE” you can be forgiven or healed. It takes all three, faith, hope and trust. So what if you say, “I don’t possess any of that.” I beg to differ. Consider the chair I just mentioned. Once you found out that the chair would hold you, you stopped putting your arm and hand down to press on the chair to see if it would hold the amount of pressure you placed on it. You just sat down. It is in the same way faith, hope and trust works. Are you willing to consider that you need more than yourself to trust God? To constantly be checking if the chair will hold you, to constantly be wondering if your wife is being loyal to you during the day when you are at work; to wonder if when you get in the car you will be alive in the next 30 minutes. What a stressful way to live one’s life, right? Will you choose to live out your life like this, in this crazy mixed up world to keep worrying about the next few hours where you will be or what will happen to your family or someone you love, or will you learn to trust?
In surrendering…..you stop “trying” and/or worrying. You make a choice to serve your Creator. In doing so, you choose to give up your life and allow His life to take over yours. That is the believer’s life and this is Christianity. Anything else is Christian Humanism. Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with the Holy Spirit that has come to live inside you and take up residence. This is how you can love someone else that you can’t really stand to be around. It isn’t you that is loving or caring in the first place, it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” So, you actually become a sort of “conduit” so that the Holy Spirit can move through the empty vessel, a surrendered vessel, that the life of “Christ might be manifest in our mortal body.” Beautiful concept, but very few believers know or understand that unless we give up our lives they will be struggling all their lives to figure out how to “let go” of this world, as the word says the Lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, must be released and thoughts regarding the desire for such things much be taken captive. 2 Cor 10:3-5
Most believers have never been taught how to have power over sin in their lives. They do not know how to move beyond the assurance of forgiveness to victorious living through faith. They make continual confessions of their sins, they ask for God’s forgiveness for all their mistakes and failures that they have not been able to seemingly overcome. They never really “feel” loved for they are always carrying around the heaviness of the remembrance of their repeated failures and wonder why these patterns cannot not be broken in their lives. So they assume they do not believe enough, or they might possibly feel they are not even born again.
It is very simple, they do not understand that there is a place where we can continue moment by moment in union ….to be ONE with our Lord. How you ask. Through faith!! We must move beyond asking for every little thing we do to receive forgiveness, to a walk that adds up to living a holy life with our Savior. There is no perfection except in HIM. But that “perfection,” as stated in the new testament “be ye holy as I am holy,” must come from within, and from the Holy Spirit. We can be so transformed that we can become completely victorious over every sin, every obstacle and every unpleasant habit that we hate about ourselves and any pattern of living. That also includes loving anyone that crosses our path. HOW?
- Confession. “Confess your faults one to another that you may be healed.” Excuses allow us to keep our sins and feeling hopeless and cause us to make excuses and continue to make excuses. It just keeps us bound and in a place of continual emotional drama within our own believing walk. How do we trust then? How do we surrender? How do we believe that we can be one with our Savior?
Jesus has come to set up a Kingdom within us. “The kingdom of God is within” We have only to look within to find the answers. So why are we constantly looking without? Because we are told to “go here and go there and do this and do that” Nothing works! Why? He didn’t tell us to do that….HE said “LOOK WITHIN” I love this particular scripture in
Psalms 46 “Be still and know that I am God.”
Be still! Hmm….Interesting concept. Be still. Yes, be still. Try it for a few minutes. Allow the presence of the Lord to come over you, by faith, believing that in your stillness and looking within you, you just might find HIS sweetness, His love, His power and even ability to overcome any obstacle. HOW? Again, by looking within. The kingdom of God, if you are a believer, is within you. So while you are at it….being still, how about telling him how you feel about your day? How about telling Him what happened to you out on the ball field. What happened to you in the parking lot today? What happened to you when you were ready to move from the red light since it had turned green out in the intersection. Have you been able to look at the situation, any situation knowing that God’s word is absolutely true….or are you still checking the chair?
“All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28