Last Monday I woke and I had no work to go to. Thoughts started to whisper and cast shadows of worth until the Holy Spirit reminded me that my worth was not in a job. I would be encouraged in this thought as God provided me another job.
The things of life have never given a person certainty to not fear, worry, dread, or have concern. Humanity has tried to lessen one’s anxiety through human means such as ignorance, lies, deceit, medication, word usage, by who one surrounds themselves, position, talent, possessions, who they marry, school or college they attend, investments, retirement plans, insurance, credit, their home, their car and all the way down to the house key in their pocket but those are weak certainties because they are all based on things that could be easily taken away or not honored. There is no certainty in any of them. The only certainty a person can have is God.
God is the one who gives us certainty.
Like the things of this world, religion never gave the certainty of hope in one’s salvation nor has it ever empowered a people to live the righteous godly lifestyle but a relationship with God has. For the relationship with God involves not just the mind but the heart and soul as well.
Earning Love and Justification.
Did your parents give you certainty of their love based on your accomplishments? Did you have to prove you were worth loving? If so I am sorry and I am here to tell you the Father of heaven in not like that. For He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us because he saw worth in us not that we could earn his love or justification.
People try to justify themselves to God by their accomplishments and good deeds. You can’t justify yourself to God for God justifies those who live in the faith of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. We can’t earn our justification from God but rather live in the justification He gives us. We clothe ourselves with Christ and His sacrifice in mind.
If you had loving parents but felt like you had to earn your parent’s love, you would alienate your parent’s love. Plus in your efforts to earn your parent’s love you would be burdened and driven by some non-existent standard that only made you a slave to that lie.
Same with God, we alienate God when we feel like we have to earn His love and our own salvation. We do not just alienate God but we lose our certainty and the power of God working in our life when we think such things. God made it possible for us to “enter” into His Love through His Son Jesus Christ. God shows His love everyday to us no matter if we realize it or not but only through Jesus Christ we can “enter” into the FREEDOM of His love and have certainty to live empowered by God’s love regardless of the human outlook of our circumstances and situations.
Starting in Galatians 5:2 it says, “Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: if you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ cannot help you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey all the regulations in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive everything promised to us who are right with God through faith. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, it makes no difference to God whether we are circumcised or not circumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.”
Romans 4:5 says “But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.”
Our deeds and work could never earn God’s love. To say that our deeds and work could earn God’s love is a lie and we are living in spiritual darkness. God’s love is a gift we must accept and receive daily to be set free and be empowered by God’s love and light.
1 John 1:5-7 “…. God is light and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from every sin.”
Love for God that is the amazing key to experiencing God’s love. Adore God, admire God, and hold Him high above all other thoughts. Remember all the good things He had done. Give Him praise for who He is and His unfailing and faithful love. Love your God with all your heart, mind and soul and He will do amazing things in your life because your mind, heart and soul are set upon Him – nothing else.
Surrendering ourselves to God’s love brings FREEDOM in Christ. He gives certainty in a very uncertain world.
Galatians 4:8 “Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. And now that you have found God (or should I say, now that God has found you), why do you want to go back again to become slaves once more to weak and useless spiritual powers of this world? You are trying to find favor with God by what you do or don’t do on certain days or months or seasons or years. I fear for you. I am afraid that all my hard work for you was worth nothing. Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles were- free from the law."
Free yourselves from falsehood securities and what you think that makes you right with God. It is not what you do or your job or what you do and don’t do but your faith in Christ that makes you right with God.
For in Christ there is grace. Not through anything we may do but through Him and Him only. The only way to give grace is to receive grace. And the full measure or understanding of grace and its power only comes with living securely in God’s love. We must live in this real yet mysterious love that brings perfect peace to our soul.
You know the only way to give unconditional love and express unconditional love is to receive it from the LORD. In order to give love you must receive the healing, the new mindset that empowers us in the love from the only God above.
There in a consistent relationship with God, the fullness of God’s love empowers His certainty in our lives -a certainty the world cannot provide.
Jesus says, "I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid. John 14:27
There is a difference between knowing of God and knowing God.
You can’t receive this peace and certainty unless you are “in” Christ. A believer will struggle when they waver back and forth in their certainty in God.
The people who put their certainty in the things of this world will lose their certainty because the things of this world will fail them. Even though the world may be showered by the love of God they cannot appreciate it for they are blind to it since they have put their certainty in the things of this world and not God Himself. They cannot be empowered by God and walk in His Grace and Love for God’s Holy Spirit is needed and the heart and mind need to be receptive to Him. Knowing God means you are surrendered and have invested both in your heart and mind to Jesus Christ who the Prince of Peace.
God wants to confirm His reality to us and empower us in His Son, JESUS CHRIST.
Religion only makes people slaves. Religion makes them lazy and out of touch with God. Comfortable in religion people forget about who God is. Religion only corrupts the soul.
God is not a God of mindless religious repetition or full of notions of God but He is the God who gives us the reality of Himself to those who love Him.
Through our humble and heartfelt surrender to His wondrous love we enter into His secret doorways and courtyards.
Through God’s love we are FREE and FREE from the laws of our mind -of trying to satisfy some impossible qualifications that only bring us down and burden us and throw us into some grudging rut. For only in God’s love do we live, break free, and fulfill the only law – the law of love. Love your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39)
“Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you know that the LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, young men will give up. But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagle. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:28-31
We all need to take time to wait and rest upon the LORD’s love. Let Him remind you of all He is and His unfailing and faithful love for you because there we find our CERTAINITY in HIM.
In Him and Him alone is our “Certainity”.
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