It is Easter! It is the time that we celebrate Christ’s sacrificial death on a cross and his resurrection. It is a joyful time! Or at least is should be… like a feeling of freedom, value, and wonder over the love of God. But sometimes, joy feels so far from a christian.
Recently, I have been studying the joy of Christ. Through this study, I see just how important relationships are to Christ; his relationship with his Father, his giving the Holy Spirit to empower his beloved, and his delight to add to his family. (Luke 10:20) God is love. (1 John 4:7-21). Love happens in self-giving relationships! He delights over humanity. Delights. (Prov. 8:30-32) He wants us to join in His joy through our relationships with God and others! Do you experience His delight?
Much of my christian life has been trying to live up to His great unmerited gift of salvation. Easter would only add to my felt weight, the extreme debt I owed to the one who gave his life for mine. As more experienced christians would help define his pleasure, I would throw upon myself more and more laws that kept me on a pendulum of pride and shame. I felt pride, like I was worth the Lord’s gift when I judged myself as doing well. I felt shame when I fell short or others might tell me I fell short. My identity became defined as a sinner saved by grace. This life led to radical service and self abasing behavior. I saw my behavior as my identity, and because I hated my sin, I hated myself. I loved Him, but I had barely acknowledged his love in my personhood. Unworthy was stamped on my forehead. The fruit of the Spirit seemed impossible to host daily, and the striving led to more swinging on the pendulum. I was exhausted. Praise God, he rescued me from my bad theology! I know it was bad theology by its lack of an essential spiritual fruit, joy! His Joy doesn’t come by way of service or pride in a job well done. His joy comes from eternal, life-giving, loving relationship. BELOVED was stamped on my forehead in His eyes!
God knows me and accepts me. Before I am fully formed as his sinless creation, while I’m still baking in His love, He knows me. He sees my unformed substance and knits me together. He is gentle and humble and invites me to abide in Him. He loves me. He really sees me. He really knows me. He has really decided to love me. I am loved. I am accepted. I am his family. He indwells me through the Holy Spirit. He surrounds me with His omnipresence. When I feel unworthy, he says, “My love isn’t about that. I love you because I want to.” He doesn’t say, “You owe me because of the cross,” He says, “I love you and for the joy of your being in my family, I endured the cross.” When I sense this love, I am overjoyed. When I am connected to his love in my thought life, I obey His word and the heart behind it. I sense His good pleasure as I speak to Him, rejoice in our closeness, and delight in His love. The fruit of Spirit hang readily, when His love is on my mind. Love is not something that can be enjoyed until it is received. There is no tally of earnings in the gospel of grace! Sometimes the relationships of earth have scared us. Trauma can keep us from the saving faith of His love. But if you dare to believe He really loves you, You will see how trustworthy the King of the Universe truly is! When you so, you will be abiding in Him. He will empower you to fulfill your great design, you will do your Creator’s will!
The song I am leaving for you today asks the question, why hold on to these comfortable chains? Why call him savior just to call him a stranger? This comes from a story about a man chained to a chair for years, and when he was liberated would continue to pick up the old chains and drape them across his lap. Years in that chair made it impossible to feel comfortable without them and he feared what he did not know on the other side of that opened door. He was free, but he couldn’t believe it. I was this way. Maybe you were too. Addiction to being right, addiction to all the wrong comforts, self service… all these chains are laid cut at your feet. Like a man who has lived in chains for years, when cut free refuses to stand up and walk out, are you scared to abandon what you know for Christ’s radical love?
Can you trust his love even when you can not control it? I am here to happily report, Yes! Yes you can trust His unimaginable love for you! Yes, you can abandon your laws and comfortable habits to embrace His love! His love binds up the broken-hearted, and sets the captives free! If there is anything the Lord God wants us to know about himself it is this: His lovingkindness endures forever! Let his love become your identity. You were a sinner saved by grace. Now, You are his beloved son/ daughter. You are new! Your new Heart and His Spirit will lead you to an obedience that works for your joy! Even the hard stuff will bubble out in joy, because you’ll feel his love at work through you. Rise up and choose it! Oh, you’ve got to realize You’ve been set Free!
You've Been Set Free. Click here to listen: You've Been Set Free by Katie Rippy Why hold on to these comfortable chains Why embrace the sin that causes you pain Why hold on to the sin you so well know You'll gain the world and loose your soul When Jesus has paid your sinners price And he looks at you through His father's eyes You've been set free Sin no longer holds you There is no one left to bind you And freedom is waiting for you So rise up and choose it Oh ya got to realize You've been set free So why sit and wait for a miracle to happen When the chains you fear have been cut Oh Yeah, Why acknowledge a Savior, only to call him a stranger Why refuse to stand up When Jesus has paid your sinners price And he looks at you through His father's eyes You've been set free Sin no longer holds you There is no one left to bind you And freedom is waiting for you So rise up and choose it Oh ya got to realize You've been set free You've been set free Oh yeah! You've been set free You've been set free Your sin no longer holds you You've been set free, Yes You've been set free by the blood of Calvary You've been set free So rise up and choose it Oh ya got to realize You've been set free You've been set free
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