One Accord part 2
Our God is a happy God. I believe that this is because He is love. And love is not sad. Jesus said that we WILL have tribulations in this world, but that we CAN be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world. All throughout the Old Testament of the Bible the cry of God's heart was that He wanted to be our God and He wanted us to be His people. Then, in the New Testament--after, and through, and because of the cross--we see this: "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God" (Revelation 21:3 MSG). God got what He wanted, if I can put it that way. I said all that to say this: Our key verse for this series, Philippians 2:2, starts with the words "Fulfil ye my joy." God is happy. He's joyful. Full of joy. But He wants us to fulfil His joy. Which, to me, means He wants us to EXPERIENCE His joy. Jesus said we can be of good cheer because HE has done something. Because He did it for us, yes. But also because He did it (and does it) in us. And through us. And as us. And if we continue on with our key verse, we fulfill, or experience, God's joy by being likeminded. By having the same love. By being of one accord, of one mind. By letting what is true for, and about God (love) be true for, and about us! By letting the mind of Christ that is already in us BE in us. By using the mind of Christ to think the thoughts of God. Look at Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." God knows the thoughts that He thinks toward us. WE need to know those thoughts. So that we can think those thoughts. So that we can experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give to us. What I'm trying to say, in my usual roundabout way, is that we need to line up with God. I mentioned this yesterday. If I line up with Jesus (love) and you line up with Jesus (love), we will automatically line up with each other. That's how we be likeminded. That's how we be of one accord, or one mind. We don't have to agree about everything. As long as we can agree on love. That's the foundation that we have to build our relationships on. Because nothing else will stand against the test of time or the tribulations of this life. We need to see ourselves the way God sees us. And we need to see each other the way God sees us. Not judging by appearance, but judging rigteous jugdment. And here, I'll make it easy: When God looks and me and you He sees Jesus. When God looks at Jesus He sees me and you. There's a passage in the book of Hebrews that talks about how everything is under our feet (we have dominion over it) but we don't see things that way. And then it goes on to say, "But we see Jesus." That's the key. That's what makes this all work. We see Jesus. In each other. In ourselves. We agree with the truth that says, "God is love and He loves you." We line up with His truth and let everything else flow from there. God is happy. If we want to be happy, we need to line up with our happy God. The happiness that love brings to our lives as we breathe it in and breathe it out!