The Struggle part 4
The struggle is real. I know that it is. I see it every day. Because it's so easy to believe the lie. The lie is right there on the surface, and if you want the truth you have to dig a little deeper. The lie says you aren't good enough. The lie says you have to DO in order to BE. The lie says you have to earn love and acceptance. And the whole world--even, unfortunately, most of the church world--is screaming this lie from the top of it's lungs. Which can make it hard to hear the still, small voice deep inside. The voice of the Holy Spirit that leads and guides us into all truth. The still, small voice that whispers--with every beat of God's heart in our chest--"I love you, I love you, I love you." That's the truth of the matter. God loves us. He always has and He always will. God IS love. In order to stop loving us He'd have to deny HIMSELF and stop being God. We aren't "bad" people who need to deny ourselves in order to somehow change into "good" people in order to earn something from an angry, distant, tyranical taskmaster. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are exactly who we are supposed to be. And when we KNOW this--when we know who we are in Christ (and that knowledge comes from finding out who Christ is in us, letting Him reveal Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us)--then we can stop struggling to be someone else and we can just be ourselves. Our true selves. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. When we get past the surface stuff--the struggle against circumstances, and outside forces, and judging by appearance--then the deep stuff flows out of us like that river of living water. But we can't force it out. It only comes out naturally when we know and believe that we are filled to overflowing with it. We don't produce the fruit. We simply bear it. We don't take the Kingdom of God by force, we understand that it is the Father's good pleasure to GIVE us the Kingdom! All we have to do is receive it and release it. Which leads me to my verse for today. The ONLY fight we're supposed to participate in. 1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto tho art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." Eternal life is the gift of God, right? Not something we have to (or CAN) earn. Something that He gave us. The fight, or the struggle, isn't to GET something. It's to lay hold of what we already have. To RECEIVE the gift that we've been given. The good fight of FAITH is to BELIEVE the truth. To BELIEVE what God says about us. That we are who HE says we are, not who the world says we are. And HE says we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. HE says He presented us to Himself without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. HE says it is finished and the struggle is over! HE did the work and now we can rest and enjoy the fruit (of the Spirit, which is love) of HIS labor! He did it all so we could get it all and now we can stop struggling because we have it all!