The Struggle part 5
If you're trying to be someone you're not--even a "better version" of yourself--then you will never be able to stop struggling. It's impossible to be someone else. And it's not what God wants for us in any event. He made you. And He made you specifically... YOU. I think one of the biggest keys to experiencing and enjoying the abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life that is the gift of God... is embracing ourselves (and each other). There's no condemnation. There's no need to "change." There's grace and acceptance. There's the revelation of a change that already took place. There's not a struggle, there's a finished work. It's not about what WE do, it's about what Jesus did both for us and as us. It's not about trying it's about resting. It's not about living Jesus' life--nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus--but about letting Him live His own life in us and through us and as us. Because when God gave us that gift of Resurrection Life it came in the form of His only begotten Son. Jesus didn't just give His life FOR us, He gave His life TO us. He laid His life down so that He could pick it back. And since He had drawn us into Himself... when He died, we died. And when He rose again, we rose again. That's how He presented us to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. And THAT'S why there's no condemnation! He took away the sin of the world. He took away the seperation that WE had inserted between ourselves and God. He nailed the Law (the ministry of condmenation) to the cross because it was against us. And now we are free. Free from the struggle. Free to BE who we really are. Free to love--not in order to GET love, but because we HAVE love. Because we ARE loved. Because we are LOVE. When we stop trying to be someone else we can start to be ourselves. Our true selves. That thing (or those things) that make us... US can start to come out when we stop trying to force other things out. When we stop trying we can start resting. Start flowing. When we know what we've already been filled (to overflowing) with... then it starts to come out naturally. That's why faith without works is dead. Because what you believe is what manifests in your life. If you know and believe that you are loved, then that love manifests. You receive it... and release it. It's not about faking it until you make it. It's not about scratching someone else's back so they'll scratch yours. It's about having something--BEING something--that is too good to keep to yourself. But it doesn't come from struggling. It doesn't come from trying to take the Kingdom with force of the violence of human effort. It comes from knowing who we are in Christ. And THAT comes from knowing who Christ is in us! Letting Jesus be Himself in and through and as us is the only way to end the struggle. Seeing the finished work is the only way to rest. Being yourself--EMBRACING yourself--is the only way to truly live!