This week, I got an e-mail from a young lady that just finished reading one of my books. Her first comment to me was that she thought I was "a great Christian" and she wished she could be as "good" as I was. I was shocked, and I immediately replied that I am no better than anyone else, that my walk with God is minute by minute and day by day, just like everyone else's. I said that all we needed was a willing heart to follow where He leads us, and He will do the rest. She followed up with a comment that she thought that she was going through difficulty in her life because she made God angry when she stopped going to church.
Of course, that led to a lengthy conversation, but in the end it made me think about something else: why do we always head straight to the idea that God is angry at us, and that all of our trials are a form of punishment? I know that God will ultimately judge us each, and this may be the underlying fear that most of us have, but that is not all God is about. Judging us is more like some task He has to perform, but it is certainly not His main objective.
God is about love and relationships. This is the theme of the entire Bible. Would Jesus have died for us, if He were motivated by anything but a love that we can't even comprehend? Would God have stooped to our level and intermingled with humanity through the life of Jesus for any other reason? Does He offer us grace, mercy, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, if all He wanted was to punish us?
I think that when we make mistakes, or even choose to do wrong, that God is not sitting up in heaven, making a list like Santa Claus, thinking to himself, "Boy is S/he going to get it!" Instead, I think He has compassion on us and opens His arms to us, saying, "It's okay. I know what you are going through. I forgive you. Let me help you put it back together."
It is my prayer that we all accept His invitation.
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2 comments:
Please remind your new friend that it's Satan that wants her to think that God is punishing her with the trials she goes through. However, God does allow it to happen, only so to draw her nearer to Him - so to increase her faith making it stonger.
I learned lately that E.G. White defines "holiness" as being in agreement with God. It truely is that simple.
Also, atonement originally/really meant at-one-ment. If we can get our minds away from the punishment theme an to the like-minded theme, we'll understand what God wants from us, so much easier.
I had experiences like this a few times, too. Someone we barely knows has admired us "from afar" and think that we are such a perfect couple, or that we are so "good."
I think maybe it's because they DON'T know us that well and all they can see is God's mercy at work in our lives.
Just because we've survived 47 years of marriage does mean we're perfect, or that it hasn't been a struggle.
Just because we're "elderly saints" doesn't mean the struggle with temptation is any less.
I like what Anonymous said. We must "agree with God"... even when we can't always agree with each other.
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