Breakdown:
Think about it this way, if you sacrifice for someone you
love dearly, you don’t expect them to return your love and sacrifice by
thinking you are evil and you are someone to be feared. In fact, that would
possibly hurt you to have to constantly try to encourage your loved one not to
be afraid of you. That’s how it is with God, He created us, He sacrificed His
only Son for us, He loved us even when we didn’t love Him and He desires to
show us just how much He really loves us with His blessings. The bible is
filled with promises and blessings and chronicles that urge us to choose God
and serve God from a pure heart of love – so imagine how He feels when we serve
Him just to keep Him “appeased” so that we don’t end up in hell or to please
someone else in our life to gain their approval or whatever it is we feel we
need from them. Imagine the slap in the face that would be if someone did that
to you? So why do we so easily do it to our Father?
Yes, Hell is real and yes we should have a fear of God but
not in the natural sense – not in the fight or flight sense. We should serve
God out of love for Him, out of a pure desire to know Him- intimately. Anything
less than this is cheating you – not Him, though He longs to welcome you into
the family of faith and He longs to see you have life to the full, in abundance
as He sent His Son Christ to give – but God is so good that He will not force
Himself on anyone – God is not and has never been a rapist and He won’t start
now.
Don’t let the enemy fool you. God is Love and we should serve
Him from a place of love with a reverential fear that = respect, awe,
admiration, honor – from this we are compelled to obedience because we Love God
and we recognize that He loves us… more than we can fathom, even better than we
love ourselves. And this type of love produces change within and develops the
fruits of the spirits and helps you to stand up under trials and persecutions,
it helps you trust God during times of discipline rather than view Him as a big
mean angry bully.
Remember when Adam and Eve first entered the garden? They
had free range and frolicked naked and free without a care in the world. There
was no fear, they were ignorant to such a thing because they had no reason to
fear by human standards – not until they sinned and ate the fruit. What’s the
first thing they did when they heard God coming? Hid themselves – I’m sure
partly out of shame for their nakedness but primarily out of fear because they
knew (after eating from the tree of Good and Evil) they had done evil in God’s
sight. This is the first instance of fear in the bible and it comes only after
the fall of man – being seduced by the enemy into sin which gives birth to guilt
which gives birth to fear and the cycle continues. The enemy has been doing
this for centuries – it’s time for us to stop being mere babies walking into
the traps of the enemy as if we don’t know better. The time is out.
If you’ve been serving God out of a place of fear, today is
the day to STOP. Right now, this is your warning, this is your word, this is
your breakthrough right here – STOP and seek God to help you overcome that fear
and serve Him out of love and reverence. Get books on the Love walk, How God
loves and views You (the individual), intimacy with God; study His word, listen
to sermons on these topics (Joyce Meyer as TONS!), spend much time in prayer
(yes, much) talking to God directly –
these things will help you learn how to view and serve God correctly (with
Love) or for those who are serving God to please others, they will introduce
you to intimacy and relationship with Him that will help you see God for
yourself and serve Him correctly.
God wants a relationship with YOU, yes YOU, a serious,
ongoing, eternal one – that will supersede any other relationship you’ve ever
had or will ever have on this earth – yes it even that one. Make a choice right now today, if you have
been living in fear to rededicate your life to Christ out of Love and out of a
pure heart to know Him and Him alone. Will you accept?
No comments:
Post a Comment