Always Here // God's Love Does Not WaverНамуна

Battle for Freedom

It is in the dark too where you can find me. I am not just in the light. You need not creep among the shadows, convinced you are not worthy to stand. Who you are is more than what you have. It is more than what you think. It is more than what you say. It is more than what you do.

Do not try to trick me, wondering how to manipulate my goodness. You cannot measure life with me by rules you make up, by laws you think are good. I am who I am. My ways are not your ways.

Let me search your heart, showing you how you make me small: your thoughts about me too limited, your dreams meager. I awake in you, and the way you see me, and the limits you place on me, with your limited imagination, break open.

Think on me. Think on my goodness. Let your mind settle on thoughts that are inspiring and uplifting and pure.

Where do your thoughts fall when times are hard? On what do you lean when you are pressed on every side? Do you condemn yourself, your thoughts dark and heavy, rather than look to me for help?

When things are hard, it is easy to be critical of me--or to be judgemental of yourself. You feel, surely, you are being put to the test--and because the outcome is bad--you have surely failed. This is when you feel convinced you are alone, unloved, unwanted, rejected, despised, and mistreated. Surely you deserve this punishment, you think, because you’re not measuring up. And how could I, your God, you think, have time for someone like that?

Son, daughter, you need not test me. A battle rages--it lunges and creeps; it seeks to warp truth, distract you from hope, reduce your faith in me so you cower instead of stand, hide your face from me instead of run, full-on, into your Father’s arms.

I love you. I fight for you. I do not forsake you. I am not disappointed in you. I do not waver in my affection for you. I am not straying from you. I do not reject you. I do not change my course of pursuit. I stand with you, always. And you, my beloved, are strong--not feeble, not defenseless-- with me.

So choose now what you will see. Choose now what you will pursue. Your circumstances are not easy, no. But I am the Father in whom you can always trust. Your difficult circumstances are not obstacles getting in the way of relationship with me. They are opportunities to run to me, see me giving you hope and joy and wisdom and peace and strength.

Turn now. Turn again. My love is your defense in battle. Watch what I, in you, do.

Exercise:

In Galatians chapter five, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For freedom Christ has set us free.” He goes on to encourage us, “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”

These are big, important ideas: freedom and slavery. These are words we need to be paying attention to, that we need to understand. So, what’s Paul getting at?

Well, he is saying to the early Christian communities in Galatia that they need not adhere to the Law. But what is this “Law”? What is this “Law” that Paul is writing about? Well, First Century readers would have known immediately, he means the Law of Moses, the Mosaic Law, laid out in the first five books of the the Old Testament.

And he writes, when and if they, or anyone else, try to live their lives according to this Law, they make themselves slaves to it. They submit themselves, he says, to “a yoke of slavery.” He goes on in the next few verses to warn that, even more than that, when someone tries to live according to the Law, he or she also cuts himself or herself off from Jesus and from grace.

So, this is a very serious thing Paul is talking about. As Christians, being cut off from Jesus is a terrible prospect. Being cut off from grace is terrible too, because grace here means the power of God, the most powerful force in the universe. Grace is the very power that changes our hearts and transforms us further and further into the men and women we’re meant to be.

Okay, so it’s a big deal. This law thing. But what does it all mean for us, Christians not living in the first century, but the twenty-first century?

Well, here’s the truth. We—you and I—try to live according to the Law just as much as Christians did in Paul’s time. It’s just that our [quote/unquote] “Law” is not something we pull from the Old Testament, but which we create ourselves—with a lot of help from culture. But our “Law” has the very same power to make us slaves and to cut us off from God and from grace.

So, what do I mean? Well, we create “Law” for ourselves when we allow something in this world, when we give something power, to define our self-worth or self-approval. We create “Law” when we set up rules in our lives (and not just religious rules) and then measure our self-worth according to whether or not we meet them. We create “Law” when we create rules like, “I’m okay with myself when I am thin.” “I’m okay when I have enough money in the bank.” “I’m okay when I am performing at a certain level at work or when I am earning the approval of my boss.” “I’m okay when my kids are performing at a certain level in school or in athletics.” “I’m okay when I am getting done everything on my ‘to do’ list.” “I’m okay when my spouse and I are connected and communicating well.” “I’m okay when . . . [blank].”

These things become our “Law”—and, as such, our attitudes, our wellbeing, our self-worth or self-acceptance or self-approval become subject to them.

But notice, these are all good things in and of themselves, and we can enjoy all of them for the good things they are, but they become “Law,” and they become destructive, when we allow them to define our self-worth.

Take some time here to consider, what’s become your “Law”? Be specific, try to be honest and vulnerable, and go ahead and name two or three things or several that have become rules for you. Start with, “I’m okay when” and fill in the blanks.

How was that? Was it a struggle to name your things? Did you identify a few?

Now, with your things in mind, notice what Paul didn’t say. He didn’t say that we become slaves only when we set up “Law” for ourselves and don’t meet it—like when we say, “I’m okay when I am thin,” and then we blow our diet. No, he says we’re slaves when we submit to the “Law,” period. So, we become slaves just as much when we set up “Law” for ourselves and do meet it—like when we say, “I’m okay when I have enough money in the bank” and then there is enough money.

Do you feel yourself wrestling with this? . . . Let me tell you, Paul’s words are super counter-cultural . . . So, if you’re struggling, that’s good. It’s okay if this is hard.

Stay with me here, because this is important: in both cases, when we try to live according to our own “Law,” whether we meet it or not, whether we measure up or not, in both cases, we cut ourselves off from God and from grace.

So what, then, is the alternative?

Well, in Galatians chapter four, Paul writes, “Now we’re no longer living like slaves under the law, but we enjoy being God’s very own sons and daughters!”

So, the alternative is to live as a son, to live as a daughter. The alternative is to connect our self-worth to the fact that we have been chosen by our Abba Father, the God of the Universe, the Creator of heaven and the earth, chosen by the Lord God Almighty. The alternative is to connect our self-worth to the fact that we’ve been personally adopted by an adoring Father, the Alpha and the Omega, adopted by the One who is the Beginning and the End of everything.

When we do that, we connect our self-worth to something that will never change, no matter what happens, ever. We connect our self-worth to Someone who will never let us down, who will never turn away from us, ever—rather than connecting our self-worth to something as fragile as a diet or a ‘to do’ list or a paycheck or the attitude of a fickle boss.

Remember what we heard from Holy Spirit:

“So choose now what you will see. Choose now what you will pursue. Your circumstances are not easy, no. But I am the Father in whom you can always trust. Your difficult circumstances are not obstacles getting in the way of relationship with me. They are opportunities to run to me, see me giving you hope and joy and wisdom and peace and strength.”

I know I want that—this life God offers—this new way of living, this freedom. Do you? Do you want to renounce your “Law,” right now, and begin living as a child of God?

Father, I renounce the “Law” I’ve created for myself. I say to You now, I want to turn my back on that way of living—living as a slave. But I need your help. So, connect me back to You, unleash grace into my life, and teach me how to find my self-worth in You, in my relationship with You, rather than in the things of this world.

This is hard, Father. I need your help to let go of these things. I’m not sure I know how to live as a son, as a daughter, practically—but I trust that You can and will show me how. So, keep me close and let’s begin.

Thank you, Father. I love You.

Amen.