Livin’ LovedLivin’ loved is something we are experiencing and sharing with others a lot more these days. But, what exactly do these words mean? We do not mean to imply that we are perfect or that we have a perfect understanding of God’s love. We certainly don’t mean that God loves us more than anyone else. We are describing what it means to live relationally with God, out of a growing awareness of His unconditional and unchanging affection. It is living in the reality that there is nothing I can do to cause God to love me more and there is nothing I can do to cause God to love me less. Livin’ loved can only happen one moment, one day, one situation at a time. When we are not livin’ loved our life is controlled by fear, guilt and shame. This plays out in our daily lives in a myriad of ways. Some examples would be:
• Always worrying about money and the economy
• Depending on the approval of others
• Looking to food, drugs, and/or alcohol to relieve our pain, stress and boredom
• Never feeling good enough or spiritual enough to please God
• Working hard to serve God, in hope of earning His blessings
• People pleasing, in order to get love and acceptance
• Living as a victim of past hurts
• Controlling and manipulating others to get needs met
• Expecting others to fill our emptiness and make us feel loved Livin’ loved is experiencing God’s love on a daily basis, which is different than just knowing the fact that God loves us. As we journey with God in a relational way, He convinces us of His love and this transforms us from the inside out. The ultimate proof of God’s love for us is the cross. Therefore, understanding what Christ accomplished, through the cross, is foundational in learning to live loved. Through Wayne Jacobsen’s teaching on the power of the cross, I’ve come to a deeper understanding of God’s love and affection for me. Let me explain. When I was saved, I saw the cross, primarily, as God’s means of punishing my sins. Jesus took my whippin’, so to speak, so that God didn’t have to send me to hell, which I deserved. This caused me to see Jesus in a favorable light, but it didn’t do much for my view of God the Father. I was grateful for Jesus, but still lived in fear of disappointing God and incurring His punishment. My partial understanding of the cross hindered me from fully comprehending what God willing did, in order to have an intimate relationship with me. For much of my journey, I viewed the cross as a means of appeasing God’s wrath toward sinners. Now I see the cross more as the cure rather than merely the punishment of sin. In fact, before Adam and Eve were even created, God planned to demonstrate His love for us by sending His Son to die on a cross. While it is true that Christ’s death on the cross secured our forgiveness, the main purpose of the cross was to free us from sin’s power and to make us alive with God’s life (Romans 6:6-7, 11). Jesus became sin and defeated it, to set us free from the fear, guilt and shame that kept us from truly knowing God and living in close relationship with Him. Since Adam and Eve’s choice to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (a choice to live independent of God), we have been controlled by fear and have hid from God. Because of the guilt and shame that sin produced, we could no longer see God as a safe person to know and trust. Does God really want us to live afraid of Him? Does God use our fear and guilt to motivate us to try to obey Him? Did God change his mind about Adam and Eve after their disobedience? Or, could it have been their perception of God that changed? Was it anger that caused Him to expel them from the Garden? Or could this have been an act of love? Once sin invaded their spirit, Adam and Eve no longer trusted God. They hid from Him and tried to cover their shame. However, it was God who came looking for Adam and Eve. He covered their nakedness and promised to send His seed to rescue them. Not for a second did God’s love fail or change. The cross was not God’s plan “B”. It was His original purpose from before creation. God planned all along to demonstrate his love for us through becoming the sacrifice that destroyed sin’s grip on our lives.
Wayne describes God’s wrath as “the full weight of God’s anger coming against that which would destroy the object of His affection.” In other words, God is not angry at people because of their sin; He is angry at sin which seeks to destroy His people.
When Jesus went to the cross, He took sin into himself and defeated it through His absolute trust in Father’s love. During those hours of agony, when Jesus experienced all the emotions of feeling forsaken by the Father, He still trusted Him. In His final moments, Jesus prayed “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.” By defeating the power of sin in this way, Jesus was able set our spirits free of sin’s rule and replace it with His Holy Presence. This was God’s New Covenant promise, communicated to the prophet Ezekiel: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in My statues, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” Ezekiel 36:25-27 Father’s plan was to have an intimate love relationship with His kids and to live inside them. Someone once described the reason for Jesus’ coming, this way: “Jesus gave His life for us, so He could give His life to us, so He could live His life through us.” The cross was more than a means of forgiveness; it was God’s cure for all that separates us from Him. Through the cross He reconciled the whole world to Himself and made it possible for us to truly know Him and experience His life on a daily basis. God does not want us to fear Him. He wants us to know and trust Him. He desires for us to boldly come to Him and talk to Him about whatever is bothering us. Our healing and transformation is the work of His Spirit within us. Our part is to abide in His love. He will transform us into the people He has created us to be, as we grow to trust His love for us. When we are living loved we are free to love others the way He does. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 Livin’ loved is living in the awareness that:
• I am fully forgiven and God is no longer counting my sins against me (2 Cor. 5:19)
• There is nothing I can do to make God love me more and there is nothing I can do to make Him love me less (John 17:23; Romans 5:8; 8: 37-39)
• God likes me and delights in me as His child (Zephaniah 3:17)
• God is never disappointed with me, because He had no expectations of me to begin with (John 15:4)
• What God wants, more than anything else, is an ongoing conversation with me (1 Thess. 5:17)
• God is the safest person in the universe to be real with (Romans 8; 1 John 4:18)
• Father wants me to run to Him with all my concerns, failures, and needs (Hebrews 4:13-16)
• Only Jesus can transform me into the person God has created me to be (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 2:13)
• Understanding and receiving God’s perfect love frees me to love others (Eph. 3:14-19; 1 John 4:7-19) The Transformation Process As we learn to live loved, we grow in our love for God. The more we love God, the more we trust Him. As our trust in God grows, we are set free from sin and empowered to love others. This process is a lifelong journey, lived out moment by moment.
|
