I had a friend in college once talk about how there are two dichotomies
of faith that permeate the majority of Christians’ belief systems. The first
being the: ‘it’s all about grace’ path. When taken to the extreme this way of
thinking says that it doesn’t really matter what you do because Jesus already
died on the cross and forgave you for it. So you don’t really have to try to
live righteously because, it’s all about His grace. This is false, small
nuggets of truth are found in that large overarching statement, but the
statement itself is false. The second belief system many Christians adopt is
the ‘faith without works is dead so I have to work really hard’, or the ‘if I try
really hard to be good then God will love me and I’ll go to heaven’. Again,
both of these statements are false – nuggets of truth buried under a lie.
If you were to ask me which line of thinking I most often lean
towards, it’s the works mentality. I don’t know where or when I began to buy
into this lie, or if it’s just merely my type A personality, but thinking that
I have to earn God’s love is so much easier for me to believe than the reality
of His love being a free gift.
What’s weird, is that I am a fairly self-aware individual,
and I realize that I have an incorrect view of God and His love for me. So what
am I supposed to do about it? Well, obviously first one must TRY to change,
right?! Ya’ll, I’ve tried. For a really long time. I don’t know if God’s been
chuckling at me trying to understand His love on my own, or saddened by it, but
I know either way He’s been waiting for me to ask Him about it.
That’s finally what I did. I asked the Lord to show me how
he loves me, and what I’ve been realizing this past week or so, is that God doesn’t
really care how hard I try. It’s not about my striving, He’s after my heart.
See when someone, or something, has your heart spending time
with that someone or something isn’t hard. You like it. You want to do things with/for
the person who has your heart. Things flow out of you naturally. If you like
watching old seasons of Bones on Netflix, chances are you’re going to do that
after work. (Just me?! Oh, bummer..) Or take Sean, my sweet husband, for
example. I love Sean, he has my heart. So when I go to the store for groceries,
I don’t think to myself “Oh shoot I’ve got to get food for Sean too, I almost
forgot!” Nope, in fact, I typically fight through the overcrowded isles to grab
him some of his favorite treats. Is it work to get the habanero almonds he
likes? If you’ve been to the grocery store on a Sunday then you know the answer
to this question is YES. But I don’t really see it as work, I see it as
honoring and loving my husband. I just do it, and don’t really think much of
it.
God is the best husband you’ll ever have, and he desperately
wants your heart. Yes, He will require some work, or obedience, from you.
However, I truly believe that His greatest desire is for your obedience to be
out of the overflow of your heart, rather than a sense of duty. Yes, faith without
works is dead, but our works to not prove that God has our hearts. You can
strive, and work all your life, but never fall in love with the Lord. That
would be the greatest tragedy of all.
Friends, if you’re like me at all please hear this from the
Lord. “Put down your tools, sit with me a
while. Take your eyes off of yourself, your accomplishments and failures - and
look at me. Once you look at me, you will fall in love with me, for I AM
love.”
He is Love. He is good, and He is after your heart.
