Romans! It’s one of the toughest books in the Bible
to swallow. Paul begins telling us
everything that is wrong with mankind and the world around us. All the sin that we fall into is listed out
and Paul just reiterates how far we fall from the feet of God. Then he brings the good news in chapter 5 of
how God loved us before Jesus and he had a plan for us. It is said that “While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us” (vs. 8). Meaning
that there was absolutely nothing we could do or can do, that Jesus died for us
just because God loves us so much. However, I do not tend to think of God in that way. In my head I know that there is nothing I could
possibly do, or not do, to make God love me any less; but my actions show otherwise. Deep down I feel like I have to give God a
good name in my life, that I need to do things to please him, and the list goes
on and on. In reality, I should fear
absolutely nothing (rejection, humiliation, failure) because God has PERFECT
love for me, meaning that no matter what he will always love me and never turn
his back on me. But for me it just
hasn’t clicked yet, I don’t live my life fearless for Christ: I worry about
what others think of me, I need to have relationships with many people to feel
loved, I avoid circumstances where I know I may fail, I don’t live as
dangerously as I could. This is only a
few of the things that I hold on to that keep me from giving everything up and
living the life God ordained for me to live. While discussing this chapter, one of my leaders told a sweet story that
really shows the relationship we have with God.
He compared
our relationship with God with that of an orphan and an adoptive child. Let’s say this parent’s name is Mary and she
adopts a young boy named Joseph. Well
Joseph has been an orphan, living on the streets since he was 3. He was accustomed to the lifestyle that he
had to live in order to survive each day that he encountered. Well, being adopted at the age of 11, he was
not used to the life Mary was about to give him. Mary loved Joseph unconditionally. She bought him clothes for every season and
some extras just for fun. She bought so
much food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even some for afternoon
snacks. She gave him a cozy bedroom with
several toys and other things to keep him busy. Well one day Joseph was away at school and Mary went into his bedroom to
get his laundry and in the corner of his closet she found a whole bunch of food
stashed away. The reason Joseph stored
this food is because for his whole life he never knew when the next time would
be that he would get food to feed his hungry stomach, so he wanted to make sure
that he would have food in case Mary ever stopped making him meals.
Right after Matt finished giving this illustration I
realized that I was storing things up in my closet “just in case,” just like
Joseph was doing; which is hindering my relationship with my Father. God loves us so much and will give us
EVERYTHING, and more, that we need to survive in this world. However, we have lived so long in this fallen
world, where Satan is king, being lied to all the time that we don’t know which
way is up anymore. We have so many
things we hold on to so that we can ensure that we will survive “just in case”
God doesn’t come through for us. It’s
almost impossible for us to wrap our minds around the idea that God is going no
where; that he will catch us when we fall; that if everyone turns against us
here on earth, it doesn’t matter because he will open his arms for us to run into; that if we fail, he will still love us as
much as the times that we succeeded; that if we turned our backs on him for
years, the second we glance his direction, he is there to save us and bring us
back to him; even when we fall in love with the world and never acknowledge
him, he still loves us.
I don’t think I have ever met someone that lives like they
truly believe God loves him or her unconditionally and that was all that
mattered. I sell myself short everyday
when I don’t let Christ love me the way he does. God has put the offer right in front of me,
it is up to me to take it and live KNOWING that he will always be there for me
and that his love is all that should matter to me.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man
someone might possibly dare to die.” Romans 5:6-7
I know that I am not the only person who has a problem with
letting Christ love them, but the shocker to me was that I never really thought
about it until the other day. I thought
that I was doing things right…heck I gave up 9 months of my life to live in a
foreign place away from all that I know, and all for God. I do quiet times every morning, I pray to him
about all sorts of things, I do my ministry 5-9 hours a day, I tell others
about God, I do all these things that I am thinking God wants me to do. In my mind everything is going great with God…
What else do I need to do? Right? WRONG!! Regardless of all these things I do for Christ, I don’t do the one thing
he really wants me to do…let him love me. Such a simple thing you would think, but it is so hard to live having
complete trust is someone I can’t see and someone who is not physically in my
presence. The ironic thing to all this
is that God is the only thing that will NEVER let me down or hurt me. I can’t say that about anyone else in my
life…
So my challenge to you, and myself, is to ask God to show you
what you are holding on to “just in case” and then to give all that up to
God. Let him free you from burdens that
you have been carrying around for no reason at all.
