Liberty

To seek His kingdom is to seek higher ways, and to seek higher ways is to seek Him! Who is He?  How does He love me?  Since love is who He is (as opposed to what He does) His love for me remains total, absolute, and unqualified.  He loves me just as I am without any coercion towards change. If I never improve, progress, or bear fruit, He still loves me and accepts me as His own. Still, it is natural to bear fruit.  Progress is, by definition, a normal aspect of growth. Humanity was formed from dust, but God also breathed His life into us.  On one-hand we are tied to the earth, on the other we have a God-breathed quest to reach for our heavenly origins. God breathed life into mankind and made us the guardians of creation.  Humanity's fall affected creation on every level, but God had a plan for redemption before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Christ in us was always our hope of glory. When God looks at us He sees a new creation in Christ. He sees His own righteousness, not religion's self-righteous imposter. His vested righteousness in us is the reason we are freely loved and accepted.  In Christ, nothing can separate us from His love. Christian maturity is usually acknowledged when His righteousness in us makes its way to the outer world in which we live.  We find approval through the manifestation of His higher ways.  Even though we are still loved, we are likely unsatisfied without tangible evidence of His life in us. His divine breath imparted an upward call and it is now our natural desire. 1 Corinthians 15:41-51 says that the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.  It talks about an earthy natural body, and a spiritual body.  One is sown in corruption and weakness, the other is raised in incorruption and power.  As we have all borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.  Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; the spiritual inherits the spiritual. Flesh and blood returns to the dust of the earth, for it is earthy.  Our spirit, quickened by His Spirit, is raised in the resurrection of the dead. We have the assurance that we are changed, are being changed, and will be eternally changed. In the here and now, accepting ourselves just as we are is an important step of faith that affirms our belief that we are loved, not because of what we've done, but because of what He's done. It is the key to believing we are loved no matter what.  Knowing that we are loved no matter what relaxes us so that we can receive the grace that will conform us to godliness.  Change has already occurred in spirit; heaven is already within us; we are already living in eternal life. We often make anxious, even violent efforts to get free from certain behaviors because we are, inadvertently, trying to redeem flesh and blood - that which will only return to dust. We try to make ourselves bear the…

My clumsy mistakes in life are redeemed by love. Learning to love my entire human experience is helping me develop gratefulness for how intricately I am made. A healthy view of myself is building a self-respect that protects me from the opinions, prejudices, and false notions of how life should look.  The indwelling life of Christ is my hope for realizing dignity, hope, and attainable goals for my life. He is the key to focusing on that which is eternal instead of that which is temporal, and for acting in accordance with who I really (already) am. If I am already where I want to be - raised up and seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) - then I don't have to try to get there. This ends the struggle of trying to fix mistakes or the fear of feeling the need to reverse the damages.  From God's vantage point, everything in my life has produced results. It took it all to get me here. Yes,  erroneous beliefs form imbalances but even the imbalances have taught me well. I can embrace it as the mentor it has been. Through it I have found my undeniable need for an awareness of His active presence; I have been leveled as I came face to face with my own humanity.  Through it I have understood the struggle of others; I have been humbled.  It has been my journey toward accepting who I am, who I am not, what I want, and what I don't want. A cycle of failure led me to greater faith.  It led me to a determination to view myself in union with His life, and to an absolute trust in His ability to work all things out for the good...His indwelling presence has always led me to peace. Fighting addictive behavior (as though it were my enemy) only strengthened addictive behavior. To comprehend this principle frees me to love my enemy as that which has led me to faith. Here's the paradox: It is the fight that kept me from the truth and it is the fight that led me to the truth. In the end, it is love that won the war. My Lord continues to carve the private spaces within me where He and I can discuss the freedom for which Christ has set me free. In this space I remember all that I know. It is in this secret chamber that I am stilled so that I can know that He is God. It is here that I catch glimpses of new ways of living, moving, and being. For a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him…