If i focus on God first and foremost, everything will fall into place
Question is not, how can I use god to get what i want in life,
but how is my life right now being lived to get to God
fear of the Lord is beginning with God and knowing God
Fear- closely intertwined with loving and understanding forgiveness of God
Not being scared of the Lord, Deut 10:12- What has the Lord your God required of you? To fear the Lord your God, to love him and serve him with heart and soul
psalms 130:4- But with you, there is forgiveness, therefore, I fear you
fearful joy- is bc it's humbling.
joy of success inflates you and makes you look down on other people
but joy of the greatness of god is so unmerited, unlooked for, it takes off the melancholy burden of always having to prove yourself and always think of yourself and allows you to understand weaker ppl better
psychologists have told us that if you understand your greatest fear, you will understand what your heart is looking to most for its security and identity
if you look mainly in life for peoples approval, your greatest fear is rejection
if power, then your greatest nightmare is humiliation
your greatest fear is a sign of what your heart most desperately wants. the loss of which would render life meaningless. your greatest fear is your greatest love.
you can believe in god, you can be inspired by god, obey his laws. it's possible that he can be a concept, but not your fear. but once god moves from being a concept to the love of your life, the one thing that your heart is desperate to get a hold of, if god is your fear, then you move into knowing him personally
proverbs 9:10- "fear of the lord leads to having insight of the holy one". when he becomes the core of your identity, when you're astounded by what he's done for you, he arranges who you are.
knowing a lot about a person is very different from an encounter. infinite difference from being told and believing that honey is sweet, and actually tasting the honey. aka god is love, glorious, vs experiencing the love and glory of god.
knowing god is also trusting god. proverbs 3:5-6
knowing god is internally. trusting god is externally walked out.
almost all of us starts our relationship with god conditionally. i'll start going to church- i'll try it out- if things work out, if all goes well...i'll believe.
on the other side of the if are your real trusts, fears, non-negotiables. if...i make more money, if...i find a spouse. that is where ur other trusts lie.
how do u get urself to the place of trusting. discovery of the grace of god. proverbs 20:9- who can say i have made my heart pure, i am clean from my sin.
-no one can clean themselves, meaning everybody is lost.
steadfast love; absolutely and total unconditional love and faithfuless; total and unconditional commitment to truth and righteousness
how can god do this? he can't
if he did, he is compromising his holiness
if he doesn't, then he is not loving
but somehow, its by total love and total holiness are both the source of how we are saved and freed from our sin
what makes the change is knowing that its by complete free grace we are saved
message of father to son- if u hold on to ur life, they will lose theirs, but if u let go of ur life, if u pay their debt, then they will have theirs back. so jesus knew he would be crushed and utterly abandoned, but he had complete trust in the love of his father.
give up ur right to self-determination. "and i'm not asking u to do something i haven't done. i gave up control for u. i gave up my life for u, and i was abandoned. if u give up control for me, u will only be embraced."
work out ur salvation in fear and trembling. take the amazing gospel and work it into ur life until more and more joyful and astounding fear of god it makes u not afraid of anything else, so grow in it.
No comments:
Post a Comment