Love Sets Us Apart

The most recent season of my life could be summed up in learning how to receive God's love and walk in the freedom that comes with that. My little girl has been a big part of that, she teaches me so much about my father's love for me. Another way to put it would be to say that I am setting aside my pursuit of perfection and resting in Gods love above all. I mess up. I mess up a lot. I bet you do too. In fact, I am certain that you do because Jesus says so.

We live in a fallen, broken world, and we are fallen, broken people.

So what's the point of following Christ? Is it so I can become a perfect, well-liked, polished-up christian? And the longer I follow Jesus, the more I will have it all together? I think I used to believe that. I had good intentions, but the weight of it all got to be overwhelming. And Jesus teaches that his yoke is light. So something was off, and bc God loves me so much, He wasn't willing to let me keep living that way. If you are a christian, and your load feels heavy, ask God to show you why.

I look at the world of religion and pharisees and it's no surprise that so many people in the world do not want anything to do with Christianity. The two get confused with each other. Religion teaches that you have to get it all right and you have to know all the answers. Religion causes arguments between believers over silly, unnecessary things. Yes, sometimes as a follower of Christ, you will be asked by the Lord to make hard decisions that are counter-cultural and that will cause drifts. That's a fact. But when Jesus asks us to make hard decisions, it isn't so that we can look around at those around us and talk about how what I am doing is right and what you are doing is wrong. That's not pretty. It isn't attractive and it certainly isn't love.

The thing is that you might be in a place where God has healed you of any desire to choose the wrong thing in one area of life that He hasn't healed me of yet. And I might be at a place in my life where I don't struggle with the things that you struggle with. When we start comparing those things and pointing fingers at each other, it's leads to insecurity and division. And no one is drawn to that. No one wants to be judged by their every move. Yes, we are to be wise and discerning, especially about who we go to for advice and who we are being influenced by, (ie. *don't take money advice from broke people...), but that's different than comparing and yelling about silly things. 

Christians, lets quit arguing about things that don't matter. Let's take stands in our own personal lives. Let's choose to throw away the alters in our lives. Let's quit worshiping things that we were never intended to worship. And let's do it because we love Jesus and we are desperately seeking Him in everything we do. Not so that we can puff ourselves up and show everyone else how "good" we are. We live for an audience of one. Jesus Christ is our judge. He is the only one who knows our hearts and who has the place to decide if what we are doing is acceptable or not. And I am so honored and humbled to say that I know without a doubt, He rewards faithful obedience, even if no-one else notices. Thank you Jesus. I love you.

*quote from Dave Ramsey