Saturday August 20, 2022
I’m writing this for anyone who has ever felt condemned when they missed the mark or fell short in life. I’ve felt that way before. To anyone who thinks God isn’t happy with them when they fail or have bitter thoughts, know this. God’s ABUNDANT pleasure in you is based on Jesus, His perfect Son. This is what He has spoken to me for you.
“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:13
Many times in the earlier days of my walk as a believer in Christ I would feel very discouraged and guilty whenever I felt obligated to make choices involving interaction with people, whether it be showing love to someone or even participating in an event or not. I never had trouble making decisions in unavoidable everyday situations, but rather the ones that seemed trivial and the ones in which I had the human capacity to decide whether or not I was going to do something. I mean, it was every little thing. Example: If I dared to pass by someone’s discarded candy wrapper on the ground during a walk instead of bringing it to a trashcan somewhere, that was it. My life was over. God’s wrath was surely imminent. Oh wretched man I am! Haha, I’m exaggerating here to make a point.
But truly, when it came to making various choices in life I would always say to myself “alright, I need to make sure I’m making the choice God would want me to make.” I wanted so badly to please God and not let Him down. Oftentimes I would not feel like making a particular choice but would make it anyway, fearing that if I didn’t, I would be sinning and God would chastise me to teach me a lesson. All the while I would feel bitter about making the choice and condemned for feeling bitter about it. What I didn’t realize was these works were dead works I was trying to perform to “earn” God’s blessing. (see Hebrews 9:14)
I rode an ever spinning merry go round of this kind of thinking, until He instilled the meaning of these passages from His word into my weary soul.
Philippians 2:13 says
“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”
To WILL, AND DO. I get excited when I read that part! Let that sink in. It is GOD (not us) who works in us giving us the desire and will to do what pleases Him. Let me emphasize that He is the one who produces the desire. (And may I add, if He’s the one working in us, rather than us trying to be good all the time, then He’s the one who gets the glory when we make the good choices HE produces!) May that truth give you rest!
I wasted many months of my life condemning myself, trying and trying to produce within myself the will to do the things that please God, when I could have been resting in the truth that He’s the one who makes it happen. In a nutshell, God will never call you to do something in an area of your life without giving you the will to do it. He is not standing by, pressuring you, ready to unleash displeasure upon you the moment you fail. And here’s why.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:14
Many skeptics claim that raw teachings about God’s grace give people the license to sin, but that verse clearly states that sin has no dominion over the believer that is under grace (God’s favor). I was skeptic too when I heard teachings like this, thinking “if I’m not being pressured to do great things for God, won’t that cause me to become uncaring?” But what happened was quite the opposite! I have a personal story relating to this verse. One day I was feeling obligated to make yet another decision. I won’t specify about the story so that you can relate to it no matter what pressuring thoughts you’re experiencing in life. By this time I was aware that I was going in circles of self-inflicted guilt, and nothing I was doing to try to “fix” God’s favor for me was making me feel any less condemned.
For the first time I chose to ignore the voices of obligation and simply make the choice I intended to make all along. I rested from my efforts of trying to produce the will to do good in of myself. What followed amazed me. Suddenly I found myself effortlessly giving to others, truly caring for other people, and WANTING to be around them, and all the while I was aware it was God working through me, not myself! God’s grace (def.- unmerited favor) has the power to change my mind, and I didn’t have to even think about what choices I was making, they came without a second thought! This very article, I write not from a mindset of effort, but because He is filling me up with so much encouragement to share!
I was standing on my porch one stormy afternoon, admiring the rain. I thought “it would be nice to dance in the rain, but I’d rather stay dry. I don’t want to get cold either, so I fully intend to stay here”.
Next thing I know is I’m running out the door, dancing in the rain more freely than a child, living life to the fullest extent. What on earth happened that made me change my mind so suddenly without any effort? God’s grace, His unmerited favor. I’ve seen this favor transform my life in the realm of my thoughts. Burdensome thoughts that ask “which choice do I make? A or B?” evaporate into thin air in the knowledge that God is already pleased with me because of Jesus. His freely given favor is wholly dependent on Jesus’s FINISHED work on the cross, and cannot be lessened by our shortcomings or even our sins. His grace is greater! It is impossible to be brought under the power of discouragement or guilt when you realize that God’s favor for you is ever abounding, not because of anything you do or fail to do, but all because of Him.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
II Corinthians 5:21
In Christ, God is pleased with you, friend. Rest in the love of Jesus.