When experiencing times of suffering, many Christians glibly proclaim, “God must be building character in me.” Nothing could be further from the truth! God is not trying to build character in you during times of suffering. Why isn’t He trying to build character into us? It’s because the moment we responded to Him and believed in Jesus as our Savior, He put all of His character into us. It’s already there. That’s grace for you.
Archives for April 2016
GOD’S GOOD. YOU’RE BAD. TRY HARDER!
Dad: “How did youth group go?”
Son: “Oh you know, Dad. God’s good. You’re bad. Try Harder.”
That’s the unfortunate message Christians hear every week.
In my recent introduction at our Pastor’s Conference, I shared that I believe there are three distinct types of Christians attending a typical worship service each week.
GOD’S GOOD. YOU’RE BAD. TRY HARDER!
Dad: “How did youth group go?”
Son: “Oh you know, Dad. God’s good. You’re bad. Try Harder.”
That’s the unfortunate message Christians hear every week.
In my recent introduction at our Pastor’s Conference, I shared that I believe there are three distinct types of Christians attending a typical worship service each week.
God Loves Jesus More Than He Loves Us, Right?
If we compare the perfect trust and obedience of Jesus to our own, our immediate conclusion is that God the Father loves Jesus infinitely more than He loves us. It is difficult to believe it’s possible that we are in the same league as Jesus when it comes to who God loves. I mean, who do many parents tend to love or favor the most, the child who is the most obedient or the child who is disobedient?
Most Christians are unconvinced that our Father loves them apart from their behavior, attitudes etc. It’s easy for them to believe in the deep recesses of their minds that God is keeping score, doling out His love more when they obey and withholding it when they don’t. I was once one of them. Though I could recite to you the fact that God loved me unconditionally, I still functioned as if I could get God’s attention through my obedience so He would love me more.
Jesus turned this thinking on its head when He prayed an amazing prayer for His present disciples and the ones who would come later. It’s found in John 17:26 “I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Jesus says that He has made the name of the Father known to these who followed Him while on the earth. To make known the name of the Father is to reveal Who the Father is, which results in Christ followers knowing how much they are loved.
Can you receive this today? Can you receive that our Father loves you as much as He loves Jesus, regardless of your good or bad performance? Jesus prayed for this and I am confident that Father always answers Jesus’ prayers.
Here is a prayer of faith I challenge you to pray, even if you don’t feel or believe you deserve it.
Father, because Jesus prayed for me that You would love me just as much as You loved Him, I believe that right now. Please deepen my understanding and experience of Your love for me. Remind me of this on my good days when life is good and on my bad days when life is bad. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Rest in God’s love!
Warmly in Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2016 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!
Grace Works!
“Grace Works” seems contradictory. It seems more like an oxymoron than a liberating truth. It is actually what is called a double entendre, in that, it has two powerful meanings.
First, it means God’s grace in Jesus Christ works to be the true source of change in us. Self-effort rarely brings permanent change in anyone’s life. The flesh is the source of self-effort. The flesh includes all of the strategies I have learned to try to cope with life apart from dependence on Christ in me. The flesh is also distinct and unique for every person.
For example, you may have learned to use self-confidence to impress people so you can feel important. That’s a fleshly strategy. Someone else may have learned to people-please, so that they agree with anything another says to them as an attempt to avoid rejection and elicit some type of twisted acceptance. That is also a fleshly strategy.
Grace works to free us from those kinds of strategies so that our only strategy is Christ in us. Often, the way God accomplishes this is not by delivering us from our situation, but by delivering us from ourselves! That is, our reliance on our flesh! As this happens, our enjoyment of Christ in us and who we are in Him transforms us from glory to glory. That is one way “Grace Works”.
Grace works in a different way, also. As we rely on Jesus in us more and more, the Holy Spirit brings forth good works through us. Those works are not the religious works of the flesh but the relational works birthed by grace.
For example, because you are a Saint (Ephesians 1:2) which means a holy one, doesn’t it make sense that you would want to live a holy life instead of a sinful one? Since you are righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21) in your identity in Christ, doesn’t it make sense that you would want to live a righteous life instead of an unrighteous one? Since you are a child of God (John 1:12), doesn’t it make sense that you would live a life of love, just like your Heavenly Dad, instead of a self-centered one?
I believe you agree that the answer is “Yes,” and the power to live like who we are is found in the Holy Spirit filling us with the life of Christ, so He can live through us. (Ephesians 5:18)
For many, many years, I prayed to be a Godly man. I worked hard at doing the right actions and works that I thought would make me a Godly man. It was intense and I was inebriated with the wine of self-righteousness. One day, after I began to understand the New Covenant, I was riding alone in my car and heard the Lord speak to me deep inside. He said, “Mark, you are already a Godly man, so you can stop trying to be one.” It was a liberating moment when I realized, that I was already a Godly man in my identity in Christ. What a relief! I could finally relax. The results? I stopped working to be one and began to live the good works of who I already was…a Godly man.
Rest in God’s grace this week which works!
Warmly in Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2016 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!
