It is hard to draw near to your Father when you aren’t certain if He loves you. If you believe God takes away or harms you for an unknown purpose or for a greater good, then you doubt where you stand in your relationship with Him. You doubt the right-standing Jesus died to give you. You doubt the way God thinks of you. Trust is then very difficult, and fear springs up destroying any intimacy you might have.
God is love (1 John 4:8). God does nothing that goes against who He is. He does nothing to harm you. He never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He certainly does nothing to make you question if He loves you. That is the enemy trying to kill, steal, and destroy the abundant life God has for you (John 10:10). If the enemy can convince you that God will harm you for a greater good, then you will believe a lie that will keep you in perpetual bondage. And you will never find fulfillment in God’s grace.
The true nature of God is unconditional love and grace. If He did not spare the life of His own Son out of love for you, why would He use harm to win your love? Why would He not give you what you need to encourage you and build your trust?
We wonder why some Christians are afraid of God! They falsely believe they must work to earn and keep God’s acceptance and love. To have an intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father, you need to believe in your heart that Jesus’ sacrifice for you on the Cross was enough and that there is nothing more you have to do to win God’s love (Ephesians 1:6). Jesus won it for you. To live in intimacy with God, we continually “draw near (to Him) with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22, NKJV).
When you believe in your heart that you are washed clean in the blood of His sacrifice, you know how much God loves you. You have God’s power that overcame your evil conscience. You know there is nothing to do to convince God to love you. He already loved you by becoming your sin and giving you His righteousness. He has given you everything. He held nothing back. You are at peace in the revelation of His love for you.
God loves and is pleased with His Son. He sees His Son when He sees you. He loves and rejoices over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). What you have with God is not a religion. It is not a list of works to perform to win God’s love. You have a relationship with God, and He wants you to know Him as He knows you.
Learn in His Word how God sees you. Discover what it means that you are blameless and holy in God’s eyes because of Christ’s sacrifice. When you know who you are in Christ, you believe in your heart His sacrifice was enough. Your lifetime of sin has been completely punished in the body of Christ on the cross. Your sin-consciousness is crucified with Christ. You are free of its condemnation. And you can draw near to God with full assurance of faith.
“Who condemns you?” Christ asked the woman condemned by her sin and her accusers.
Knowing her accusers were gone, she answered, “No one.”
“Neither do I,” Jesus told her. “Go and sin no more.”
(John 8:10-11)
Where sin abounds, His grace abounds more (Romans 5:20). When you really believe in your heart that you are completely and forever forgiven—washed clean—made new in His grace—have no debt to pay—then sin no longer has power. The love of God in Christ Jesus has given you everything you need to live a righteous and holy life. When you believe that His grace was sufficient for your sins—your sickness—your need, you choose to live in the fullness of His grace free of a conscience that condemns you. His grace is sufficient for everything (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Christ’s perfect work is finished (John 19:30). When you believe there is nothing more to be done—that you do not need to win your Father’s love, you are free of condemnation, guilt, and shame. You are continually renewed in your mind by His truth and love for you. You continually put on the new nature Christ has given you—the righteous one that He created to be yours (Ephesians 4:23-24).
And you live in the healing freedom of God’s grace.
© 2022 Lynn Lacher
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