Full Expression

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

I John 4:12 (NLT)

No, I’ve never physically seen God, but I experience Him every day. I see and experience Him in the actions of those who unconditionally love with His love. I receive Him in their forgiveness that looks beyond my limitations and recognizes my need. They believe in His best in me when I can’t see it myself. They encourage me even when I fail. They cheer me on to not give up reaching for His best. They don't hit me over the head when I miss the mark. They keep believing in the person Jesus sees in me. And they give me time to find my way, never doubting that I will believe what I have received in Him. When I believe, I will never doubt again what He has freely given. And when I don’t doubt, I live without fear and share His love just the way others have shared it with me.

When I choose to love with His love, He is alive in me, and His love is brought to full expression in my life. Some believe that living the unconditional love of Jesus is a risk—that someone will take advantage of what has been freely given. It is not a risk to love with His love. It is a risk not to love with His love. Believing in what Jesus sees in someone else can be life-changing for them and life-changing for you.  Not forcing it and not getting frustrated when you don’t see change is the answer. Jesus never gets frustrated with you. He sees you through the eyes of loving grace. Jesus can't see you any other way because He has already given up His “rights." He never demands. He just loves.

“Rights are where survivors go,” William Young writes, “so they don't have to work out relationships.” 

You don't have to fight for survival. Jesus gave you His best to survive! He gave us His “rights” when He said yes to the Cross. Life is about living out relationships, and Jesus revealed how to love others no matter how they respond in return. Christ's love is all about extending undeserved grace. He did not deserve to die for me and extend me undeserved grace, but He did. He chose not to exercise any "rights." He chose to sacrifice His life. If I choose to honor the gift of His life by giving my own away, I will discover precious truths. In giving myself away, I receive the joy of His abundance. In dying to self, I learn to live victoriously and entirely in Him. 

I experience the full expression of His love when I daily choose to deny my rights just as He denied His rights for me. With the full expression of His love flowing within me, I can never withhold what I have received. I give His love away. 

Give as He gave His life for you, and you will receive—pressed down and running over. Free of self, you flow without limitation in Him.  And His gift goes on. A life changes, and so do you.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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Your Gift

Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!

—2 Corinthians 9:15 NLT

If you are someone who feels alone this Christmas, I might not understand what you are going through. I might not understand what it means to be without a husband or children at Christmas. But I do understand loss. Mother is gone. Daddy passed last year. I understand the sadness you feel when those you love have passed from your life.

Companies, like Hallmark, remind you that Christmas is a time for love and for families—a time for sharing presents and home. Warm and cozy feelings are their goals—along with a hot cup of cocoa to soothe and renew your visions of sugar plum sweetness. Over and over again, you are reminded that what the retail world tells you is real. And loneliness is magnified. Loss becomes greater. Despair draws you in, and you feel abandoned—adrift without hope in a world that has left you behind. The truth is you are not alone. You aren't abandoned. Jesus loves you with the purest unconditional love. 

Jesus was not born into a world of sugar plum sweetness. He was born in a lowly manger with little comfort because there was no room for him in the inn. He came alone, without fanfare, to offer himself to be your greatest gift. He was born to give his life with no expectation of return. Never needing to be earned, His love was freely given, costing you nothing. Abandoned because of our sin, He experienced loneliness as you will never know it. And in His brokenness for you, He imparted the ultimate gift of His righteousness so that you might experience God's fullness and joy no matter your circumstance or pain. Jesus is the only answer to loneliness. He is the only answer to the pain of loss.

If you feel alone, you are not abandoned or alone. Your Comforter has come so you can rest in His loving grace. His heart understands, and His grace heals the loneliness you feel. He took your loneliness at Calvary, and for your pain—your loss, He rendered His life as the highest offering. His gift for you is freedom from pain and loss. There is no greater love than His love, which came to heal your heart and set you free from emotional bondage. Jesus blesses you with the joy of His grace.

 When Jesus is your greatest love, a loss does not consume. You know His truth beyond feeling. You live peace that the gift of His life has given you. You walk in His love and assurance. You might have experienced loss, but you have gained Him. And His grace sets you free.

When you understand that the grace of Jesus is sufficient for your need, your heart is healed by truth instead of bombarded by feelings of despair. You walk in His newness of life unscathed by feelings by loss. His grace continually strengthens you.

Believe in Him. You possess the greatest gift of all.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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No Better Gift

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.

—Colossians 2:13-17 (NLT)

Do you realize that because you have been made alive with Christ, your sinful nature has been cut away by the finished work of His grace?  When you believed in Jesus as your Savior, you were forgiven for all of your sins. God canceled the debt of your sin because Jesus paid for it with His life. All your sins were nailed to the cross with Him.

Why do you live in fear that you will not be “good enough” to be loved by Jesus when He has already loved you with His life? The gift of His righteous life has made you His in every way!  Jesus didn’t judge and condemn you when He chose to pay for your sin. He looked beyond your sinful state and saw your need and met it with His life. His grace cut your sin away. If He had come into the world to judge you, He would have never died to save you.

“If you are trying to make yourself right with God by keeping the law” Paul wrote, “you have been cut off from Christ. You have fallen away from God’s grace” (Galatians 5:4, NLT). Jesus never leaves you. You move away from Him when you don’t allow His grace to transform you. Paul doesn't say here that falling from God's grace is falling back into sin. He says that falling from God's grace is when you struggle to make yourself right by keeping rules. You can't change your heart by following rules. Only Jesus transforms you by the power of His grace.  

Throughout Scripture, Jesus disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities with the simplicity of His Good News. We make His grace less when we make rules and regulations more important than the finished work of the Cross. When we make the law more valuable than His grace, the Holy Spirit still disarms the rules and regulations of authorities. Our traditions are only that—traditions that we perceive. The grace of Jesus opens the throne room of God to us. His presence is our place of safety—not a place of fear where we struggle for acceptance.

Don’t feel condemned if you believe you don’t keep all the “rules” perfectly. “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 4:17, NLT).  The do’s and don’ts—the rules—are only a shadow of His reality. Jesus Himself is the reality. Jesus was the perfection that He alone could attain. 

How do you experience a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit?  By believing in the gift of His righteousness. By believing in the complete and finished work of the Cross. By believing He will never leave you or forsake you. By accepting, you are forever forgiven. By believing and being transformed in the spirit of your mind. Faith in Jesus and the gift of His righteousness is the answer.

“But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love” (Galatians 5:5-6).

There is no benefit in the do's and the don'ts. Your profit is in Jesus. You are alive in Christ! You are free to be loved beyond the mind's ability to grasp. Soak Him in. He is yours. There is no better gift this Christmas.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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Never Limited

I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.

—Ephesians 3:16-17 (NLT)

What an incredible prayer! If we only understood the depth of Paul’s words, our lives would never be the same!  We would live our unlimited resources in Jesus! He is limitless within us, but we restrict Him when we don’t allow His overflowing and unending reserves to empower our lives. 

Without Him, we are powerless, but when we receive His fullness, we are strengthened through His Spirit.  We aren’t defeated by our inability, but we are empowered by His grace. Failure comes from fear and the lack of faith in what He has given us. Believing by faith that He has made us righteous, is the key. We can trust in His righteousness in us. We have none on our own. But with His life in us, there is nothing that He can’t accomplish through us. Trusting Him is paramount. He is our Savior who makes His home in our hearts!  With trust, our roots will grow deep into His love keeping us strong—encouraging and empowering us beyond any boundaries. 

Do you move in His glorious, unlimited resources? Are you empowered by His righteousness living in your heart? Reach beyond your self-imposed limitations and believe in His immeasurable love for you. Know and savor the depth and height of His grace, which looked beyond your sin and declared you righteous before God. When you believe and realize His gift of love goes on and on and on, you are never restricted again. You are unhindered and free to continually receive from His unending supply—His living water, which never runs dry.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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Abundantly More

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

—Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)

God can accomplish more than we can imagine through His power working in us. Some read this Scripture and don’t even realize the phrase “through his mighty work within us.” They wait for God to perform more than they might ask or think. But this is not what this verse says. We limit God when we don’t understand His power at work in us—when we don’t apply by faith the Resurrection power that we received when we were born again.

“It is impossible to please God without faith,” the writer of Hebrews proclaimed. “Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, NLT).

God wishes us to know Him deeply and intimately. Without faith, we lack in our perception of His grace. Without trust, we can’t understand the power of the Cross. If we come to Him believing that He rewards those who sincerely seek His face, nothing is impossible. When we apply faith to whatever our need, He works mightily within us to accomplish more than we can imagine.

God's work within us is not just about what we see in the natural realm. His most profound work is how He changes our perception of who He is in us—how He renews our minds with His power. When we step out of the security of our self-insured lives and risk the limited person that we believe we are for the Spirit-filled person He knows we are, we discover our true identity. We are His. He lives in us and through us. We aren’t limited by the natural. We see with His eyes—hear with His ears—understand with His understanding. God is able to accomplish exceedingly and abundantly more through us than we might ask or think.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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His Peace is Yours

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

—Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

There is no need to worry about anything. When I have a need, I present my request to God, believing and trusting that no matter what I lay before Him, He answers me. The phrase “with thanksgiving” in this verse means that I have assurance—that I believe He will take of any concern. I release my need to Him because I believe that the Savior who gave His life for me does not leave me or forsake me. I am not anxious, and I do not beg Him. He is faithful to take care of me. I experience His peace because my peace is not dependent on anything I do. My peace is dependent on who Jesus is in my life. When I know who He is, I trust Him completely. Trusting Him carries the weight of any burden. Without question, I trust His answer and His results.

Do you often feel defeated and alone? When the circumstances of life overwhelm you, you will feel abandoned if you do not believe He loves you. The Holy Spirit continually speaks peace to your heart, but if you don't believe in the goodness and faithfulness of your Savior, you will not hear Him assuring you. When you have fear, you question Jesus’ love for you. But when you have a revelation of His love for you, you believe Him without question, and that belief shapes your mind. You believe His perfect love casts out your fear. You trust His character. Jesus, who saved you, takes care of you. You have His peace.

The Lord has an answer for what burdens your heart. The answer is trust. If you do not have a Holy-Spirit directed revelation of His love for you, ask Him. Do not worry or be anxious about anything. In whatever happens, present your request to God. Praise Him. Look for revelation in His Word. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. 

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15, NIV). 

Confidence in Jesus is trusting Him. We have the confidence to approach God because He is our loving Father that we can go to with anything. Jesus opened the door to His presence. We have not, when in disbelief, we ask not.

You give up your struggle for control when you release everything to Him. And without that struggle, fear fades away. Ask in faith, believing. When you trust and allow, His peace is yours. And there is nothing like it.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

www.lynnlacher.com/2019/11/his-peace-is-yours.html

 

His Responsibility

Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.

—Psalm 37:18 (NLT)

Christ paid the ultimate price for my sin. I cannot fathom His agony. I cannot comprehend His loneliness and separation from His Father when He, who had no sin, took mine so I might become righteous before God. Jesus gave all of himself so that I might be free forever of sin’s condemnation. I am forgiven for my past, present, and future. Jesus’ love for me on the Cross was complete. There is nothing more that needs to be done. I am not my own. My debt has been paid. I have been bought with the greatest price the Son of God could pay. In Him, I am blameless and innocent. I am His to love—His to guide—His to fill—His to use. When I grasp what Jesus has actually accomplished for me, I live in the freedom that His love purchased. I know everything is different, and I am new in His grace. 

I have always been taught that because Jesus saved me with the gift of His life that I must prove I love Him by serving and obeying Him. What so many believers fail to realize is that when they accepted Him as their Savior, their lives became His responsibility. Jesus owns my heart and my life. It is His responsibility to supply my needs. It is His responsibility to renew my mind with His. My responsibility is to allow Him to grow me—to mold my mind to His. Just as He died for me, I die to self so that He accomplishes His work in me and through me. Day by day He provides—He heals—He empowers and takes care of my life—the life that He has declared innocent before His Father. Jesus has given me His Father as my own! I am loved. And my inheritance is forever—from the moment I believed throughout eternity.

I am accepted. I am known. I am filled. I am free. He is mine—forever. When I truly believe this—when this truth is more than just words—I rest in peace and joy in the revelation of His grace. I breathe Him. I relax in Him. Jesus takes care of His own.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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Without Limitation

Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.

—Romans 12:15 NLT

Rejoice with one who is happy, Paul writes, and weep with one who is hurting. To share in someone’s pain or happiness is a gift from God. When you are there for someone else, you encourage them. Whether helping carry their load or sharing in their blessing, you become part of them. To share in their pain not only reassures them but also builds strength and insight for your life. When you rejoice with those who are happy, their happiness becomes yours.  Sharing in both the happiness and pain of someone else gives you an overflowing appreciation for the amazing goodness of God’s grace.

Be free of judgment for the person God sends you. When they are in pain, listen to their heart. Don’t be planning what to say while they are talking. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you. Have no agenda or point to make. If He instructs you, speak His wisdom with encouragement. His wisdom, even when it is sometimes tough, can be received when it is spoken without expectation in love. Always use yourself as an example. Be honest. Admit your own issues. Continually impart His hope, and speak His peace. Pain that is experienced today most often becomes part of the joy of tomorrow—for not only the one who needs you but for you.

When you share in someone’s happiness, you are free of jealousy—of your own need. Selfishness within you dies and generosity pours. There is no comparison—no competition. You rejoice because Jesus rejoices.

Sharing with someone in either happiness or pain is never about you. It is about the love of Jesus given without hesitation—His love which did not judge—only freely poured for you. Give as He gave His life for you, and you will receive—pressed down and running over. Free of self, you flow without limitation in Him.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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Praise Him

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. 

—Psalm 136:1 (NLT)

The faithful love of God never ends. He doesn't withdraw it, and He wouldn't. Jesus purchased His unconditional love for you on Calvary. When you feel alone, you aren’t. He is with you. If you wish to perceive His goodness in whatever situation you face, you need to know who you are in Christ. 

When you grasp the priceless gift of His grace, you joyfully give Him thanks no matter your circumstance. Your circumstance is not your condition. The faithful love of Jesus is your never-changing condition. When you realize that your condition in Jesus is that you are forever His, nothing can destroy your belief in His unfailing love. You praise Him for the answer you don’t have. You praise Him for the provision you don’t possess. You praise Him for His victory when everything around you screams defeat. You live in peace in the gift of His righteousness.

Just because your life might not be going great right now, don’t draw the conclusion He has pulled away from you. Why would the Savior who gave His life for you now withdraw from you? Does that make sense?  God is not an irrational parent who plays games with you. He doesn’t grade your performance—loving you at one moment and then denying you the next! God is constant and unchanging in His love for you. When you praise Him in spite of your circumstance, you reveal your determination to believe Him. Praise doesn't change God. Praise changes you. Praising Him gives you the strength to believe and overwhelming joy when His promise rises to defeat the lie of your circumstance. 

Praise is that very instance when in your most challenging circumstance, you act on God’s truth that He faithfully loves you. What you see around you is not what you face. What you face is what you believe. If you believe in your circumstance, you will know defeat. Believe in God’s truth and know victory.  

Praise Him! Believe Him! His faithful love endures forever!

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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Yes to the Process

Yes to the Process

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

 —2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

Grace is the life-blood of Jesus. When His grace opened your heart, you received His life and the same power that brought Him up from the grave. Perhaps you are not aware that you have this same power living in you. Perhaps you live in your human weakness, unware that His grace is sufficient. Your mind is where you believe.  If you will allow, His grace will convince you that He is sufficient to meet any need. 

The mind (soul) is where belief shapes you. It is the place where you are quick to judge your human weaknesses and feel defeated when change seems far away. His grace forever remains free of judgment and loves you right where you are. Jesus doesn’t judge your process. He knows change is spiritual healing and takes time. He is with you each step of the way. 

“Not only will God and His grace be with you in every step of the healing process, but God will be pleased with you at every step of the process,” David Seamands writes in Healing of Damaged Emotions. “Grace is not a commodity but our Lord Himself coming to us in His graciousness. A loving gracious God accepts us as we are, offers Himself lovingly to us right here and now, not when we shape up.” 

You can become so frustrated when you don’t change fast enough. 

“God is as pleased with you in this process as loving parents when their child starts to walk,” Seamands continues. “Those are exciting days in a home, especially with the first child–the child stumbles, knocks over the furniture. But do the parents scold him, tell him how displeased they are because he isn’t doing a perfect job? Does Dad shout ‘You ought to do better than that, kid’? Does Mother chime in with, ‘That sure was a stupid step you took; no wonder you fell and hurt yourself?’ Do you see how we so often have made God into a neurotic parent? If Jesus were preaching His Sermon on the mount, He might paraphrase this idea. ‘If you being evil, know how to do that well when teaching your child to walk, how much more will the heavenly Father be pleased with every step in your healing process?’ (Matthew 7:11). God will be pleased with you every step of the way.”

As a child, you learned to see yourself through your parents’ eyes and reached to meet their expectations. As you grew you learned your identity from the relationships you had with other people. You believed what other people thought of you. Now God wants you to believe who He says you are and not what you perceive others think. And who are you in Him? You have His identity. His grace declares you clean in His righteousness. His grace declares you healed in His power. But for you to understand the spiritual transformation which takes place, you need the courage to be healed. God empowers you to overcome weaknesses at each step of the process. The Holy Spirit breathes the living grace of His presence all along the way.

Do you strive to live up to what you feel God wants and are actually reaching to meet expectations that are not from Him? Perhaps they are misconceptions of what others think and God is attempting to breathe His grace into your strife. You can NEVER live up to expectations He has NOT placed on you. The Holy Spirit wipes off the false expectations of your life. He shows you who Jesus declares you are. 

God heals you according to His perfect schedule. Instead of anger at what you consider your slow progress, turn the process of change into a prayer of thanksgiving for His grace each step of the way! Seek His truth in His Word, and grow in His grace. Never despair when you climb two steps, and slide back one step. Remember healing is a process, and He is transforming you according to His perfect schedule.

“Let perseverance finish its work,” James writes, “so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:4, NIV). 

Now, this is a promise! His grace will destroy the false reflections that have defined who you are, and you will see His truth of the person He has made you. Say yes to the process.

© 2019 Lynn Lacher

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