Monday, September 17, 2007

Enjoying God

Today, I woke up with fresh vigor for life, or maybe I was just enjoying God's new mercies he promises for every day. Fresh mercy, yes!! You see I am on a journey from a christian life of performance and condemnation, to knowing God as not a harsh taskmaster, but a loving Father! I guess I would never actually say I thought God was a harsh taskmaster, but ultimately that is how I viewed him based on believing I needed to do things and get things right and not sin in so many ways and when I just couldn't get it right, I would feel guilt and condemnation and think God must not be pleased with me and feel like I couldn't be in his Presence until I had been "good enough" for awhile. Sad isn't it! Well, thankfully God has been revealing himself to me more and more over this past year of many trials, confusion and angst, he is not only good, powerful, faithful, Sovereign, but he accepts me fully for who I am, just as I am, not because of anything I do. Now, I know this seems to be a basic truth of Christianity, however, I never understood that he accepts me fullly and looks at me as he sees Christ, he has imputed to me the perfect righteousness of Christ. So, that means God was satisfied through Christ's death, that sin was punished, his wrath for all sin, all, past present and future sin was poured out on Jesus, so that I can go free from punishment. All God's wrath was laid on Jesus, he has no wrath for me, now that I am in Christ I will only experience God's acceptance love and kindness!!! Despite my failures and shortcomings and foolish decisions, he accepts me and loves me......I never fully understood that! His amazing grace to me for forgiving me freely and accepting me fully!!
Anyway, I have been encouraged by a few pastors and friends to bask in God's glory, and to really pursue understanding his acceptance grace and be so awed by his love and his character and not to worry about pursuing holiness or doing anything, just enjoy Him, continue to be amazed by Him, and live in the joy of discovering the wonder of HIs grace.
This gift of righteousness is so amazing and has caused me to be filled with so much joy that I wanted to share it with my friends and family and whoever else. That is why I am able to title my blog "A joy to be me"!! And to my parents -you named me appropriately, and may joy truly characterise my life more and more over the years. May I continue to revel and marvel in this wonderful God who created the Heavens and the Earth, who said "let there be light" and it was so, who flung the stars into the sky and created the depths of the sea and the heights of space, who knit me perfectly together in my mother's womb, who knows how many hairs are on my head, and how many grains of sand on the beach that we just enjoyed for 2 weeks. Not only all of that but may I continue to grasp all the more fully His Amazing Grace!!

John 8:32 says "You will know the truth and the Truth shall set you free"

Anyway, this is just my current understanding and words, as feeble as they are, I hope it encourages someone. I would highly recommend reading "'God Lavish Grace" by Terry Virgo.

"Enjoying God first leads to enjoying all of life" (Rob Rufus)

1 comment:

jul said...

Alright. I'm going to link you now, this stuff should be read by people!