How To Find Yourself In The Bible

Believe it or not, you are written about in The Bible.  In Christ’s death, your old nature died with him; and likewise, in his resurrection, you were given new life.  Paul was infatuated with this new life and referred to it on numerous occasions throughout his letters to first century believers.  Some of the characteristics found throughout his writings, are so radical that one might assume us to be superheroes just by reading what our lives can entail.  And so to highlight many of Paul’s (and Jesus’) words in regards to our identity, here is a short glimpse at what the New Covenant life provides, as written personally to you:

 

You are a child of God.  You have been formed and fashioned in love.  This is the same love that eradicates your fears and grants purpose to your life.  You are loved by an inseparable force that not only believes in your life, but empowers it, daily.  The God that formed your bones and skin and mind, possessed you and has, Himself, become your very heartbeat.  You are the light of the world, and we all know what happens when light encounters darkness: we wouldn’t even label it a fight.  And you have no need to fight; you stand victorious in life, because God is for you and He has overcome the world. 

We empower darkness when we associate it as having any power at all.  But I assure you, hell’s weapons have been stripped away and its life-force is fleeting and coming to nothingness.  Demons hear God’s name and they tremble, and this is the same God that lives within you.  How should they respond, then, when you enter a room? The math is simple.  Your life has become a move of God. 

You are royalty, seated in Heaven, itself.  You are not loved for some promise you make or skill that you bring to the table.  You are loved, because you are you.  And He loves that about you!  Otherwise, grace would mean nothing more than performing adequately to earn an actor’s wages.  But your life is not measured by performance, as if God wanted you to go around trying to convince Him that you are someone else.  He already finds pleasure in you.  Believe what He says about your life and identity; because how you believe, is also how you live.        

I'm God's Favorite

“God is so in love with all of you,” I leaned forward in my chair as children sat Indian-style on the floor before me.  I had been in San Antonio, Texas once before to help at a children’s conference in this very church, in fact.  And so I knew the energy each boy and girl had the potential of displaying, but somehow, they graciously kept their composer.  Their eyes were fixated on me as I shared stories and tried to correlate each testimony to their lives.  But little did I know that the words I was soon to hear would carry more depth than I could ever hope to teach or fully comprehend.  And those words would come from the simple and curious heart of a child.        

I said it again, “God is so in love with each one of you!” A hand rose from the middle of this child-congregation and his fingers wiggled and waved as if he had not already been seen.  I pointed to the boy, “Yes?”

He dropped his hand and looked around at the eyes of the other children as they turned their gazes to him.  “I know that God loves EVERYONE, but when I pray, He makes me feel like I’m His favorite,”

I could not have been more impressed.  “You get it! You have experienced how personal God’s love is towards you!” I shouted proudly.  “It is not only that God loves the world as a whole, but He loves you, and you, and you…” As I spoke, I pointed to random children in the crowd and seized their eyes with my own.  My smile, which had already been beaming from the presence of young company, had now amplified at the pronouncing of this boy’s profound thought.  I had arrived that morning with the intent of teaching these children, but I realized in that moment that their understanding of God’s love could, very well, have put my own beliefs and ideas to shame. 

Never underestimate the mind of a child.  Too often, the concepts and beliefs that come naturally to them put years of our greatest studies, teachings and principles to shame.  Their simplicity ought to shine a light on what truly matters, because their love does not gleam from the traditions, moral values or expectations that society or religion have had any chance to place on them.  There is a love and curiosity in every child’s eyes; and I believe it to be Heaven-born.  

How To See Eternity In A Clock

Time can be an unsettling thing.  It ticks and tocks to remind you of its existence, but often moves faster than we wish it would.  We have all undergone those moments of anxiety; the same, in which, we always wish our clocks shared some amount of sympathy for our busy state of existence.  As you may have already discovered, "patience" does not exist in time’s vocabulary; it waits for no one! But I would like to take this moment to brag, in that I have found victory over time itself.  My success is that God exists in every moment, and I remind myself to recognize those instants with Him. 

Watch the nearest second-hand baring clock to you.  As the second hand slowly pivots its way around the face, how many of those moments does God not exist within? If you say “None”, then acknowledge Him with every second.   

You have heard the phrase “Live in the moment”, and I very much agree with these words.  But to live for the time that is at hand does not exclude preparation and acknowledgement for the future or past.  In fact, the present is life’s perfect median between the two.  To “live in the moment” is to appreciate where the past has brought you from, as you simultaneously make steps towards the unpredictable that is before you.  But your heart and mind never have to escape life’s current presentation, as long as they avoid the blinders of guilt and worry.  Guilt comes from a lack of seeing Christ in our past, just as anxiety and worry are conceived when we do not expect Christ for our future.  But to see the past and future without these blinding factors is to see life through its most promising and sober perspective.

And so, look back at the clock, once again.  Remind yourself that God is in every moment.  Now live your life from this perspective.  The moments that you share in a realization of God’s ceaseless presence are times already acknowledging and appreciating your incessant state.  You are at rest with God from now to everlasting.  To see God in every moment is to already see life through eternity’s lens.