‘…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you….’
1 John 1:3
Let us call to mind that our purpose for knowing HIM, is to become like Him, in all things. This is eternal life, to know the Father and His son Jesus Christ. Jesus’ own testimony was that He was has seen me has seen the Father. This is our goal.
Last week we talked about the process. Growth takes time. Our position that is challenged is what we choose to do with the time that has been given to us.
The things that assault our senses in this world occur as we remove our gaze from Him. We feel sometimes this an impossible task; to continually be mindful of Him in every moment of our day. Yet if we are to live and move and have our being in Him, we must discipline our lives to hold him at centre. It is a matter of discipline, and like any other practice, it gets better with the doing. I won’t say easier, because there is always a battle going on for our focus so we must constantly choose what we give our time and attention to.
This week I want to rehearse a truth we all know so well yet still seem to stumble over throughout our day. God is love and He has loved us so much that he has given his only begotten son for us. In this love, He has chosen and adopted us. He has made us accepted in the beloved and given us an inheritance as a child of God. He who withheld not his only son, how will he not, with him, freely give us all things?
All these fundamental truths are vital to our identity and security as His child. Jesus begins his ministry with the seal of approval “this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased” only to have this immediately challenged by Satan in the wilderness.
We come into our salvation and are given the Holy Spirit as a seal. He becomes our assurance.… ‘when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 1:13. We now join the multitudes in this family crying Abba Father. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:6
It is a perfect love that casts out fear because fear has to do with punishment. A coming to Him fearing that we will receive something other than mercy at the throne of grace is not the heart of the Father. We don’t come in arrogance or willful ways but in humility and repentance as needed assured by Him of being met with mercy. We want His love to so permeate the soul’s capacity that it overrides every onslaught, real, inferred or imagined that tries to separate us from His love.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, Ephesians 2:4
1 John says we have known and we do believe the love God has for us. Knowing and believing this is our starting point in all things righteous. Just as Jesus moved with compassion and love for all, it is to be our primary motivation in our activity with others. We simply cannot do this if we are unable to behold Him as the one who is love. I believe our understanding of all God’s nature and character rests upon our ability to understand Him as love.
Every facet of His being is governed by this love. His hatred for sin is governed by his understanding of the death it creates for the one He loves. What he judges is governed by His love for righteousness. Ps. 45:7.
Beholding Him holds us within the construct of His Lordship and Leadership so that we are continually being washed by His word and cleansed by His blood. This is our place of freedom from guilt, shame and condemnation.
My prayer for the church in this growing hour of darkness and deception is to find ourselves drawn ever deeper into His love. Rooted deeply in, and founded securely on His Love, let’s continue to be found passionately pursuing the One our soul loves.