This is what Love looks like
“Who shall seperate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” -Romans 8:35, 37-39
This has always been one of my favorite passages, but moreso now that I am facing my “demons” and standing up to the lies that I have willinging and unwillingly allowed myself to believe for far too long about who I am and who I am not…who I can and who I cannot be as well as where I stand in the eyes of my Father. As a believer I know that God’s love for us is completely unconditional, there is nothing in our lives that can possibly remove that love He has for us or alter it in any way…our faults, sins and bad habits are all well known to Him and while we might try our best to hide them from others there is nothing at all that can hide them from the Lord. He doesnt desire that we try and hide these things from Him or from others either. When God called us we were each dead in our sins…there was nothing remotely righteous about us, nothing holy, nothing pure…nothing blameless in any way. And in that state of death He still looked at us with love in His eyes and a desire in His very being to breathe His life into us so that we might be able to once again live in relationship with Him as His sons and daughters. There are a lot of you who will say “Amen” to that, but at the same time think that it applies only to our lives before Christ…after we have come to Him and chosen to seek His plans for our lives if we stumble and fall into sin again we are screwed…or others are, a lot of us are completely unwilling to think for one second that our sins after coming to Christ could possibly remove us from a good standing with Him, but quick to assume that someone else’s sins do just that. Remove them from their place of righteousness in Christ and throw them back into the bondage of sin and death. The Body of Christ attacks itself in this way, desiring to cut off anyone who is seen as “unworthy”, forgetting that we are all completely unworthy to begin with! A couple weeks back we (Aaron and I) were able to visit our church family in South Bend and Pastor Wilson gave the perfect picture to what this looks like, he was telling us about a vision he had had a while back of the Bride of Christ(the church) and in the vision she (the body of Christ) was litterally tearing itself apart with such intent and unwillingness to stop for even a second as Christ stood behind her and gently said “Look at me”. He went on to tell us that after a while he had the vision again, only this time the Bride of Christ heard Him say “Look at me” and as she stopped her self destruction and finally looked to Him, He touched her face and instantly she was healed as if the wound had never been there. This vision was so amazing to me, because more and more I see the Body of Christ attacking itself in an attempt at being “pure” and “holy” before the Lord, denominations refuse to have anything to do with others who are not of their churh body and individual believers seem to look for the sin in the lives of other believers just to have the chance to point it out and cut those people off from fellowship. We have ourselves convinced that this is how its supposed to be. And that’s the farthest thing from the truth! I cannot begin to tell you of how long I have allowed myself to be beat down by other believers because of the mistakes I have made in the past…its not even the mistakes I currently make that people hold against me. Its my past, something that cannot-and to be honest, even if it could, would not-be changed. I have lived under such condemnation for the fact that I had my kids before I was married, even though we are told clearly in Scripture that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. I have been beaten emotionally and spiritually by the ones I have needed most in my trials and failures, and I have allowed their judgement become my reality…when Christ has been gently saying to them as well as to me “Look at me…” Instead of looking to Him, I simply accepted their condemnation as truth and allowed it to consume me. If my focus had been on Him, their words would not have had such a damaging affect on me, because I would have been face to face with the Truth…that nothing can seperate me from His love. And likewise if their focus had truely been on Him, they would not have been so willing to continue to beat me down and be used by Satan (however “pure” their motives might be) to damage the relationship and identity I have with Christ. The reality of an unconditional love is something that I never understood until I had children. The impact of such an unconditional love is something I couldnt wrap my mind around, not until it was the only thing I had left. I might not be perfect or as righteous as the person sitting next to me or in front of me in church on Sunday, but I am loved unconditionally by the One who knows all my faults and sins and has predestined me for good works in Him despite those blemishes. So today I am letting go of that baggage, that condemnation and that mindset that has knocked me back down over and over and over again, and declaring that despite my unrighteousness I am made righteous in Christ. Despite my impurities, I am seen as pure and holy in the eyes of the Lord. And no one can ever seperate me from that unconditional love.
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