Choices

Faith and choices. It’s messy. We need help. Lots of help. We need to know how to forgive ourselves of past choices while preparing our hearts for future ones.

Reflection.

When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

What do you say?

How do you view yourself?

Are you complimentary?

Are you self-deprecating?

Do you struggle with guilt?

What is the chatter in your head?

Psalm 103:11-13

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him…”

He has taken your sin, my sin, all our bad choices and removed them as far as the east is from the west. Nothing for you to do but accept this incomprehensible love. His love is reckless. It is so reckless that he loves you regardless of what you did yesterday, what you do today, or what you will do tomorrow.

You have a choice to make…

Are you willing and open to accept that kind of love, that reckless love, knowing you will disappoint Him again some day?

We tend you confuse God’s love. We have decided that because we mess up, we are unlovable. What we don’t realize is that while sin separates us from God, His love never ends for us.

Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Me, Myself, and I

Redemption is upside down from our thinking. We usually want to change and make ourselves better before being forgiven and redeemed. But, God tells us that we are loved and forgiven before we change. That is His reckless love for us.

I think of the thief on the cross (,The Thief) the woman at the well The Woman at the Well) and the woman about to be stoned The Adulterous Woman). All three found themselves in the presence of Jesus when their lives were not up to par. Each had an experience with Him where they experienced His reckless love. While he told both women to no longer sin, he loved all of them regardless of their past transgressions. What propelled them to change was His love; a love so reckless that it was offered before any change occurred. That same love is available to you. All you have to do is acknowledge and accept it.

Others

I believe that how we view ourselves, the honest-to-goodness truth about how we see ourselves can be found in how we view others. What are the first thoughts that come to mind when others do wrong?

How do you treat others when they mess up?

Do you hang them leaving no room for redemption, grace, and change?

We live in a “hang them” world right now. There is no retribution. No redemption. No opportunity for change, healing, and growth. Only forever condemnation.

Romans 8:8

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

There should be no condemnation, yet we are a people who condemn and park in this space.  If we aren’t the ones carrying the pitch forks, we become righteous filled with thoughts of, I would never do that. We end up stuffing and hiding our own sin carrying a weight we were never intended to carry.

The way we treat others when they mess up is the way we treat ourselves when we mess up. We either hang ourselves and sit in a state of self-pity or we act righteous stuffing our junk way down deep feeling heavy and exhausted.  How we treat others when they do wrong matters. 

It matters because it is a true reflection of how we treat ourselves when we do wrong.

Letting Go & Moving On

If we know that His love for us is reckless…

If we know He buries our sin as far as the east is from the west…

If we know there is nothing we can do to separate us from His love…

Then we need to run towards it. Run towards His love when life is good and you are following all the rules. Run towards it when life is hard and we can’t seem to make a good choice if our life depended on it. Run towards it when we fall flat on our face and don’t want to look ourselves in the eye.

His love is the starting place for any decision we make. His love and lack of condemnation is what helps you heal and forgive yourself from past mistakes. His love is what drives and lack of condemnation is what drives your decisions going forward. He didn’t condemn the thief on the cross, the woman at the well, or the adulterous woman. He didn’t wag His finger at them, slam them on social media, or sit on a panel as a talking head on a cable news show. Instead, He opened His arms and invited them in to the greatest love of all: Jesus. He does the same for you and me.

There is no condemnation in Christ. None. There is nothing you can do to separate yourself from His love. Nothing.

Run towards His love.

Romans 8: 35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 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 separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love & Blessings,

Meg