COMMIT My Life to the Will and Care of God

To be content is to be absolutely fulfilled, satisfied, entirely comfortable—no pain, no itch, completely stress-free without any anxiety or fear of anything—and in control. Does that describe you as it pertains to your life, past, present, and future? Does it describe your relationships and circumstances? If contentment is being fulfilled, satisfied, wanting for nothing, are the details of your life laid out in the way that you would say you are content?

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13 (NLT)

Life is constitutionally unmanageable, and only God can restore our lives to manageability; from instability to stability. To turn my life and will over to the care of God, I must depend on him for all that I need and truly desire. You and I are transformed into something new by the renewal of the mind. Beliefs are redirected by renewed desires and motives, by which we are restored to thoughts and behavioral choices aligned with what we value most at our core.

How does it happen that we transition from lifestyle habits and routines contrary to what we value most, experiencing outcomes wrought with disappointment and discouragement, stuck in failure and shame, to the renewing of our minds on a pace accelerating towards freedom and joy? It would take a miracle, wouldn’t it?

“If you are struggling with a broken heart, remember that hope is more cognitive than it is emotive. Hold on to your hope. Keep the emotions of your heart from crushing your expectation in God.” —Pastor, Dr. Charlie E. Dates

Why is it that we cannot by our own choice simply change from what we know to be symptomatic and problematic in order to do what is right and best? Why is it that we struggle to be content with who we are and what we do? Why is it that we are not in always control of our attitude and feelings? Why is it is that we typically trust what we feel over what we know to dictate how we choose to behave? Why is it that so much is out of our control?

If I am not in control when it comes to my feelings and decisions, what or who is? What goes in to changing this predicament?

So, what now? How about a pathway to freedom?

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT)

To be holy is to be set apart in the eyes of God as innocent without fault. We were chosen for this kind of relationship with God before the creation of the world. God knew that because we are not him we would choose selfishly; that we would be more about taking in our behavioral decisions than giving. Yet, when we admit to God we have made mistakes from a selfish place, God is merciful and quick to forgive our sin. The Bible actually says that when we confess our sin, God has made it His just requirement to forgive us because Jesus already paid the ultimate price, experiencing the consequence of judgment for all sin.

As challenging as it is to comprehend it, we are viewed as perfect in God’s eyes. It is how God sees you and I when we return to relationship with Him. Without reservation God loves us. God responds to a repentant heart and helps us to live a better life; not because he needs that from us, but because it benefits us. Better behavioral choices means better outcomes and quality of life.

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. Romans 8:31-37 (NLT)

God chooses to bless us from a place of compassion and love; so much so that he didn’t even spare the life of his own son. God sacrificed his son that we might have life, and the best of what it means to live life as we continue to receive favor in this life as we endure its challenges. No matter the degree to which we are challenged, Jesus advocates for our benefit. Therefore, the victory to be experienced is ours in this life, and in the glorious life to come.

Lost to Loved, Hopeless to Healed

But when Jesus saw the people, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Matthew 9:36 (NKJV)

The erosion of self-esteem and the absence of hope is devastating. More often than not, the sort of empty numbing from within fosters isolation, a kind of psychological seclusion. You can be with those you love and feel utterly alone. Whether you believe it or not there is someone who will never leave you or abandon you.

For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NLT)

If you have given in to the notion that you’ve sunk so deep that not even the love of God will find you, please know that there is no depth beyond the love and reach of Jesus. Pray that God will do something from deep within you. Listen for God in your suffering to address to your innermost thoughts.

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” John 14:27 (NLT)

The gift is access to God in relationship is Jesus. Prayer our means to access to Jesus. Christ. It is prayer that activates faith, healing and deliverance, and is the pathway to hope, strength, peace, and rest. Prayer is not complicated, nor is it merely a religious exercise. Prayer is the pathway to restoration and peace. Jesus, the same God that orders the universe, calls on us to be persistent like a child with a desperate need that only a parent can meet. God never tires of hearing from us.

Have you never heard? Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 (NLT)

Allow me to suggest that the enemy of freedom is fear. In the tent with fear is anxiety and worry, guilt and shame, injury and trauma, rejection and abandonment, betrayal and distrust, hopelessness and dread. Fear is so paralyzing that it can hold a person hostage for days, weeks, months… years. If this is true of you, then you know what desperate peril feels like. It leaves you stuck in the mud. The wound runs so deep and the weight of the burden is so heavy that you feel as though you will never get out from under it.

As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” Soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus awoke, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!” Mark 4:35, 37-38 (NLT)

Jesus is acutely aware of the storm in your life. Jesus knows you better than you know you. He sees when you are under attack from your enemy, whatever or whomever that may be. Jesus has already defeated the spirit of captivity when set free from the bondage of death. Death is never one’s escape from despair. It is the deception of a spiritual adversary that even someone of faith fears they are being swallowed up into something far more severe than anything imaginable. Only in relationship with Jesus will you have access to God. When you call out to Jesus from your point of distress, he is listening.

Whether you believe it or not there is someone who will never leave you or abandon you.

“The happiness which brings enduring worth to life is not the superficial happiness that is dependent on circumstances. It is the happiness and contentment that fills the soul even in the midst of the most distressing circumstances. The happiness for which our souls ache is one undisturbed by success or failure, one which will root deeply inside of us and give us inward relaxation, peace, and contentment, no matter what the problems may be.“ —Billy Graham, evangelist, author

In their desperate fear, the disciples of Jesus some 2000 years ago, had no idea what to expect. Yet when they called out to him, even while awaking from a nap, he confronted their enemy, and subjected the perfect storm into obedience under God’s authority. Think about that. Jesus so exceeded their expectations that it scared them. They had just been saved from what was sure to consume them, and then were overwhelmed by the authority of their savior.

“The enemy knows that when you expect something from God, it is God’s nature to exceed your expectations.” —Joaquin Pardo

Where are you? Are you lost in fear? Are you confused? Are you blinded by fear? Are you stuck in the pit that is shame? Are you riddled with worry? Have you been devoured by insecurity? Are you angry? Are you jealous? Are you bitter? Are you lonely? Where are you?

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT)

Where you and I ought to be is at the throne of the king over all of everything we worry about; over everything we’re afraid of; over everything that causes confusion and anxiety; over everything that we find sad. The King of eternity is on the throne and at the moment you confess your sin with sincerity, forgives you… from there.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NKJV)

“The longer you live, the more debris there is. More pain, more regret, more sorrow, more broken. Life has proven to be quite disappointing. Maybe you have grown more painfully aware of your own failures. You’re no ordinary failure. You’re a failure with a promise. With the coming of Jesus, everything has changed. Hopelessness has been shattered forever. It’s your failure that qualifies you for grace. It’s your failure that qualifies you for the one thing you need more than anything… There is more grace in Christ than there is sin in you. It would be unjust for God not to forgive you.” —Pastor Josh Anderson, Redeemer Community Church

Try to wrap your mind around that. Because of what Jesus did through his sacrifice having died as a ransom for the debt of sin for all of us (past, present, and future), it is as though God owes his son Jesus to be gracious to each and everyone one of us who are willing to receive this most spectacular gift of forgiveness. The thing is, as much as God truly hates sin, referring to sin as a hostile enemy of all that is holy and best, he takes incredible joy in extending us mercy, again and again and again…

Where is Jesus today? Jesus is on the throne of grace. What is challenging to convey is that this throne of grace is present within your being. The throne is not a metaphor. It is spiritual. We can trust in what we believe; that God as immersed each of us in his grace, his immeasurable favor, no matter what we have done, and/or what has been done against us. The only caveat is that this reality is experienced in relationship with God having embraced fellowship with God in the person of Jesus.

We are consulted, if not commanded to, approach the God’s throne with emboldened confidence. That is where we need to be in our time of struggle.

God says, “Rebuild the road! Clear away the rocks and stones so my people can return from captivity.”
The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this:
“I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts. Isaiah 57:14-15 (NLT)

There is a story that Jesus told of the adult son who left home; a home that provided anything and everything the young man ever needed. He left perhaps because he was curious what else was out there, or maybe because felt that what he had at home wasn’t enough for him. For whatever reason, his more-than-generous father gave him what should have been sufficient resources to live his life on his own.

The way the story goes, the young man lost his way and took the path that was opposite from what he felt he wanted most. It turned out that going the wrong way led the man into destructive behavior directed by feelings feeding into irrational beliefs about what felt good to him. He ended up exhausting his resources, losing everything, including his dignity. He was extremely hungry, lonely, and tired.

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!’ So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ‘We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.” Luke 15:17, 20, 23 (NLT) 

To repent is to comes to your senses and turn away from misdirected thinking and feeling-driven behavior, and return to God who can and will deliver, heal, and restore you into someone you were made to be in the first place. To be revived back to life and into the best of all that God wants and has for you, you already know (and have always known) to be right and best. Whether you realize it or not, what you want and value most—at your core—is God given to the soul within you that you know and understand, reasonably makes the most sense.

It gets tricky, though, this matter of turning away from what we’ve come so familiar with. It means disputing irrational beliefs that have defied our core values, that have become so “normal” that they have defined who we are. Challenging our broken way of living can be quite daunting.

There is a spiritual enemy that thrives when you are stuck in fear with seemingly no way out. You find yourself holding on to your pain. The pain is like the pair of shoes you are wearing while stuck ankle deep in the mud of all that you fear. The enemy wants you to stay focused on all that is keeping you there.

The opposite of freedom is fear. Fear hijacks the brain and holds us hostage.

God, though, is sovereign. That means that he has complete authority. Not even your fear can stand against the sovereignty of God. The person of God that is Jesus extends his hand to you while you are stuck in the mud of your fear. To be free of your pain, you will need to leave your shoes in the mud as you take his hand and are delivered from your fear into something perhaps beyond anything you have ever thought was possible for your life.

Rebellion to Repentance

Again, surrendering to the sovereignty of God’s authority requires something of us that we have never been truly comfortable with, since submission runs contrary to our nature. We struggled with it from early childhood until now. How are children more likely to earn privilege from their parents? Yes, it is through obedience.

“None of us by nature choose obedience. Believing, ‘I can do better,’ that is our nature. We tend to measure things by that perspective. When Jesus touches something, it exceeds our expectations.” —Pastor Marty Sloan, Calvary Church

Regardless of how we got there, our remedy to feel better than the discomfort (perhaps even the distress) of disappointment, anxiety, anger, resentment, shame, and sorrow, runs contrary (in opposition to) to our core values. To resist trusting in God to restore order to the unsettling disorder in our daily experience is to rebel against God. Our rebellion is our insistence that our chosen remedy is our best option to relieve the pain of disorder despite its logical consequence contributing to our pain.

We have heard since childhood that quickest route to favor, privilege, and ultimately towards experiencing our freedom is to obey reason. Obedience clearly runs contrary to our nature. We are inclined to achieve self-gratification through expediency and self-sufficiency. So just as we rebelled as children against any authority that attempted to direct us towards order in our lives, we tend to rebel against reason to restore order to our lives in our current state of disorder. Our rebellion is also against what we recognize intellectually to be our core values. Rebellion contradicts reason.

While rebellion, on its surface, has its appeal, it typically sabotages our efforts to be satisfied. Rebellion, at its nature, is selfish taking behavior, according to the belief that we are deserving. Taking is associated with feeling entitled, while giving takes on the disposition of service. Watch children who have learned to give and to share in obedience to the process, as opposed to children only in it for themselves. Which ones appear happier and more content? Which children appear less satisfied, typically wanting more than what they have?

We hate words like obey and submit, even when obedience and submission is so obvious that it opens the pathway to favor, privilege, and provision. Most people pay their taxes, stop at red lights, and for the most part, obey the law (authority) of the land in submission to societal governance. It is what sets reasonable standards and regulates order, warding off disorder and the threat of harm. It is what trusting in what we believe about God is all about. Obedience promotes favor, provision, and joy. Not because God is unrelenting when we are disobedient, but because God trusts us to be sound stewards with what he has provided us. It is the difference between living in fear and living free by faith.

Rebellion contradicts reason. Core values are compromised. Repentance renounces rebellion. Reason is restored. Surrender to God’s sovereignty is satisfying.

First, we must repent from our rebellion. According to Merriam-Webster, to repent is to “turn from sin” by “changing our mind”, and “amending” the patterns of behavior that have led to the disorder that naturally results in disappointment and self-destructive tendencies that contradict reason, what we know and understand to makes the most sense. So, to repent is to turn from behavior that is distressing, and and obey what is reasonably consistent with what you value most anyway.

It is a choice to surrender to God’s authority, since everything under God’s authority, protects us against attack from foes who are enemies against God. God leaves it up to us to choose sides. The choice should be clear… obvious. When we trust God, we trust that obedience is our most reasonable choice.

In that coming day, no weapon turned against you will succeed.
You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you.
These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me.
I, the Lord, have spoken! Isaiah 54:17 (NLT)

It is imperative that you be confident to approach the throne of God’s grace empowered, knowing full well that the force of your spiritual enemy wreaking havoc on your emotional brain cannot stand against the sovereign authority of God. You can trust Jesus, not only to deliver you from your pain, leaving it behind in the mud, but to heal your wounds, and restore you from someone broken to someone who is whole again; free from the bondage of fear.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished. Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

Jesus washes your feet and places them into new shoes. He cleanses you from the inside out and replaces your guilt and your shame with divine love and joy that will restore you to wholeness by filling your soul with his best for you. As you grow in this newfound freedom, joy will flow from you into those influenced by you. It really is quite an awesome experience. You don’t want to miss it.

“Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.” —C.S. Lewis

For it is God who is at work within you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose. Philippians 2:13 (Phillips NT)

What does it mean to repent from what and who you were? How do you do it? Can you just turn your back on all of what caused you pain, whether it be your own selfish behavior that proved to be destructive, or someone else’s selfish behavior that caused you harm that left you defeated? This is when you pray for forgiveness. It is when you ask God for deliverance and healing. Prayer is what opens the door to recovery and restoration.

“Heaven is full of answers to prayer that no one bothered to ask… We are looking for a universal solution to our problems, but the cross presents itself in the midst of our dilemma as our only hope. Here we find the justice of God in perfect satisfaction—the mercy of God extended to the sinner, the love of God covering every need, the power of God for every emergency, the glory of God for every occasion.” —Billy Graham

Prayer is an open line of communication with God. It can be a simple conversation with Jesus. It can involve meditation. You can express gratitude for what Jesus did to save your soul from condemnation into newness of life. You can confess feelings of guilt when under the weight of conviction. You can cry out for help, especially when feeling overwhelmed and desperate, drowning in your circumstances as those disciples were literally drowning in theirs. You need not be swallowed up by shame or overcome with fear. There is hope in the activity of prayer to overcome all that is overwhelming in your life… and in your mind.

“In this age with all the emptiness, the loneliness, the anguish, the guilt, the grief, and the suffering in the world, it is a thrilling thing to know that God is for every person everywhere.” —Billy Graham

Deliverance and healing will restore you, directing you into understanding that the burden you’ve been carrying is no longer yours to carry. God’s restorative grace pierces through the dread of oppression as the presence of God is realized in your experience. Feeling hopeless is replaced by the empowering recognition that access to help (beyond your ability to help yourself) has been afforded to you once encountering the active presence of Jesus Christ.

Salvation is a word that means recovery. It is the recovery of what’s been lost; the restoration of what’s been broken; the resurrection of joy back into the experience of truly living. God has gifted those in relationship with him with his presence; his Spirit. It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ alive deep within us. It is Jesus who empowers us to live in the grace and confidence truly possible in relationship with God. It doesn’t mean there won’t be difficulty and challenge. It does mean that we are empowered in to overcome our adversaries as we come to trust God from our core, profoundly moved to trust in what we believe from there.

When we want the same Jesus who knocked down a regiment of the Roman military with the words, “I AM” (John 18:1-7), as representative of God’s authority over it all, we are calling on the mighty weapons of God to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning that does nothing more than to distort our belief system. It is a paradigm shift to desiring the raw force of God’s authority in our day-to-day to destroy every proud obstacle in the way of experiencing the transformed life that is our avenue to authentic freedom and joy. It it takes is relationship with Jesus to know God.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV)

This passage from the New Testament tells us that it is reasonable to rejoice in relationship with Jesus since he is present with us this very moment, whatever we are experiencing that may evoke anxiety and stress. Anxiety can be described as an emotional preoccupation with what is beyond our control, while stress is having to carry the burden of our anxiety. It requires energy to exist under the weight of anxiety and stress.

This same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (NLT)

The writer of Philippians is writing from a dungeon-like jail cell. He used the word translated supplication to describe how we should present ourselves to God. The word supplication actually means to humbly plead, even beg, for God (our creator, our father) to hear us and see us. Like children yanking on our father’s hand, we are admonished to plead with him, “Please, daddy, please?” understanding that daddy loves us as his sons and daughters and desires to shower us with favor from his immeasurable resources.

All who follow the leading of God’s Spirit are God’s own children. Nor are you meant to relapse into the old slavish attitude of fear—you have been adopted into the very family circle of God and you can say with a full heart, “Father, my Father”. The Spirit himself endorses our inward conviction that we really are the children of God. Think what that means. If we are his children we share his treasures, and all that Christ claims as his will belong to all of us as well! Romans 8:14-16 (PHILLIPS)

Supplication is a word for intensity and energy. The way to interpret these verses from Philippians 4 is to recognize that being anxious about that which is out of our control is a waste of our energy. So the verse is telling us that a far more effective and productive use of our energy is to pray to God, who is in control of everything… EVERYTHING! It is reasonable to rejoice in our attentional and intentional Savior and put our energy and trust in him for everything since he is sovereign and in control.

Whoa! God wants this for us more than we want this for us. Ponder that! So, instead of being racked with anxiety, we are filled with peace, beyond anything we can comprehend, to defend and protect our deepest inward being against worry and fear.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 (NLT)

Inside Out Change 

What we value most in life typically comes from a logical, reasonable understanding from our deepest sensibilities. You might say they are God-given. Most people at their core share similar sensible values. We identify this as common sense. As life experiences accumulate over time, unmet expectations have a way of betraying what we intellectually value most. The emotional discomfort from these experiences activate beliefs that do not align with what at our core we value most. So then, our values become distorted. Clinical psychology and addiction professionals refer to this as cognitive thought distortions. What we have come to believe about ourselves and others from failed expectations and experiences so painful it alters our perspective about most things and life, drives behavior that can be in direct opposition to what we have valued most in life.

A pattern of maladaptive behavior to remedy discomfort, as severe as it may be, so long as it feels better, reinforces these emotion-centered beliefs. So, the behavior is repeated. Eventually, maladaptive behavior progresses like a malignant disease until the consequences no longer relieve our pain and distress but add to it. The question becomes, when do we hurt badly enough that we dispute these beliefs to be irrational that have betrayed what we value at our core in order to understand the need for change; change in the way we see ourselves in order to change the way we think about life? It’s as though we have finally come to our senses and understand at least the need for change, even if we don’t know what to do about it.

The change that transforms our lives begins with admitting to ourselves that we are not in control of the selfish impulses we have to do whatever is necessary to manage our discomfort. It is something that does not come natural to us. It is a return to what we value most at our core. Once we can acknowledge to ourselves that our guilt and shame that has added to our pain and distress is the result of sin, whether it be our sin against others or their sin against us, which is all sin against God, we are afforded the opportunity for forgiveness because God is gracious and merciful. We might not even be certain about God, or feel we believe enough to trust in it, but do we have to lose?

So, we confess our sin in the hope that God is indeed gracious. Upon our confession comes the profound assurance that God lives, that he has delivered to us the gift of salvation (synonym for the word recovery) into relationship with Jesu. We are washed from the inside out. It gives birth to faith in something real that we have experienced. Our hope has substance built on the evidence of having experienced the grace of God (Hebrews 11:1). It is the most transformative experience anyone can ever have. And it only gets better from there.

Is it an exaggeration to suggest that God who made us in the first place can restore us into what we were created to be in the first place?

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:8-9 (ESV)

Pardon the redundancy, but Jesus paid the ultimate price for my sin by dying on the cross, the debt has been paid and justice for sin has been settled. When you confess self-centered motives and behavior with the resolve to change, God is paying attention, and you are in fact forgiven. God loves you and will never hold you accountable for a debt that has already been paid by His son. This is God’s mercy. This is grace.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

What does it mean to be changed—transformed—from the inside out?

Consider the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly. God sent to us Jesus to restore all who willingly surrender our lives to him. He transforms us into something radically new, as though we morph from caterpillars into butterflies. Transformed, we are changed, and then are compelled by love to pollinate others, sowing the seed of faith into the lives of those along our way, who are too transformed by God, into newness of life. The concept of new life on its surface may sound like hyperbole, but the reality is that you and I were created by God in the first place. Is it an exaggeration to suggest that the God who made us from scratch can restore us into what we were created to be in the first place?

And, so it goes. So, imperfect as we are, that we bring such great pleasure to our maker through this wondrous life-giving cycle, is a beautiful thing. Transformed into newness of life, we are restored into what God always intended for us, to be living testimonies to those who need to see Jesus by the way they see us changed into something radically better.

How can we know this to be for real? How can we be certain that we are forgiven and reborn into this new life by God’s compassionate love for us, resulting in his generous favor for our lives moving forward?

Relationship with Jesus Christ is relationship with God. Jesus is on the throne and sovereign over all creation. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. When we see and know Jesus, we see and know God. When have been seen and known by Jesus, we have been seen and known by God. It’s as though we are born again; born anew into relationship with God. We are reborn, transformed by the renewing of our minds. This is the ultimate deliverance and healing that satisfies our soul. We are liberated… FREE!

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 (NLT)

The thief Jesus is referring to are counterfeit leaders of influence that use religion as a means to control people, and likely experience personal gain at the expense of those they influence. The thief, in the context of this reading, can also be counterfeit, toxic remedies to relieve discomfort and distress that effectually sabotage your individual efforts to experience satisfaction and joy. Jesus is saying that his purpose is to do for you what no one, including yourself, can.

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. Psalms 37:4-5 (NLT)

Once relationship with God has transformed your life by regenerating soul through the renewal of your mind, you can’t help but to experience joy in that which you know to be truth. God gives you desires that are pure, that reflect what you know, no longer chasing emotion, but experiencing emotion through the joy of relationship with the giver of all gifts. While there will still be disappointment living in an imperfect world with far from perfect people in it, the joy of your experience in relationship with God pierces through any hardship you may experience when affected by the takers in the world.

With new desires that will be pleasing to you, you will be far more inclined to give from the core values of regeneration that is profoundly inspired to reciprocate. The fullness of God’s presence is satisfying in such a way that you are motivated from a place of gratitude to reciprocate the love and the grace alive deep inside of you.

Jesus framed giving and receiving as loving. It is not within our nature to love. Love is seldom unconditional. Relationships are always wrought with conditions. Honesty, trust, integrity, loyalty, charity, empathy, compassion, mercy (forgiveness), sacrifice, and grace have everything to do with giving. Loving is all about giving. Giving is all about loving. Giving and love are most certainly symbiotic in relationship with one another.

Giving & Receiving: the Joyful Life

“Joyful giving equals joyful living.” —Pastor Devin Gough, Revival Tabernacle

Even in the transformed life, by the renewing of our minds, there continues to be what can be enormous challenges brought on by the enormity of life’s circumstances. It is in the midst of conflict that we lean on our relationship with God, and trust him to empower us in the strength of relationship with Jesus by way of God’s Spirit, alive in us from the inside out. This is impossible to comprehend until we confess to God our weakness because we our nature is selfish. We need to ask Jesus to dwell in every aspect of who we are as people because of who he is.

Why? Because we are still human beings who affect, and are affected by, other human beings, from our closest relationships to the most distant connections we have with others we simply cross paths with. We are not inclined by our nature to give. We are conditioned and propelled by our nature to take. As selfish people will always be in conflict with other selfish people.

The more we take, the more we want. The more we want, the more we are dissatisfied, and therefore disappointed. Taking is not congruent with a better quality of living. Taking promotes conflict and confusion in relationships, leading to doubt and distrust due to anxiety and fear, even in relationships with people we love most.

Through giving are we afforded the favor to realize fulfillment and joy in our daily experience. It bears repeating that since it is not our nature to give, meaning that we are inclined by our nature to take what we believe we deserve, giving from a place of empathy, compassion, kindness, and grace is learned when it is modeled by other givers, bearing witness to the experience of their joy in giving.

Receivers, on the other hand, receive what has been given in relationship with the giver. For every receiver there is a giver. For every blessing there is the one who blesses. It is a beautiful thing when initiated by compassion and driven by love.

Jesus gave everything so that we would receive mercy (forgiveness) and experience healing into a newly restored life. A restored life is one of redemption and healing, affording us the grace from within to forgive and love ourselves rightly, while capable of trusting once again, enough to forgive and to love one another. To love is to give.

Remember this—a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will harvest a generous crop. Each of you must make up your own mind about how much to give. But don’t feel sorry that you must give and don’t feel you are forced to give. God loves people who love to give. God can bless you with everything you need, and you will always have more than enough to do all kinds of good things for others. 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (CEV) 

Jesus gave his life at the cross so that we would live, our wounds healed. From brokenness we are restored, and from emptiness we are filled. The Bible tells us that Jesus is generous with compassion, and wanting to give even more from the throne of grace. That is where Jesus is; in a position of sovereign authority, utilizing his position for our good, to lift us up from poverty, and to deliver us from oppression by his grace.

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. John 1:16 (NLT)

Reciprocating the attitude and practice of giving, receiving, and then giving back, proves to be most gratifying, producing authentic joy.

Jesus admitted that he was hungry and in need of nourishment; believed that God was his only real source for nourishment; and committed himself to depending on God as the only resource he reasonably understood to provide nourishment.

It is what Jesus Christ understood to be reasonable in order to filter the feeling of every experience through what he knew made the most sense as he participated in every aspect—every consequence—of the human condition. It is trusting God for every decision that prevailed in the face of temptation, weakness, and challenge. If that is how Jesus overcame the brokenness of his human condition, who am I, and who are you, to believe there is any other way?

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back. Luke 6:38 (NLT)

Jesus gave from a place of generosity while entirely human, born with a human nature that is inclined to be selfish. As stated previously, if this were not true, how could Jesus ever be tempted from within to do anything selfish? Recognizing that Jesus had a taking nature, yet gave so generously that he sacrificed everything so that you and I can be restored to better living, how can we not receive the gift?

Those who give generously receive more, but those who are stingy with what is appropriate will grow needy. Generous people will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. Proverbs 11:24-25 (CEB)

It’s time to shine the light on something critical to the renewed life having been changed from the inside out. Just as we our not by our nature inclined to give, we are not by our nature inclined to forgive. We have been conditioned to believe that we deserve to be angry, and should stay angry until we have been vindicated.

If you are angry, be sure that it is not out of wounded pride or bad temper. Never go to bed angry—don’t give the devil that sort of foothold. Ephesians 4:26 (PHILLIPS)

We could on to our anger. It may be warped thinking, but we tend to revel in carrying anger, as though somehow it feels better to be angry than to let it go. Anger and resentment, like envy and jealousy, can be another one of those strongholds discussed earlier. Resentment affords our common evil adversary the opportunity to plant a deep-seeded root that will seep deeply into our emotional being until it grows into something ugly and dreadful.

Understand that harboring resentment is an infection; a malignancy that eats away at us from the depths of our being, stifling healing, sabotaging recovery, and killing the joy of sobriety in relationship with God until we are controlled by it. Understand that once renewed in relationship with God, having received forgiveness, we are no longer a slave to selfish nature. We are not robots in relationship with God. We continue to make our own choices. We must decide to let go of the misery that comes with hanging on to resentment.

Giving and receiving in our relationships with others involves forgiving and receiving forgiveness. Having received the gracious gift of forgiveness from God we are able to forgive others as a response of gratitude for what Jesus sacrificed to forgive us. In relationship with God comes the ability to do what contradicts our self-centered nature. We are empowered spiritually to forgive one another.

While you may be able to forgive, are you willing?

Plant your feet firmly therefore within the freedom that Christ has won for us, and do not let yourselves be caught again in the shackles of slavery. Galatians 5:1 (PHILLIPS)     

Along with being stuck in the mud of resentment is the paralysis of shame. It is shame permeating from within that can make it feel impossible to forgive yourself. The stern truth is that until you forgive yourself, it will be quite the challenge to live in the freedom of forgiveness, which stated previously, is a synonym of freedom.

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:16-20 (NLT)

What comes next may be premature. It has to do with letting go of stuff, being grateful for the gift of God’s forgiveness that, if you do let stuff go and give it to God, will set you free from the history of experiences that have held you down, liberating you into a whole other mindset free to live emotionally and spiritually healthy.

Here it is.

When forgiving ourselves in the overriding forgiveness that has been expressed to each of us by way of God’s gift of grace, we are not by extension excused from behavior inconsistent with being forgiven. How we behave in our day-to-day, ought to be a reflection of the grace we have received from a place of gratitude. When delighting in this new way of thinking and living, God replaces self-centered ambition with godly motives and intentions. This is an awesome component to the renewed life.

Set free from the bondage of guilt and shame, let us not be shackled by unforgiveness against ourselves and others, including those who are unrepentant for the wrongs they have committed against us. To not forgive is to not trust God. Trusting God in the renewed life experience, affords us safety in the security in God’s presence and sovereignty. To experience forgiveness is to be restored to innocence. The experience of forgiveness swings both ways. Forgiving those who have harmed you releases you in the way that allows your innocence to shine. Justice is realized in your relationship with the One who makes all things right. The same God maintaining order throughout the universe, restores into balance and order all that is within you and around you.

This may be difficult to comprehend for those having experienced trauma, abuse, neglect, abandonment, and loss, but… How do you get past betrayals, failed expectations, lies, bullying, gossip, and judgment?

Jesus experienced the trauma of being betrayed by those closest to him. Jesus was spat upon; beaten and tortured to within an inch of his life. He did not deserve any of it. Jesus experienced failed expectations, ridicule, persecution, execution, and literally went through hell. And through it all, recognizing the sickness of those who preyed upon his vulnerability, prayed for their forgiveness.

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 (NLT)

I know, it hardly seems fair to put that out there. However, it is the miracle of deliverance and healing in relationship with God, that even the most violated among you reading this, can begin to let go of all that haunts you. When laying the burden of your history down before the throne of your Savior, there is grace for you. There is freedom in forgiving those villains who have laid you to waste. The freedom is not theirs. That is between them and their maker. The freedom is yours.

Jesus so generously sacrificed his life in order to set us free from our selfish nature. Jesus expressed his love through his sacrifice. Love expressed through giving produces freedom from darkness. As your restored innocence radiates like the shining sun in all of its strength, all that is right and best is experienced from within you, no matter the darkness that seems to surround you. There is no need to walk into the light when you are the light.

Love through giving and forgiving grants us the freedom that flourishes into joy.

It is from having received the gift of mercy in relationship with God, the giver of life, that we give to one another as an expression of our gratitude to God. God is pleased by our giving, but the greatest beneficiary of your giving is you, and it’s me. Love is expressed in giving. It is in the attitude of giving, in our relationships with one another, reciprocating the pattern of giving, receiving, and then giving back, that proves to be especially gratifying. There truly is joy in the circle of giving.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid to be judged, but we can be confident because we live like Jesus in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. 1 John 4:16-18 (NLT, modified)

To be free is to live in the light that has come on and now shines brightly from within you. When God lights up your life, you are the light in the darkness. While those around you may doubt your experience of faith to be real, no one can take from you what is now yours. At some point, though, they cannot help but notice your glow. You become the light that reveals what they themselves are missing. They will be able to identify that there is something about you that shines so much brighter. As they see your light shine, they are more likely to want what you have. They may even ask you about it.

For those well-versed in the 12 steps, here is some clarity about the second and third step. Once admitting that you are powerless to manage your life freely, and you have come to believe in a power greater than yourself to restore your life to stability and liberty, then the third step of committing your life to living by faith becomes natural to you. You want to turn your life and will over to the care of God, as you have come to believe in him, and by faith, trust in what you believe. If Jesus surrendered his will over to his Father in heaven while in the flesh, who are we to do this any other way?

This is your reality in recovery; the restorative way of living that is your bridge to better in how you live life. Positive outcomes are far more predictable and consistent. You have been transformed into a giver in recovery God’s way. You are have an inheritance in the kingdom of God, empowered by way of God’s generosity afforded to you. Fellowship in the family of like-minded believers reciprocating giving and receiving is a beautiful thing. Once you have experienced God’s spirit living within you, it is joy that cannot be measured, much less attempt to explain.

Now your life’s no longer empty. Surely, heaven waits for you.*

I am Steven. I am ordained for ministry and work as a professional counselor, certified in addiction recovery. FREEdom from MEdom Project is my journey into what I believe to be authentic recovery. You’ll find me to be transparent in what I have written throughout this site. I need to live out my own recovery God’s way, in the way that Jesus lived his life on earth. I need to trust God each day in those vulnerable places where I tend to struggle. I am motivated to do and to be better in this life experience and so I write about recovery from those places in my life that need mending.

FREEdom from MEdom Project is all about helping you to believe fully in the One whose love for you is unyielding and relentless, calling you into repentance, bathed in mercy, renewing your mind with a willing spirit, and restoring you into the rest, peace, and joy of best right living. Seriously the compassion and generosity of your deliverer, healer, provider, advocate… your Savior and friend.

Look up and see that God is good and will not disappoint you. See yourself through the lens as God sees you and then expect God’s generous favor for you. Soak yourself in it.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NKJV)

Written by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

* Quote written by Kerry Livgren, songwriter, Carry On Wayward Son