God Is Not Mad at You: You Can Experience Real Love, Acceptance & Guilt-free Living (26 page)

John lost his job after thirty-five years with the company. He was angry, and that anger ate at him until it started affecting all of his personal relationships. He sank deeper and deeper into self-pity and depression. What could he do? The only healthy things John could do were to surrender to the circumstance, accept it and see it as an opportunity for a new beginning. He ended up starting a small business of his own and enjoyed more freedom and financial prosperity than ever before, but things could have turned out quite differently. Had John continued to refuse to surrender to the situation with a good attitude, he could have lost much more than his job.

The attitude of yielding is also helpful in daily situations that tend to frustrate us. Let’s say that I am scheduled on a flight and when I arrive I find that it has been delayed and no one knows for how long. I can sit and be frustrated, complaining about the airlines the entire time, or I can surrender to the circumstance I obviously cannot do anything about and enjoy the wait. I can do something creative or I can get some work done that I need to do. Either way, I am going to be waiting, and it is up to me what kind of attitude I wait with.

Is there anything in your life that you simply need to surrender to and trust God with? If so, don’t put it off. The longer you wait, the longer you will stay miserable!

Any time we resist what only God can control, we get out of the comfort zone with Him. To be comfortable with God requires walking in step with Him, not pushing against Him. It requires surrender, not resistance.

For many years I was uncomfortable with God, but fortunately I can say today that I am totally comfortable. I am not afraid of Him, but I do have reverential fear. I trust Him enough to submit to what I cannot control and embrace whatever He permits in my life. I pray that you will also find and enjoy that place of comfort. God is your lifetime partner, so being comfortable with Him should be a priority in your life.

Perhaps you have a lovely home. One that is beautiful and even admired by those who pass by and see it. People see the home, but they don’t see the foundation. However, the foundation is the most important part of the home, because without it the home would not be standing.

Many Christians try to build a life, one that is powerful and to be admired, but they have not taken time to build a strong foundation and their life keeps falling apart. This is what I did for many years, and the same thing might be the case with you. I received Christ as my Savior and started immediately trying to do good works. I tried to serve in church on various committees, I tried to be patient, I tried to love people, and many other noble things. In other words, I was trying to build a spiritual life and display godly character, but I failed to realize that I did not have a solid foundation yet. I did not know the unconditional love of God for me, I felt guilty and condemned most of the time, I did not know how to receive God’s mercy, I did not understand the
doctrine of righteousness and I definitely felt that God was mad at me. I could not experience spiritual growth without the foundation I needed.

I have spent nineteen chapters in this book teaching you how to make sure that you have a solid foundation in your own life, and now it is time to talk about building a life that will glorify God. It is time to discuss spiritual growth.

The understanding of grace, forgiveness, mercy, the unconditional love of God and the doctrine of righteousness through Christ is the foundation for everything else in our relationship with and service to God. We must be rooted deeply in the unconditional love of God, know with certainty that His attitude toward us is merciful and have revelation of who we are “in Christ.” We must have an understanding of our being the righteousness of God in Christ and not be afraid that God is angry when we make mistakes. Once those things are established facts, it is natural that we will have a desire to press on to becoming all that God wants us to be. We will have a desire for spiritual growth.

The apostle Paul in the book of Hebrews told the people that it was time for them to get past the elementary or beginning stages in the teachings and doctrines of Christ and that they needed to go on to spiritual maturity.

Paul told the Hebrew Christians that although they should be teaching others by now, they still needed someone to teach them
over again the first principles of God’s Word. They apparently kept needing to hear the same messages over and over about foundational things and were unable or unwilling to go on to other teachings that would help them build a life through which they could glorify and serve God.

He told them they still needed the milk of the Word and not solid food. They were not able to handle the meat of the Word. What is the meat of the Word? I believe it is teaching about spiritual maturity, sacrifice, obedience, unselfish living and service to God and man. It is always easy and enjoyable to hear messages about God’s love for us and the amazing plan He has for our lives, but it might not be as easy or enjoyable to hear about doing the will of God even if it requires personal sacrifice. The truth is that we need both in order to be healthy, productive believers in Christ.

God’s Word encourages and comforts us. It teaches us who we are in Christ and about His amazing grace, forgiveness and love, but it also chastises and corrects us. When Paul was mentoring Timothy, he told him that as a preacher of God’s Word, he was to show people in what way their lives are wrong. He was
to convince them, rebuke and correct them, warn and urge and encourage them (2 Timothy 4:2).

Most of what I said in the first nineteen chapters of this book was all very encouraging, but I would not be giving you a complete picture of God’s will for us if I did not also tell you that in building a life that will glorify God you will need to let the Word of God correct you and lead you in all your actions. I believe the milk of the Word is the encouraging messages that we all need and love, and that the meat of the Word deals with our behavior and spiritual maturity. Actually, both milk and meat are encouraging. One encourages us to be confident in our position as God’s children, and the other encourages us to serve Him and bear good fruit for His Kingdom.

As a teacher of God’s Word for thirty-five years, I have witnessed over and over again how many people are quite happy to receive the milk of the Word, but they choke on the meat. They love to be encouraged, but they won’t submit to rebuke or correction. The result is that they have a wonderful foundation, but they never go on to build a life that will bring glory to God. I believe you are ready and willing to go on to spiritual maturity. I believe that you are someone who desires to walk in God’s will in all things.

The milk of the Word teaches us all that God has done for us in Christ, freely by His grace, and that our part is to only receive and enjoy. Just as a baby drinks only milk for quite a while because he is unable to digest other things, the baby Christian needs this milk of God’s Word. However, if a baby never drank anything but milk, he would never grow into a healthy adult. He needs milk and meat and so do we as Christians.

The apostle Paul said that the people continued to feed on milk because they were unskilled in the doctrine of righteousness (Hebrews 5:12–13). They still did not truly know who they were in Christ. They did not understand that they had been made the righteousness of God in Christ; therefore, when Paul tried to correct them with the Word, or confront their childish behavior, they responded unfavorably. They could not receive correction through the Word of God without feeling condemned.

It is vital that we know our position in Christ, for if we truly know who we are, then when the Word of God confronts what we do (behavior), it doesn’t condemn us. We can receive it as another level of God’s love chastising us for our own good.

When conviction from the Holy Spirit immediately turns into condemnation in our thinking, the process of change is halted and no spiritual growth takes place. We must be mature enough to know that God’s chastisement is a display of His love, of His being unwilling to let us alone in our sinful condition.

God doesn’t seek to change us so He can love us; His love is unconditional and not based on our behavior, but we should seek to change because we love Him. God wants us to be fruitful! He wants our lives to add value to the lives of other people and for our example in the world to draw people into the Kingdom of God.

I have four grown children, and for the foundation-laying years of their life (childhood, adolescence and young adulthood), Dave and I did everything for them. We provided all of their needs, clothed, educated, fed, housed and loved them with all of our might. During that time we also taught and corrected them. We encouraged them a lot, but we also corrected them, and any parents who don’t do so do not really love their children. We were preparing them for a life that would be enjoyable and fruitful. As they matured, they began to do things for us as well as receive from us, and it kept our relationships healthy. This is the natural progression of relationship and must also happen in our relationship with God.

Are you ready to mature and say to God, “I am thankful that You love me. I appreciate all You have done for me, and now I want to serve You; I want to do things for You; I want to bear good fruit for You”? Are you ready to ask God to mold you into the image of Jesus Christ and show you how to build a life on the foundation He has given you that will bring Him glory? If your answer is yes, and I believe that it is, you will need to start receiving the meat of God’s Word.

Paul confronted Christians who were not maturing. He said, “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready” (1 Corinthians 3:1–2 NIV).

Paul speaks of two types of Christians. The first is the spiritual man who is able to examine, investigate, inquire into and discern all things. He is able to quickly discern good from evil and he
chooses the good. Then Paul speaks of the carnal Christian, one who is regenerated in Christ (he is born again), yet he remains in the infancy stage of spiritual growth. He has the nature of the flesh and follows the lead of ordinary impulses (1 Corinthians 2:14–16).

I wasted many years of my Christian experience as a carnal, fleshly, immature believer. I had some understanding of salvation by grace, but I truly did not have the solid foundation that I needed. After God helped me build that foundation, I still spent many years in immaturity because I had not made the decision to go on to spiritual maturity. I don’t believe anyone experiences spiritual growth unless he truly desires it. I finally became dissatisfied with my life as it was and reached a crisis point in my walk with God. Something had to change! I had been receiving from Him (love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, help) for years, but what was missing? I wondered. I saw that it was time for me to give back. I needed to give myself and everything I had to Him for His use and purpose. When I did, it was a turning point in my spiritual life and one that I have never regretted.

I love Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He lays a solid foundation by spending the first three chapters telling people how much God loves them and what their inheritance is in Him. Then he starts Chapter 4 with this statement: “I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called (with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service.” It obviously wasn’t enough to only teach people what was theirs in Christ; they also needed to be taught how to let Jesus shine through them in every aspect of their daily lives. People may go to church on Sunday, but do they take Jesus to work with them on Monday and every other day of the week? Is the Word of God ruling in their home? Is He filling their thoughts, words and actions?

Are you ready to go on to spiritual maturity?
I believe you are; therefore, if you have not done so yet, put God in the driver’s seat of your life. Realize that God is more interested in changing you than in changing all of your circumstances. Ask God to change you in any area where you need change! When He starts doing it, don’t resist Him. Trust Him to do the work and remain in His rest.