O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them,
mere mortals that you should think about them? Psalm 144:3 (NLT)
What does it mean to have a relationship with God?
Where is God? Is God way up there somewhere? How does one get to God?
Everything comes to this point when it is essential to know God, and to be known by God. God is here. Right here, right now. God is not some mythical figurehead simply to solve the mystery of, “How did we come into being?” God is someone spiritual who is accessible through relationship with Jesus. Jesus loves you and wants to know you.
It is your willingness to trust this reality, that you experience faith by investing in relationship with God by way of Jesus Christ.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me… Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:1, 6 (NLT)
To invest into some kind of a relationship with God, you having everything to gain and nothing to lose. To ignore or to resist (or worse, reject) investing into something with God, you have little or nothing to gain and perhaps everything to lose. Really, think about that.
While never apologizing for that which is sensible about new life empowered by faith in God through relationship with Jesus, FREEdom from MEdom Project is not a slave to religious dogma, and recognizes the hypocrisy of people who say one thing but then engage in behavior inconsistent with their words.
But make no mistake about it. Everything throughout the presentation of FREEdom from MEdom Project hinges on the reality of God’s existence, and God’s connection with all people through relationship with the resurrected Savior of all humanity, Jesus Christ. Jesus lived the human experience, enduring human desire and real temptation. He demonstrated compassion healing the sick (including the mentally ill) and the blind. Jesus was the role model to live as a giver. The only taking Jesus did was taking the penalty for sin off our hands. Jesus suffered insurmountable pain, and died as the necessary sacrifice to redeem all who will acknowledge him as the only one who can and will forgive the contrite, repentant heart.
We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us. 2 Corinthians 1:8b-10 (NIV)
Relationship Experience
You might struggle with the concept of putting faith into something you cannot see or touch but you do just that with every use of your cell phone. You have never seen wireless signals (come to think of it, you never seen signals in wires either) but you trust in them everyday for so much of what you experience.
Those who have experienced relationship with God will typically let you know that there is nothing you can say, no argument you can make, to take that away from them. No one believes that Santa Claus is anything more than a fable that makes Christmas special for children. But what if you, a sensibly rational person, experienced Santa landing on your roof and coming in to bless your life, again and again, that would interrupt and change you were comfortable believing. The experience of someone so gracious and generous directly involved in your life would be transformative experience.
Having encountered Jesus, it’s as believable as anything that exists anywhere at any time.
People who have encountered relationship with Jesus Christ will tell you that there experience is absolutely real and believable. No one, no matter how smart they think they are, can refute what you know to be true and real because of your experience. No one!
When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 1 Corinthians 2:13-14 (NLT)
The picture of faith is best seen through the experience of a child, dependent on his or her parents; guided by her mother, empowered by his father to do more, and to do better. The young child emulates his father, wanting to be like him. He rebels from time to time, while knowing all the while his life is in his father’s hands. The young child trusts her father; his confidence in his mother’s love never wavers. Mom is always his source for comfort. Dad provides without fail. And wouldn’t you know it that in relationship with God, we are called sons and daughters.
“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)
Why is it so important to me that you get this truth working in your life that has changed mine?
Imagine that I am your neighbor. You see that I have been digging in my backyard with some serious equipment. You wonder to yourself, “What is Steven digging for over there?” In the meantime, I’ve been thinking that I need to tell you about my discovery. I care about you and genuinely desire for you to have what has brought a wealth of joy into my life. Our eyes meet one day and we come together somewhere between your property and mine. I can’t wait another minute, and so I tell you that I have struck oil under my property. It’s not a secret. The thing about this thing that has brought me so much joy, is that it has strengthened my appreciation and love for you.
The truth is this: If there is an endless bounty of oil under my property, and your my neighbor, does the oil stop at the property line between your land and mine? Of course not! This oil is just as plentiful under your property as it is mine. Can I share my digging tools with you? Do want the same joy in your life that you see experienced in mine?
Or, are you merely happy for me as you continue to dig for some kind of treasure with tools that have no chance of getting through that first layer of rock in your life that you can’t seem to penetrate? Why not receive what I have and want so generously to share with you?
What are the tools to dig for the oil to enrich your life? Prayer is a powerful tool, digging your way to the root of God of presence in your life. The Bible is the written manuscript of God, and so valuable a tool to knowing God. Then there is fellowship in the community of like-minded people who identified as others digging deep into experiencing relationship with God together. Where do you find them? You may have guessed it… church. The Bible tells us that the church isn’t a building, or at all a religious institution. Church is fellowship in the community of like-minded folks that care about each other because what they have in common is the desire and need to live in the peace and joy found in relationship with Jesus.
Jesus wants you to know and believe the following to be rational—reasonable—making the most sense:
“You must give up your right to decide what is good and evil on your own terms. That is a hard pill to swallow—choosing to live only in (relationship with) me. To do that, you must know me enough to trust me and learn to rest in my inherent goodness.” —Author (The Shack)
What’s sad for those who struggle to believe is that they don’t know what they’re missing. They are lost, missing out on the opportunity and privilege to experience God’s love. They think they know, according to what they know, and more importantly, what they don’t know. So, they will continue to argue according to their empty hopeless reasoning. They will suggest that faith is ridiculous. And, I suppose it would seem to be; that is, until Santa has landed on their roofs, and entered into their lives. Until then, they remain uptight and defensive.
We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. But whoever loves God is known by God. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (NIV)
Why Faith Makes More Sense
“In my most extreme fluctuations I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God.” —Charles Darwin, Theory of Evolution Founder
What? You can’t see God? You can’t believe in something you can’t see?
Can’t trust in something, or someone, you can’t see, hear, or touch? We do it all the time. We trust in gravity, nutrients in our food, hot and cold, and so much more that we don’t see, touch, taste, smell or hear everyday, because we trust in the evidence of our experience. What about the confidence you have in your cell phone or laptop to transmit a message anywhere in the world? Did you see the message leave your phone? You do so completely trusting in something you cannot see, touch, taste, smell, or hear. There is nothing naïve about that.
“The more I study science, the more I believe in God. I want to know how God created this world.“ —Albert Einstein
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
When solving a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces represent the substance of what you hope for when the pieces fastened together begin revealing the picture on the box. As more of the pieces come together, your hope builds as the evidence mounts that what you’re hoping for is being realized in your experience. When it all comes together, what was only visualized before is finally complete, and indeed satisfying.
You might not always see it with your eyes or hear it with your ears, but once you’ve known the substance and experienced the evidence that something has happened, your experience is the proof, even if proven only to you, that it is indeed real. And no one can take that from you.
God is indeed the life force arranging all of the pieces together making life possible. To accept God as creator and life-maker, is to accept that all things are possible because of God; including the resurrection of Jesus, and the resurrection and healing of anything dead or dying in your life. It’s not only not naïve to invest confidence in Jesus resurrected, it is empowering to experience what continues to be evident, life-giving, love-driven power and strength.
The force contained within God’s life-giving process is love. Love did not evolve through random mutations over billions of years. Love was and is God’s idea and creation. Love transcends science. Love far exceeds human logic, while holding together reason within the dimensions of who we are as human beings. Love is powerful. Love is deep. And love is spiritual, and it is this spiritual bond that holds us together when everything selfish is trying to break it apart.
Love is the highest gift from God in the person of Jesus Christ. Love gives until it hurts (as cliche as that sounds), and then keeps on giving despite the pain. Love is sacrificial. What is reasonable about sacrifice unless love is behind it, in front of it, and holding it up? Loving one another can be painful at times, but it is worth it every time when it is genuine; when it is true and real.
Who is Happier?
I often ask those I counsel this question: Who would you say is generally happier, givers or takers?
Typical response: “Givers. It feels good to give… to see someone happy.”
Question: Who is generally happier, takers or receivers?
Typical response: “Receivers. They’re not just taking what they want, they’re receiving what’s been given to them.”
Question: Why are takers not as happy as givers and receivers?
Typical response: “It’s never enough. They always need more.”
I have paraphrased these typical responses but these are the insights of kids and teenagers. They already know. They understand selfishness and entitlement. They know what it is to feel like they are deserving, whether it’s being given to them or not. They know; and so do you.
So then, what seems to be the problem? If we know that givers are happier than takers then why are we so bent toward taking?
It’s our nature to be selfish. We are born wanting what we want when we want it. Why are we born this way? Did God get it wrong when he gave us choice; what we refer to as free will? Why is it that being born free to choose has coerced us to finding our own way into bondage?
Didn’t God know ahead of time that we would misuse our freedom to choose for ourselves in ways that would cause harm to ourselves and others? Didn’t God realize ahead of time that we cannot handle this freedom to choose? Didn’t God know that so many people would have evil intentions in their choices that would manage to so many people getting badly hurt; robbed of their freedom to choose for themselves how to live? Why do some takers look so happy if givers and receivers are generally happier than takers?
For I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives; their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don’t have troubles like other people; they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else. They wear pride like a jeweled necklace and clothe themselves with cruelty. These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! They scoff and speak only evil; in their pride they seek to crush others. They boast against the very heavens, and their words strut throughout the earth. And so the people are dismayed and confused, drinking in all their words. “What does God know?” they ask. “Does the Most High even know what’s happening?” Look at these wicked people—enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply. Psalms 73:3-12 (NLT)
God gifted all living creatures with brains the ability and will to choose. We all have an appetite for what we want and feel—believe—we need. And, since as human beings we are not God, we are prone to be selfish and so our choices reflect that to one degree or another. We are all inclined to pursue what we want and believe we need, even at the expense of the wants and needs of others, and are therefore affected one way or the other by each other’s decisions.
So long as behavioral choices are reinforced, people will repeat the behavior, even if in the long run what feels good is connected to harm against oneself, and against others. People get hurt, and in many cases, entire populations of people are put at risk. There is certainly evil in the world due to the collective selfish thinking and behavior of all of us since the beginning, and we all suffer from its effects. Instead of blaming God for what ails us, no matter how severe the wounds may be, we need empowering strength and comfort from God under the cover of his mercy and grace.
When I was beleaguered and bitter, totally consumed by envy, I was totally ignorant, a dumb ox in your very presence. I’m still in your presence, but you’ve taken my hand. You wisely and tenderly lead me, and then you bless me. You’re all I want in heaven! You’re all I want on earth! When my skin sags and my bones get brittle, God is rock-firm and faithful. Look! Those who left you are falling apart! Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again. But I’m in the very presence of God—oh, how refreshing it is! God, I’m telling the world what you do! Psalms 73:23-28 (MSG)
The psalmist recognized that envy and jealousy evokes resentment and bitterness. Once regaining perspective, he felt foolish. He understood that in the context of what will last throughout eternity, riches motivated by taking and entitlement leads to destruction and ruin; if not in this life, then certainly in the life to come. He realized that prosperity in relationship with God is the favor and generosity from the one who owns it all. God gives and we receive from his goodness. With hearts full of the love that God instills into the fiber of who we are, we in turn give to others who receive from us. With gratitude, they reciprocate the love shone to them, and continue the pattern of giving. Find the hope in this. It’s a beautiful thing.
As we trust that experiencing newness of life is afforded to us freely in relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we can reciprocate the process of planting seeds for better living to others through the pattern of giving from the resources we have received from the giver of life. The seeds planted in us grow until we are mature enough to plant seeds through our giving into the lives of others until it reaps a harvest of lives made better throughout the restorative process.
If you’re willing to invest into relationship with Jesus Christ, you’re certainly not alone. You’re one of billions until now who have already experienced empowered, transformed renewal into something immeasurably special, something we were made by God to be. And no matter what we’ve done, or what’s been done to us to break us down, we have been restored into what we were meant for from the beginning.
Reconstructing Normal
Let me remind you that we are all in the position we’re in as imperfect people because it’s our nature to trust so much more in what we feel than what we know reasonably makes the most sense. The most intelligent, most clever people who ever lived have given into desire and it’s emotion-driven lure in the heat of whatever the moment is, at the expense of what they recognize and understand to be far more rational. It’s why we need a Savior to repair and restore what is broken in us; all of us, without exception.
There are things we come to enjoy in life that at their best are fleeting and temporary. We have often given into temptation to ingest the thing that smells good and tastes good, giving us a great dose of pleasure. Then, too much of what appeared to be a good thing ran its course until its harmful ingredients contaminated our system and we no longer had the ability to digest its contents. What had become normal consumption in the way we lived life gave way to a weakened immune system, making us sick. When sick and hurting enough, it’s time to adjust our diet, changing our habits.
For a time, the patterns of how we thought about things and did them sure was comfortable; very normal to our experience. For some reason we would continue to ignore the inevitable, unwilling to make the necessary change to something that is far more valuable and certain to last. We settled for what was familiar, though likely harmful, dangerous even. Being stuck in our ways of seeking pleasure and satisfaction would ultimately lead us to a place of hoping to survive if we continued the same patterns of behavior. To continue to consume that which makes a person ill is irrational.
This requires us to reconsider how we process what we believe, and advance our belief into how we behave and interact with the world; starting with those we love most. Authentic recovery is not really possible until there is the shredding of irrational beliefs. God does this by the renewing of our minds; changing the way we think. It involves the disinfection of distortions, clearing the lens of how we see ourselves, and how to live life confidently with imperfect people in a far from perfect world. Deconstructing the normal of catering to irrational thinking paves the way to a reconstructed pattern of thinking and behavior. The logical outcome is the bridge to better living; a favorable quality of life.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NIV)
“The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it.” —Dr. Henry Cloud, Psychologist and Author
It is wise to adjust your life to the truth. It is foolish to believe you can adjust the truth to your life. FREEdom from MEdom Project goes into the deeper places; and with God’s help and direction, hopes to foster understanding and growth to help you to realize by experience freedom from the places where you feel stuck, trapped, and afraid. The promises in Scripture offer for us direction, unveiling the way out from under the weight of what burdens us. The Word of God is an arsenal with the weapons necessary to fight through the obstacles along the way to experiencing peace and joy as an active participant in your recovery.
But 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)
Transformed
There are givers and takers in the world. Taking is the path of selfish sin. It’s our nature. It’s always been the case. From my vantage point it seems that takers never have enough, and genuine givers seem to not be so wanting. Givers tend to experience true joy while takers tend to be more disappointed and frustrated when they don’t get what they feel they deserve. If there are givers someone needs to be taking, right? Human wisdom would say so.
God wants to change our thinking by the renewal of the mind; transforming us into givers. And, for every giver, there is a receiver more interested in returning the favor with continued generosity. It’s not semantics. The attitude of the receiver is unique compared to that of the taker. Takers will pursue and chase after what they desire while receivers enjoy reciprocity in relationship with givers, since receivers are themselves givers. In relationship with God, we receive the gift of new life into better living with a changed heart and renewed mind. We give back to God by blessing those along the way as we cross the bridge together with them into better living. We come to understand this to be rational… reasonable.
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)
It is in relationship with Jesus that God transforms the way think since what we value is in accordance with what we know with full assurance. As we keep the line of communication open with God, what we want and value most in life aligns with what God wants and values most for us; which is his best. What we want for ourselves is virtuous, productive, and fulfilling. When we are made anew in relationship with Jesus, we find that we are beneficiaries of the best to be experienced in relationships with those who clearly see we have changed into something new that is so much better.
Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. 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. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Psalms 37:3-6 (NLT)
Relationship with God when conceptualized through the lens of religion is perceived negatively as a condition for God’s favor, and that remaining outside of relationship with God is just a heaven and hell thing. The truth is that favor with God is conditional upon having relationship with Jesus, but it’s no different than how receiving generous favor from anyone is conditional upon relationship. Relationship is a good thing. It is right. It is best. It is in relationship that the cycle of harvesting newness of life is experienced and flourishes as we carry the promise God’s favor into all of our relationships. We were takers prior to be changed. Now, we are givers. We are happier giving and receiving, receiving and giving, than we were merely taking what we believed (irrationally) we were entitled to.
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Written by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project
