Live Up to or Live Unto

Did you ever have something wonderful happen to you before people and felt you must work hard to keep giving a good impression of yourself? That you had to "tow the line" or you would lose your good standing before men?

I have felt that, but it isn't that way in the family of God. God sees me today, and accepts me just where I am. He doesn't even get tired of me repenting for the same sin over and over. He tells us to forgive our brother 70 times 7. Well, I say that you can't forgive others if you don't forgive yourself first.

Guilt has a way of coming in and accusing us of things we have already confessed in order to break the peace we have as a free gift of God. But I am slowly learning to answer back when I am accused:

"That is NOT who I am!"

Why can I say that? Maybe it looks obvious to the world that I have failed in some sort of sin. But God says: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away: behold all things are become new." in II Corinthians 5:17. Are these just nice words or are they God's truth?

I choose to believe they are true. I am not who I was in the old person. That person died when Christ died, was buried when He was buried, and rose up to new life when He rose up to new life. I must internalize and believe it, because the Word says it, and it is my refusal to believe it that keeps me stuck in the same old ways of failure.

Romans 6: 1-4 tells us: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life?

It almost sounds too good to be true, but if I want to get past the failures then I must choose to see myself the way He does. Yes, I may have sinned, but God does not see me in that sinful state. He cannot, because He tells us He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), that they are buried in the deepest sea (Micah 7: 19), that He has put them behind His back (Isaiah 38: 17). What an awesome, gracious God we serve.

If He did see me in my sin, He would not be satisfied with what Jesus did to pay for my sin on that cross. Therefore I need to give myself a clean slate each day, and be thinking only of what is ahead, not what is behind. I cannot do anything about the past, but I can choose what I will do with today.

Sometimes I say to the Lord: "Lord, I am receiving the love you have for me. I am believing the love you have for me."

It helps me to remember that everything He does in my life is done because He loves me. Even when He has to discipline me, I must remember it is done because He loves me. Just like a little child who throws a tantrum needs disciplined, so I also must receive discipline so that I will learn His ways, which lead to peace, rather than my ways, which lead to ruination.

Just think of what God gives to His undeserving children the moment that they place their faith in Christ:

Ephesians 1:3-6 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having pre-destinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."

From this passage alone He promises us: 1) All spiritual blessings 2) that we were chosen before the foundation of the world 3) that we are holy and without blame before Him in love 4) that we were predestined to be His adopted children and that we are 5) accepted in the Beloved.

We don't have to try to impress God with anything good we have done. He loved us when we could not save ourselves and His love for us is according to who HE IS, not who we are. So I am not living up to some standard today, I am living unto my Lord, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2: 20)

The Fear of the Lord

The Bible says there is only One Person we need to fear. If we feared Him, we would not be afraid of anyone else, nor what they could do to us. I think I have had this backwards all of my life. Instead of what the Proverb writer wrote in Proverbs 1:7:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

I have feared man, their opinions, their reactions. And I have wrestled with this weakness:

Pro 29:25 The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.

Jesus had some strong words about fearing the Lord:

Mat 10:28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Now that is Someone to fear. Only God has the ability to do that. Men can slander you, torture you, imprison you, even kill you, but they cannot separate you from God forever if you have rejected His Son.

What do we have to fear from man if we are Christians? They could take us away to prison, but that will not separate us from Christ's love. No, not according to my Bible in Romans 8:35-39. They can kill us, but according to II Corinthians 15:54-57, Christ has taken the sting of death away. They can condemn us, but there is no condemnation according to those who are in Christ Jesus in Romans 8:1. They could accuse us of all our past sins, but those have been buried in the depths of the sea in Micah 7:19.

So then, why should I be afraid of men? Men's opinions change from minute to minute anyway. They may like you one day and despise you the next. But God remains the same forever, as He tells in Malachi 3:6. He created you, He delights in you. He is the One Constant in this rapidly changing universe. Everything that appeared permanent in my life has come to pass, as the Preacher shares in Ecclesiastes. That book used to make me sad, but now gives me cause to rejoice. Because something far, far greater is waiting for us one day, when God calls us Home.

The trap for me has been people pleasing. When you people please, you aren't happy, because you are enslaved to what other people think of you.


Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psa 141:4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.