GOD DOES IT.
GOD changes, GOD gives, (i receive), GOD moves, (i respond) GOD brings about brokenness and repentance (i surrender)
So when you are looking at the outer activities of a person, they are most likely the result of something that's going on inside:
example: I feel guilty about something, so I am trying to cover it up by how nice I am to people. I try to earn the guilt away. I push it deep inside, trying my best to do everything but take it to the cross so God can deal with it. The world sees a really nice person, I see a 'bad, dirty person' God sees the heart. He sees the pain and frustration and conflice between my inner and outer life. I see chaos- He sees His child and He heart goes out to me. Finally I am so miserable I give up. I stop trying and admit what I am guilty for. GOD removes the guilt because He says- JESUS paid it all. there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. I believe this so I waltz along, no longer a slave to the guilt- it accomplished what it was supposed to accomplish: It brought me to GOD... to the cross... into Love and Acceptance and I no longer have to earn that but have it in FULL in Christ. What freedom! I no longer have to earn it from every other outlet... GOD is enough!
Yet for some, we believe the lie that we can't escape the "fake" outer life. We live in shame. WE pile it on hoping that will change things. We allow the guilt to grow until we no longer even know why we feel guilty or ashamed in the first place. Then we dig deeper, thinking we are too far gone. And that becomes our twisted gospel. But that's not what changes us. GOD DOES IT! GOD"S GREAT GRACE does it! BEING with HIM, understanding His character does it.
ONLY BY GRACE (the free gift of God Himself) are we truly changed! Shame leads to sorrow but grace to great JOY! If only we believe the fullness of what grace does!! Isaiah 40 commands us to "behold your God" (that does not say behold yourself) but behold your Father God who loves you and wants to deliver you from this body of death! We ARE united with Him. and He could not unite Himself with something unclean. Well aren't we dirty?, you ask? Yes we mess up and sin, but that does not define us. that is not your identity- Jesus has ALREADY paid the price for that- He bought us, adopted us, and calls us His own. Nothing can change that. Shame and guilt does not change us (those are things generated out of our own thinking) GRACE changes us!! (paraphrased from Bob Flayhart)
When we apply the gospel of GRACE to our thinking that this the power to change- GOD DOES IT! (and hopefully we will surrender and let him!) So acknowledge that you failed, but at the same time BEHOLD GOD- Apply the gospel to your wounds. Let it do its work. You are totally accepted.
"Paul wasn't concerned about the abuse of grace- He trusted the Lord to change people"-flayhart
It's God's job: today, yesterday, and tomorrow. In your life and the lives of those around you- YOU are not God, and certainly neither am I, thank goodness. It's the gospel that works miracles in hearts and we get to be a part of that by pointing others to HIM- (since HE does it!)
He heals...
He restores...
He disciplines...
He brings about change...
He refreshes...
He loves...
You.
