HE IS - I AM : LIVING OUT OF MY IDENTITY IN CHRIST!
HE IS MERCY - I AM LIBERATED.
What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, who he prepared in advance for glory? Romans 9:23
June 20 He is - I am. Mercy -freed from the weight and bondage of failure
(Father’s Day — Mike Baynton.)
the burden of unsuccessful ventures has no hold on me.p.63
the fact that I am the object of my Father’s mercy frees me from guilts burden, as through repentance, his mercy restores me to full and unhindered fellowship. while I may have been guilty, I do not have to carry guilts weight. p. 64
Bible: John 13:31-38 John 18:15-18;25-27 and John 21:1-19
Reflection:
Today I was pressing one of my elders to unpack a statement she shared. It went something like, “O if only I had known about living in the rest and the power of just coming into God’s presence years ago. How things would have been different.”
How? I asked. I wanted to know how the value of just spending time with God had become more valuable than what she can “do” for Him in the natural. And the impact this shift in priority can have have in our lives?
Her sense was that with in this kind of intimacy God more and more responds to the desires of her heart by changing things all around her in the natural. So, I pressed, “As a mother, a wife, a Christian how would this impacted your life had you known sooner?”
“Less striving. … We used to be told if you just read your bible more, if you just do more of this and more of that, all good things of course. But,” she said, “so much striving. So much work. The feeling of responsibility and the sense that you had to fix things. Especially because on some level we were trained that if we had the right amount of bible knowledge, understood God’s principles, and applied them to our lives, then voila things would be fixed because of our efforts. So you can imagine the sense of frustration and failure when things didn’t change or work out the way you thought they should. You’re feeling like, God I did everything your word tells me to do…..and nothing” :(
“Now,” she says, “I just spend time with God, we talk, we share. I get real honest with Him. And as quickly as I encounter the things that want to rob me of His Peace, I confess, i repent, I forgive, until its just me and God and the bliss that comes from knowing Him and being with Him! And do you know what i’ve learned? He’s so much better at figuring things out than I am. Just like Jesus says, “those who abide in me will produce much fruit!” Who knew it could be so easy!!!!”
So how would it have impacted your life as a spouse, a mother, a Christian? It was difficult to put into words. But if i could try to say what I think she was getting at… I’ll say it like this, our time with God-Father-Son-Holy Spirit, sets us free to live as the spirit beings, new creations, that God created us to be in Christ. Even though we still have this earthly shell we call our body, we are so much bigger than what our mortal lives can conceive. In Christ we are not bound by time, and we are most definitely freed from what the world, or even our old fleshly selves might consider to be “failure”. Truth is, God’s mercy frees us to love people the way Jesus does! You get to be you, and I get to me, IN CHRIST!!!
Imagine if Peter didn’t get the opportunity to spend time with Jesus around the campfire. Having breakfast with Jesus changed everything! (Jn 21) Three times Peter broke his vow (Jn18) to be fearlessly devoted to Jesus. (Jn13) This failure could have robbed Peter of a live given to Christ. Yet, in His presence, three times Jesus gave him the opportunity to affirm his true and sincere love. (Jn21)
Time with Jesus redeems. It changes everything. It frees us from the weight and bondage of failure. I think that moment around the campfire changed the trajectory of Peter’s life. It’s what spending time with God does. This holy communion comes from my union with Jesus. When I am in Him and He is in me, the truth is, “He is Mercy I am Liberated!” Freed to me in Him! And O what a joy it is.