Living loved as a believer in Jesus means ...

Living loved as a believer in Jesus means that you first of all understand how solid his love is for you. No one ever has or ever will love you as much as God our Father does. You stand firm in his grace. That means what you do or don't do will not change his love for you. There is nothing you can do that will make him love you any more or any less. Are you concerned that God will give up on you? You need not be. Are you worried that he will at some point have his fill of you and become disillusioned with you? How could he? He never had any illusions about you in the first place. His love is perfect. He knew what he was getting into. You have a father who loves you more than anyone could ever love you.

Living loved also means that God isn't playing this guilt-trip motivation game with you. He doesn't use guilt to shame you into obedience and growth. There is no condemnation to anyone who is in Christ. This understanding can be found in chapter 8 of Romans. Think about it? If we live in the foundation of his unwavering love and unfathomable grace, and we certainly do, we are walking in the Spirit. We no longer have to live by our fleshly desires and motivations. Guilt, shame, and condemnation are not on God's agenda for us. Those things do not help us live in God's life. He has removed them by the wonderful cross event. In Jesus, there is no condemnation.

We also do not need to try to earn points with with God. He is not keeping score. Paul said as much in verse four of Romans 8. God did what he did in Jesus so that "the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." You could never earn enough points to gain God's favor. You could never do enough to deserve his grace. Never. You could never be good enough to deserve his love. God knows that and that is why he filled out the score card for you and me.

You know what else? He loves you so much that he wants to make himself known to you. He wants you to know him. He wants to show you each day how to live in the freedom of his love. He wants to teach you how to recognize his voice.

What you learn about his love and experience in him leads to greater trust. I used to think of trusting God as something I had to make myself do. You know how it goes if you have been on this journey with God for any length of time. Life's circumstances become so very hard that you find it difficult to see that things will turn out all right. You know God has said that you can trust him, but it is not easy to do that. Right? Isn't that how it goes? Well, guess what I have been discovering? I have begun to understand that trust really is more of an outcome than a decision. Everything about my life is in the Father's hands. Everything! Nothing escapes his watchful, loving eyes. As I understand more about his love for me, I naturally trust him more. Trust, in the best sense, is not a choice. It is an outcome. It is the fruit of my ever growing confidence in Father's love for me.

One of the beautiful things about this journey with God is that Jesus is the one who grows our trust. HE does it! We cooperate. But, he does it. Jesus is the author of our faith and also the one who perfects it. The Father is always at work wooing us, teaching us, growing us.

There's something else about this trust thing I am learning. It comes to my understanding from Matthew's gospel, chapter 6. Jesus said this:

30"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers-- most of which are never even seen--don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? 31What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. 32People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. 33Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

The thing that pops out at me from this passage is the part about relaxing and not being preoccupied with the wrong preoccupations. He wants to free us from being obsessed with getting from God so that we can simply live in the reality of what God gives. As I learn the scriptures, I begin to see how God works, how he does things. I watch Jesus as he watched his Father. He was never in a hurry. He was never worried. And, he exampled and taught us to do the same. This is great freedom, my friends! Great freedom!