Godtrospective

As I look back on my life, I can search and search and search but I cannot find a time when God was negative with me, or short with me, or angry with me, or impatient with me... or when He focused on my sins. I have been that way with myself (unnecessarily) and others have been that way with me, and I have been that way with others, but yet in this New Covenant in which God has taken our sins away from us, there are no sins for Him to focus on! And the wonderful thing is that even when our behavior doesn't match the state of righteousness that we truly do stand in, I just no longer see God as someone who gets us back on track by beating us up or being angry or impatient with us.

And so I believe that renewing our minds daily in the things of our Lord Jesus Christ has to do with focusing on the truth of who God is rather than focusing on our sins and shortcomings. You know, we're always going to have 20 million things that are "wrong" with us that we could focus on, but yet there is a truth about God and there is also a truth about us that we can focus on that is much more restful and peaceful and oh so much more productive!

In my last post, I used the example of my daughter. When she gets off task in her morning routine (which happens every single morning... it really does... because she really likes taking her time), instead of focusing on how "poorly" she's performing (how late we're going to be if she keeps getting off track), I try to motivate her by looking ahead, and with smiles and with a pleasant voice, etc. And so much more than that, the underlying foundation that we're trying to build in the lives of our kids is that they are dearly loved and accepted at all times, with no exceptions, no matter what.

Although we want them to "perform well" (to do the things we teach them and ask of them), the underlying focus isn't on their performance, but rather on who they are apart from what they do or don't do. Really, when my kids are all grown up, I would much rather have them understand that they are loved and accepted no matter what, than I would have them performing all the things of life perfectly. And here's the wonderful thing. I believe that if they are built up solidly in who they are apart from their performance, their performance will more and more match who they are. What they "do" will simply be natural, and not contrived or forced.

I'm hoping that I can teach them more and more through my actions as well as through my words that God is patient, kind, etc. He is love. They are new creations in Him who don't have to perform for Him, but yet who have good works in front of them that God prepared beforehand that they should walk in them.

In my early walk with Christ, and even leading up to the past few years, I was very introspective and I thought of it as a very positive thing. But yet I've found that it was one of the most unproductive, guilt-producing things that a Christian can do! Well, at least the way that I was going about it. I was constantly looking "within" and measuring my Christian performance. I was weighing my motivations. I was constantly trying to figure out if I was in God's will or not. I was always trying to figure out what it was that I was supposed to be doing for God.

Like I said, if you want a life of guilt and fruitlessness, just focus on yourself. :) But I have slowly changed my introspection to "Godtrospection." I have been joined with God and He is now my life. The Bible says in Hebrews that He has perfected forever His children. The Bible says we have become the righteousness of God in Christ. God has done all the work Himself to make this happen, and so our daily perspective can now be what He has done for us, what He has made us to be. It can be a focus on the truth of who God is, and who we truly are in Him, rather than being a fruitless pondering about how far short we are falling in our actions.

As we rest in Him, and in the truth of who we truly are in Him (rather than focusing on how good or bad our behavior has been), we can look "inside" and begin seeing the truth of our righteousness, our holiness, our unbreakable union with the living God. We can "see" all of this even if we don't really "see" it, if you know what I mean. It's the plain and simple truth that God has made us holy and righteous, and even if we don't always see it in our behavior or in our emotions, we can "see" it by faith. We can see the truth by trusting in what God says. I'm convinced that if we keep preaching and teaching (and listening to) self-improvement sermons, and if we keep focusing on sin, we'll never truly enjoy the abundant life that we have right now in Jesus Christ!