This tension is evident everywhere. Sometimes we see the sick recover; other times, we must grieve the loss of someone who seemed to go before his or her time. Sometimes we experience a measure of victory over our sin/ "issues"; other times, we feel as though we are labouring under defeat. We have the Spirit now as a deposit of the glory that is to come. So yes- we are imperfect beings living in imperfection. But Heaven is open over us, and we have all that we need in this life to be holy- to commune with Jesus- to see His light come into darkness.
I've been thinking about the idea of potential, and how God sees us the way He meant for us to be. In His eyes, we are the Chosen of God, "holy and dearly loved".... But does that mean we should continue in sin- in the pursuit of worldly desires, knowing that somehow "it all works out in the end"? We are told to be perfect as He is perfect. Does this mean we possess the ability to be perfect on this side of eternity? Well, maybe not.... But why would He ask us to try? Perhaps because it pleases His heart to know that we desire to be like Him. Not merely in word but in deed. If something is worth enough to us, we will fight for it. We will show Him our love, offering our lives as worship. I wonder how it makes Him feel sometimes, when we think, "Aw, He's big enough to cover this one. Pretty sure I won't be going to hell or anything...." Why not just obey Him out of love?
It is one thing to know we fall short of His glory, but to surrender our lives- our strengths and our shortcomings- to Him daily. It's another thing altogether when we squelch all sensitivity in our spirit and plow ahead in our own way.... We abuse the grace that He has extended to us, and worse- we miss out on the abundant life He has bought for us for the right now.
Life is not all about getting it right, but shouldn’t at least “trying to get it right” be an outflow of our devotion to Jesus? And not of our own strength; there is a wealth of grace and strength for us to draw on, if we’d only run to Jesus instead of our fleshly impulses. He loves us… that’s all. And there’s more of that love to taste on this side of Heaven. The Kingdom is now….
posted by Jules @ Friday, August 18, 2006
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