Not Fearing, But Seeing

This note will not take too long to write.

God does not shame us or condemn us for not believing enough.

He invites us to keep seeing more of Him and receiving more from Him.

Jesus Christ is alive. He is a real person, but He is in a perfect body, seated at the right hand of God the Father.

That means that he cannot physically be with us.

Yet He grants us something better: His Holy Spirit:

"5But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? 6But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. 7Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." (John 16: 5-11)

Yet another roadblock which had hindered my understanding of all that Jesus is:

He is not just alive, but He is everywhere, not limited by time, or me, or anything else.

In the past, I would pray, but then I was immediately afraid, not sure that He was taking care or would take care of something.

I literally asked this question: "What about tomorrow?"

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I do not have to wonder or doubt that he is taking care of tomorrow.

Wow!

I was so busy trying to bring Him to life in my daily situations.

He is life. I am not trying to bring Him into my daily experience. He provides every experience.

The issue was that I saw Him way too small. I will refer to what I read in Classic Christianity, written by Bob George:

The Galatian error has been the greatest thorn in the flesh of the church since the very beginning. In  many places and times, it has been straightforward. "You aren't saved by faith alone," it has been said, "but by faith and good works."

The one [error] that is more common . . .that a person is saved by God's grace through faith alone, that you can't do one thing to contribute to your salvation. In this, they're right. The only problem is that their use of the word "salvation" is limited to  your initial  acceptance of Christ, the issue of where you go when you die.

Paul was very clear, though, that we do not perfect ourselves through our behavior or our law keeping:

"1O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3: 1-3)

We have been made a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and we are invited to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh (Galatians 5 16), not in our efforts, not our trying, but His work, His life.

Something else that Bob George wrote, which is so relevant now: our understanding of His riches and grace are too small.

Yes, we know that we are going to heaven. What a lot of preachers and ministers have forgotten to tell us is that God has brought heaven to us, in that His Holy Spirit now lives and dwells in us.

I have begun to realize how foolish it was for me to exercise my imagination, but what can you do if your "conception of God" is shaped by what someone else, not the word of God, has told you?

The issue has not been about forgetting the past. The issue is not about trying to control the future.

The issue was the God was not big enough. That was my fault. I did not believe.

It's not about confessing our sins to get rid of fears, but it was that I did not see Him big enough.

That was my fault, and yet Jesus does not fault us for that!

NO WONDER Peter exhorts us to grow in grace and knowledge of the LORD -- precisely that we can see that He is holding all things together for us!