Learn to walk in God’s perception of who you are, because yours is not good enough.
~ Graham Cooke
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”… And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” …
~ Jesus, KING of kings, and LORD of lords, in Revelation 21
Oh beloved, it is true. We know, deep within us, that apart from G_d, we are nothing. Oh, we had the spark of the image of His Life within us, but it was only an ember. And, there was nothing we could do, to make the spark come alive.
Then, though, He does bring us to life. It really happens. Somehow, we turn away from the lies, and believe The Truth. And this Truth changes everything in us, as it drives the lies away. It is not a poetic phrase in the Bible. It is this place, where we become actually what we were ever Designed to be: Alive. Real. Whole. Free. Strong. Loving. Limitless. Good.
There is a beautiful transparency to honest disciples
who never wear a false face and do not
pretend to be anything but who they are.
~ Brennan Manning
And this, is where we really continue to fall.
We just don’t feel like we can believe a truth that is beyond our wildest dreams.
Oh we think we know that G_d Loves us. He did, after all, come and live and die for us. This is the most heroic of Loves. There really is no greater Love than this, it is ultimate, and it is sacrificial to the nth. But, there is something in this that is incomplete. There is a break in the dying. And, unless we see beyond the break, we can miss the point of His death in the first place.
Can we see it?
If you have been a parent, you will see it more easily. Still, it is built into each of us. We, each of us, find a good relationship to be the most satisfying thing that there is. Read the passage again. We are to be the very bride of The King of The Universe. We are to be sons of The Father of All.
Fathers delight in their children.
Grooms deeply desire their brides.
And… They desire this in us.
They (The Triune G_d). Want. You.
You are enough for Him.
You (and this fool of a writer) are people who make The Author of Happiness, Happy.
You are worthy of His Love. HE is Love and Has made you the object of His Great and Steadfast Affection.
So, are you struggling to believe? Maybe it is because you are trying to believe in the wrong god. He is not far away. He is right here, and He is moving towards you. There is no need to prepare yourself. You are already enough. He has invested deeply in you, and the value is yielding its return.
Tonight is your night. Time to believe you are enough, for G_d Himself.
God is our true Friend, who always gives us the counsel and comfort we need. Our danger lies in resisting Him; so it is essential that we acquire the habit of hearkening to His voice, or keeping silence within, and listening so as to lose nothing of what He says to us. We know well enough how to keep outward silence, and to hush our spoken words, but we know little of interior silence. It consists in hushing our idle, restless, wandering imagination, in quieting the promptings of our worldly minds, and in suppressing the crowd of unprofitable thoughts which excite and disturb the soul.
~François Fénelon (1651-1715)
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