John 3:16-17
“This is how much God loved the
world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that
no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole
and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son
merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He
came to help, to put the world right again.
Scripture
quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002
by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs,
CO. All rights reserved.
There are countless examples
in the news media of people who go to great lengths to expose a wrong…to
point a finger at someone who is misbehaving or to spotlight how bad a
situation has become. But one of the most ridiculous cases of this
lately has been the Michigan state representative who sent out a fake
e-mail in which he accused himself of having an encounter with a male
prostitute. Why on earth would he do this? He said he was
trying to cover up an actual affair that he was having with a fellow
state representative (female). The representative also alleged that
some of his co-workers were conspiring to expose his affair, so he
created this elaborate – and ridiculous – ruse to divert attention!
This
guy went to an awful lot of trouble just to try and cover his tracks.
And he used one of the oldest tricks in the book…he tried to shine a
spotlight on someone or something else in order to hide his own
mistakes.
We serve a God who would never conspire to expose our
sins to the world…much less create a “cover” to redirect attention or
distract the attention of others. God does not play such games…and
aren’t we glad?! God loves us so much that He sent Jesus Christ to live
among us, to teach us and serve as the perfect example…then suffer,
pour out His flesh and blood for us…and ultimately, to die for us. God
welcomed Jesus back to Heaven, where He waits for each of us who give
our hearts to Him. There was nothing sneaky or sinister in any of this.
There were no plots to expose our failures and our flaws…no finger
pointing of any kind. This was all done for one reason…incredible,
amazing, incomprehensible, unconditional LOVE.
Until you
understand that the message we need to hear is not one of fear and
obligation, but rather one of abiding love, you will never truly “get”
what it means to have a relationship with God. I know…because I
operated from a vantage point of fear and dread for far too many years.
God does not want to punish us…He wants to love us…and everything He
does for us comes from this context. Until we understand this, we won’t
really understand anything about Christian faith.
Some of us are
busy trying to “cover our tracks.” We are hiding from God, and
creating elaborate – and sometimes ridiculous - ruses and
diversions…pointing our finger at the other guy and hoping that God will
focus on him/her instead of us. This is a silly game…and we need to
stop. God loves ALL of us…His desire is that we embrace Jesus and turn
to Him. His grand design for sending Jesus was to rescue us, not to
condemn. And are we ever grateful…or at least, we should be!
Will
you take some time today to talk to God about the vantage point from
which you are operating? If your relationship with God is based in fear
and guilt, won’t you ask Him to help you shift to an attitude of
serving out of love and gratitude? If you are wasting time and energy
creating distractions and diversions to try and be something or someone
you aren’t – or to hide from God - won’t you pull back the veil today
and “come clean?” God already knows everything…but He wants you to
acknowledge this and stand before Him…warts and all. Are you ready to
get real with God? Is today “the day?”
©2015 Debbie Robus
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