Jesus told us to abide in His love. Have you ever given serious thought to what that means? I evidently had not until the other day as I realized how comfortable I was in the recent weeks of coming out of a wilderness season and being overwhelmed with God's presence and love. I began to realize that for many, myself included, that isn’t always a comfortable place, but why? God created us for relationship with Himself which of course was broken because of sin. Jesus took care of the sin issue yet we still don’t enjoy God the way He wants us to. I can remember a time many years ago after getting saved but prior to really understanding the righteousness of Jesus being imputed to me as a believer that at first I was so conscious of my sin nature I felt like just the fact that I was breathing was sinful. How distorted our perception can be until we receive Gods truth. We spend so many years dwelling in an atmosphere of guilt and condemnation, an atmosphere of not feeling worthy or deserving that even though God doesn’t judge us by our behavior anymore, we still do. It’s just like the story of the bird being set free, yet because of dwelling there for so many years, being free was not comfortable, so even though the door was open it still lived confined to it’s cage like it always had.
I wrote a poem that has a line that says,
I know it’s hard to leave what feels comfortable and what feels safe
Even if it’s not where you want to be
You tell yourself you’re OK, you tell yourself you’re free
Yet in your heart you know you’re not yet who I’ve created you to be.
I’m not sure what I was thinking at the time I wrote that but this morning as He brought it to my rememberance I realized how much it applied to what I was talking to Him about. We become comfortable and safe in an environment God never created us to dwell in to begin with, so much so that dwelling in the love of God initially isn’t comfortable. Even though we get saved we hold ourselves to a measure of law that allows us to enjoy His presence “if” we measure up to it. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever been having a great day and then all of the sudden you blow it and the next thing you know you feel horrible then you cut yourself off from God, thinking He is probably just as disgusted with me as I am. Yet this is not how God sees us. Have you ever thought about Adam and Eve and how God didn’t hide from them, they hid from God? And He came looking for them, not because he didn’t know where they were, but because He wanted them to “know” where they were, hiding from His presence. Hmmmm, isn’t it funny but after all these years, some things never change.
Colossians 3:3 says, For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” God sees us in Christ. Christ who is our righteousness, not because we get it all right, have it all together, etc.. but because we believe…we live by faith in what God has declared in His word.
I know part of it has to do with putting off our old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind by putting on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Maybe this is where we get stuck.
As humans we like to feel comfortable, we like what is familiar and gives us a sense of safety, but when we are born again we are partakers of the divine nature of God, which will enable us to develop a new comfortable, a new familiar if we make dwelling in His presence the highest priority of our life. God is love, dwelling in His presence will require us to become comfortable with dwelling in His love, the two are synonymous with each other.
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