Calm: Part 2
Calm: Part 2
There is a fierce battle to live in our spiritual inheritance as calm saints of God. As we discussed in part one, the battle is physical as well as spiritual. But there is a battleground where the battle is fought. And wouldn’t it make sense that the primary battleground is around the first and greatest commandment?
“Love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, you mind, your strength (Matthew 22:37).” God knew we would need this reminder throughout Scripture. When the war is lost on this battleground, we see the carnage of broken lives.
Freedom in Christ Ministries founder Dr. Neil T. Anderson wrote, “If you want the truth to set you free, you have to know Who the truth is, not just what it is.”
Steve Goss, FICM International Director, writes about the Freedom in Christ course, “It’s about knowing Him for the wonderful person He is so that we can simply fall at his feet and offer ourselves completely and utterly.”
Recent brain science backs this truth from the Bible. It’s our attachments that drive our choices because the part of the brain that’s about relational attachments runs faster than the part that drives our choices. The right hemisphere of our brain, the part focused on attachment, is the one in the driver seat.
Malcom Smith writes this about the love of God:
“Now, in this moment, you are the focus of the passionate and unconditional love of God. He loves you with His entire Being. You have all of His love as if you were the only human in existence. And He loves you because you exist, without reference to your behavior. Understand and live in that reality, and behavior will change in response to such infinite love that leaves us worshipping in wonder. As John says, ‘We love because he first loved us’ (I John 4:19 NAS).”
Like any good thing—and especially because this is the main thing—the war for the love of God is opposed. John writes in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.” Our love must be guarded. Because we can trade it for treasure, just like the advertisement for a wedding dress shop that said, “Love him but Love your dress more.” There is an ever-present temptation to love something else more than Christ.
The enemy attempts to paint a caricature of God and from that flows more caricatures of our family, friends, even our ministry partnerships that keep us from love.
Perhaps you’ve heard accusations that God is unjust. Or that He is unkind or even cruel. You’ve heard you can’t please God. Or that He can’t be trusted because your prayers were unanswered.
What caricatures have you heard about God?
The questions below may uncover some of the hidden places where you need to take a bath in the love of God:
When I have to trust God, I feel…
The one thing I’m afraid God will allow or do is…
I seem to get angry with God when…
Because our earthly fathers and mothers, even other childhood authority figures, were designed to give us a view of our Heavenly Father, there may be some unraveling we need to do to knit together a true view of who God is. As Paul said, “I count all things to be loss in view of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” To Know Him is to Love Him. His love is inseparable from His actions.
We have a great tool that can help us knit together this true picture of God. It’s a list of lies we may have believed about our Father God with corresponding truths from His Word (originally written by Neil Anderson in The Steps to Freedom in Christ). You can access it below.
I’d encourage you to take time with each of the statements in the My Father God list. Ask yourself these questions: “Where have I seen God be intimate and involved in my life? Where have I seen God be kind and compassionate?”
I’d encourage you to write down what comes to your mind. The former Dallas seminary president Chuck Swindoll writes, “Thoughts disentangle themselves through the lips and the fingertips.”
Is there a place as your read these statements that the words stick in your throat? You may even struggle reading the statements aloud at all. Bring those to Jesus. Ask Him where He was in those times when He seemed less than kind and compassionate and wait for His response.
When my parents divorced, I remember the night I said good-bye to my dad and walked up the long, lonely staircase to my bedroom. When I asked where Jesus was, I saw him in my mind’s eye at the top of staircase. He was there waiting for me. I knew it was true as a few months later I heard the Gospel message. When you invite Him into the wounded places to speak truth, the lies about Him that you have been believing will dissipate like early morning fog.
As you take time with the statements and the Scriptures on the “My Father God” page, ask Him if there is a hidden place where you are unbelieving about the love of God shown in the character of God. God is the revealer of hidden things.
Because life is hard, and suffering is promised, we need to allow God to be our balm of Gilead when we have believed less of Him. Is there a place of surrender to false expectations of God that is keeping you from His love?
Paul Bilheimer writes in his book Love Covers, “The most convincing proof to the world that agape love is supreme is not that we are always delivered from hardship, affliction, poverty, and suffering, but that none of these separate us, not only from His love for us, but from our love for Him.”
Is my refusal to wave the white flag of surrender to life’s uncertainties and sufferings keeping me from experiencing the love of God?
What have I learned about living increasingly as a calm saint of God? The battle ground for the love of God is where the battles originate.