The thing I love about God is that He's real clear with me about what is in fact my mountain. My assignments were given out long before I understood the full extent of what I was supposed to be doing or why. I may have been parlaying near a few other mountains but they weren't mine. The ownership of my mountains has been clear to me from the start. Clarity is important. I'm happy to be focused on my mountains completely. Sometimes its so good to mind your actual business and be about my Father's business. Let me get back to my mountain!
Romans 2:2
[But] we know that the judgment (adverse verdict, sentence) of God falls justly and in accordance with truth upon those who practice such things.
When I think about the things I've done and the things I've said I'm acutely aware of the fact that I'm not worthy. I'm aware of the grace and mercy that have been heaped upon my life by a loving and knowing Father. What I've done earns me nothing. What I've done condemns me to hell. BUT GOD! He made a way that I could say "There is therefore now NO condemnation to those who are found in Christ Jesus." That statement fills me with joy because it means I'm free. I'm free and I'm delivered from the bondage of my humanity and my failings to stand in eternity worshiping the Father. I'm free to know Him and approach Him. I'm free to be loved and to love in return. His grace and His mercy have made a way for the just verdict of guilty to be cast into the sea of forgetfulness. Though my sins condemn me, He justified me.
Romans 2:4
Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent (to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)?
LISTEN! I just got a revelation about this the other day. My friend said "If you can think it in your own mind, God's bigger." Aha moment! God is soooooooo much bigger and more loving and kinder and has more patience than we can even fathom. One of the things I've found about Him is that He's far more profound than I'll ever understand. When I see impossible I know He see's possible. That's the God I serve. I sometimes think it might be offensive to God that we put Him in a box. That we believe oh His grace can't cover this, oh His love isn't big enough to see me through my mess, oh His forgiveness won't forgive me in this situation. How dare we believe God isn't big enough for our humanity? I'd be offended and I think Paul is admonishing us about this here. How could we not know He's infinitely massive in His love towards us? How could we not? Has He not shown that so many times? He has in my life. And I've found the latter to be true to. The more grace He gives me the better I try to do. The more loving He is, the better I try to love. Moreover, the more grace and love and kindness and patience He shows me, the more of all of that I endeavor to give out. If we are to reflect Christ, I think one of the things that's been the best demonstration of that isn't a scripture but I life lived reflecting how He treats us to others.
Romans 2:7
To those who by patient persistence in well-doing [[b]springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor and [[c]the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life.
This is a hard one. Patience is a virtue because it isn't always comfortable. When I think about waiting, I know God's got something in it not only for me but for the people who I'll encounter in the waiting. I know God's doing something profound in me because its not comfortable. It requires more faith, more prayer, more sacrifice. And I fail. I fail a lot a being persistently patient because I'm human. I want my promise now. I want what I want now but can I offer that I've found in my life that when its in His timing is better? Because it is. I wanted UNC so bad in 2009 but when got it in 2012 I was ready to receive it. I was ready to walk into it and when I finally gave department seminar in the department that didn't want me in 2009, they all congratulated my parents on how well I'd done in graduate school. Why? Because I'd been where God wanted me to be until He made a way for me to be somewhere else. And I didn't even want UNC after got Nebraska but He brought me back anyway for personal reasons. I didn't need UNC academically but I needed to be in NC so I could watch LP grow up and be here for my sibling and my love. Though I wasn't waiting on UNC consciously, I did wait. Right up there in Omaha and with great joy!
There's also something about seeking a thing you can't see. Lord, have mercy there's so much faith required in that space. But what I love here is that these things beget something. God's never requiring something of me that isn't going to bless me in the future. Even the requirement that I patiently wait on the glory that is heaven is for my good. I use to be a kid who was always like "any time is good Jesus. I'm ready." I'm not like that any more and now I see how this verse could be for that. I've got some growing to do. I've got to persist and continue to do what is right and pleasing unto Him until. Until is key. I've got some until assignments and I've been in some until places. I love until because what it allows me to do is to go back to the last time I heard God and continue to do that. It exercises my faith in the space where I'm not currently hearing from Him but I've already got my instructions that I need to be walking out. But what I love here is that He's got eternal life for me. He's got it but He's also got some things He wants from me. He's got some purposeful waiting for me to do and I'm just fine with that. There are med school tests to take, a proposal to my beautiful bride to make, a wedding to have, USMLE scores to get, babies to have, Match, residency, babies to catch, and a wife to make a life with. I'll wait patiently because He's got something for me in the waiting.
Romans 2:11
For God shows no partiality [undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another].
I know I often say God is not a respecter of persons. Here's that verse. He isn't. Anything that is true for me is true for you. His love for me is His love for you. His desire for relationship with you is the same as the one He has for me. My sins were on the cross the same as yours. His grace is sufficient for me and you. His love knows no end for me and for you. His forgiveness is fresh and abundant each and every morning towards us all. Even when I can't see how God is working something out in your life, I know All things work together for the good of those who love God. I may not be able to understand it but that's okay. God's got you. He's got me too.
Romans 2: 14-15
When Gentiles who have not the [divine] Law do instinctively what the Law requires, they are a law to themselves, since they do not have the Law.
They show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts and are operating there, with which their consciences (sense of right and wrong) also bear witness; and their [moral] decisions (their arguments of reason, their condemning or approving [f]thoughts) will accuse or perhaps defend and excuse [them]
As a person who is living under grace and not under the law I'm so grateful for that fact. What stood out to me here is that when you know Him, His law is written on your heart even if you haven't seen it in black and white. There are some things I just know. There are things my spirit just agrees with. One of the things I love about having a personal relationship with God is that I can just go right down in myself and check in with the indwelling of the Spirit and be clear about things. The indwelling of the Spirit is so vital to me because what I've found is that after I've checked in and moved appropriately, I can always find scripture to back up my decision. Being that the Spirit and the Father are one, that's totally apropos but I love it all the more. I love the lack of contradiction I find over and over again. He's faithful.
Romans 2:29
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and [true] circumcision is of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal [matter]. His praise is not from men but from God.
God is looking at the condition of the heart. He's unconcerned with out ward demonstrations of faith and more so with what you actually believe. I know there are outward things I do that demonstrate my faith but when I think about my actual relationship, the one that takes place when its just me and Him, bedside each and every day I know that that's what matters. I know its the time I spend praying and worshiping that matters. I know that this devotional matters. Its not about anyone but me and Him. But I love that even though this relationship is only about me and Him, it blesses other people. There is so much I get out of my relationship with God that is for other people or ministers to others or encourages them. The condition of the heart is so critical in each and every relationship. I know because my heart turns towards Him and He treats me as I don't deserve, I'm better able to treat others with kindness and compassion. My heart attitude makes my actual attitude more pleasant.
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