with-all-your-soul

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How Deep the Father's Love for Us

Because of sin, we all suffer from "below the surface" issues. We long to be loved, accepted, appreciated, valued, cared for, to belong. There is nothing wrong with these below the surface desires. They are God-given and point us to Jesus, because only in Jesus are we truly satisfied.

Unfortunately, many of us try to medicate our below the surface void with "above the surface" addictions.

Many of these addictions are socially acceptable: good grades, playing well in sports, being ambitious, working long hours, volunteering our time and even ministry itself can become a bandaid on the bigger issues. We only do these things to win the praise of people, which we try to process as love. Where this falls short is our constant need to perform and to win more approval.

And many of the above the surface addictions become negative behaviors: alcoholism, drug use, sexual promiscuity, self-injury, eating disorders, and the like. These behaviors become escape hatches, for a time, from our problems. But eventually their effect wears off and we need to go deeper and deeper into our addictions.

Whether our addictions are perceived as good or bad, they never truly satisfy. The only thing that can truly satisfy is the unconditional love of God. You don't need to prove yourself to God to receive his love. As the modern hymn goes, "How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure."

"Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." (Eph 1:4-5 NLT)

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Groans That Words Cannot Express

A lot can be said regarding our identity in how we answer the question, "How do you deal with feelings of loneliness?"

At the center of our souls is a vacuum, a black hole that constantly begs to be filled. We fill this whole with many things: relationships, purpose, false identities, expressions of affirmation and love, feelings of self-worth. Some of us feel wronged by others and we think the only way to be whole again is for those wrongs to be corrected. But eventually this vortex strangles the life out of these things and we long for more and more fulfillment.

We experience loneliness when we have nothing to feed this vacuum. It is a sense of emptiness. Like a stomach growls when it is empty, our souls cry out with groans that words cannot express.

It is in our loneliness that sin is most tempting. It promises to provide an instant relief to our emptiness. And for a time it does. But sin is never true to its promise. One day it will kill you.

Only God can truly fill this void. Only his immensity and his eternity can complete the infinite gap in our hearts. What if your feelings of loneliness are your soul craving for that oneness with God? To be completed by your Maker?

Jesus often went away to pray by himself. He was alone, but he was not lonely. He experienced communion with God the Father. Being alone is an external reality, but being lonely is an internal one. We need to learn how to be alone with our Heavenly Father, to hear his voice and listen to the sweet whispers of his love. "You are my child, with whom I am well pleased."

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Proving Yourself

The ways we try to prove our worth to others eventually become the ways we try to prove our worth to ourselves.

It starts when we're young. We try to prove our worth to our parents with our behavior. Then to our teachers with our grades. Then to our friends with our understanding of "cool."

And if we're not careful, we'll get stuck trying to prove our worth to ourselves because we've never learned to find our true worth in Christ.

Your worth and your value do not come from others say about you, or from what you do, or even from "within." The only place your worth comes from is from Christ. If you center your self-worth in anything but Christ, you have created an idol.

Be sure of this, that God has claimed you to be his child. Rest in that reality. Center your identity in that truth.

"He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ." (Eph 1:4-5)

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Stop. Look. Listen.

God gave us the Sabbath to help us center our identity in him.

It's so easy to get caught up in our work. To validate who we are by what we do. And if we find ourselves working during our day of rest, we may be guilty of turning our work into an idol.

But God gives us permission to stop. To be unproductive. To be unbusy.

It may be scary to stop because it requires us to come face to face with who we are. No more distractions. Just you and God.

In the Sabbath, God invites us to STOP. We don't need to perform or to prove ourselves to anyone. We simply need to slow down allow God to speak into our lives.

In the Sabbath, God invites us to LOOK. We can miss so much of life when we're rushing from one thing to the next. Where do you see God working in your life? In the world around you? Where do you see God in creation? In the sunrises and the sunsets? In the people you see day in and day out?

In the Sabbath, God invites us to LISTEN. Our lives are filled with so much noise we may miss out on hearing God's still small voice. What is God saying to you? What words of affirmation and love and acceptance is he whispering in your ear?

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The Voices are Screaming for Your Attention

Idols scream loudly.

They cry out for your attention. Your time. Your worship.

Idols are deceptive con-artists that scream "IF YOU WORSHIP ME I WILL MAKE YOU FEEL LOVED AND APPRECIATED AND FULFILLED." And for a time they will live up to that promise.

But they never keep delivering. In fact, they never mean to. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (Jn 10:10a).

Like cotton candy, the sweet taste of their lie eventually dissolves into emptiness.

Jesus' voice, on the other hand, is quiet. It is constant. It may not be as flashy as the idols' voices, but it is true and steady. 

"A great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." (1 Ki 19:11b-12)

God's voice says, "I love you. You are my child. I am well-pleased with you." No qualifiers attached. No need to prove ourselves to him. He loves us first.

To hear this voice, we simply need to slow down. To rest. To listen. So much of our lives involve running from one adrenaline rush to the next. But God is not in the adrenaline rush as much as he is in the quiet moments of our lives.

Because it's in the quiet Sabbath rests where we truly need to trust in God for our identity.

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (Jn 10:10b)

[with-all-your-soul]

Identity and Self-Worth

Identity and self-worth are inextricably tied.

If you were to ask someone "Who are you?" they would most likely respond with the things that they deem valuable.

"I'm a student. I'm on the varsity baseball team. I'm a cheerleader. I'm an honor roll student. I volunteer my time with the poor. I go to church."

These responses are designed to convey value or worth.

When we ask ourselves, "Who am I?" we're really asking ourselves, "Where do I get my sense of self-worth?"

Is it from the people you hang out with? Is it from the things you do? Is it from the teams or clubs or organizations you are a part of?

But God is calling us to get our identity from something else, something much deeper than ourselves. He is calling us to center our identity in Christ and in what he has done for us.

We are God's children (1 Jn 3:1), chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4), to be his people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, people that belong to Christ (1 Pt 2:9). We don't do this for the approval of others, or even ourselves, but for God and for God alone (Gal 1:10).

To center our identity and our self-worth in Christ is a daily struggle and not one that is ever completely won. But it is a journey, a step-by-step adventure into the arms of the One who created us.

May your journey lead you deeper in the presence of your Father.

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“Nobody in this life is nearer to God than those who deny Him.” -Martin Luther

One of the most brilliant atheists of the 20th century was Jean Paul Sartre. Why was he so preoccupied with God? He said that humanity must forget God, give up the search for God, and then page after page of his...

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Mark 5 discussion with CJ

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It is Jesus you seek when you dream of happiness.

Bl. Pope John Paul II (via actuallycharlesbingley)

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Oh my gaaa. I  heard this song for the first time on the radio today, and fell in love with the chorus.

“All I know is that I’m not home yeahh~

This is not where I belong!

Take this world and GIVE MEEE JESUS!

This is not where I belong!”

Yes! Our home in heaven! Whoot whoot. :D