If you missed Charity’s post from last week, you can read it here.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.
Colossians 1:3-8 ESV
Wow, there is so much here!
Faith.
Love.
Hope.
Grace.
We have faith in Jesus Christ that leads us to love in the Spirit which stems from our hope in heaven. Our hope being our Father in heaven who has revealed His grace to us.
Christ is the reason for our love in the Spirit and our hope in the future heaven where we will finally see our Father face-to-face. The minute a person puts their faith in Christ, the Spirit brings Love, who is God, into their hearts. This isn’t a love that we can muster up on our own but is the love of God the Father, Son and Spirit. We could never know this love apart from the Spirit revealing it to us which is why Christ sent Him. Through the Spirit, we receive knowledge and understanding of what God did by sending His Son.
You see, the Colossians’ love for others stemmed neither from a love they scraped up out of obligation to God nor a sense of guilt to “do the right thing” but from a deep understanding of God’s love that only the Spirit gives and reveals.
Christ died so that we might know Love through being filled with the Spirit of Love. He died for us to receive Love and allow Him to flow through us into others’ lives.
I think this is what is happening in the Colossians’ lives. Their faith in Christ was so sure because they knew they were deeply loved by Love through the Spirit’s assurance. It kept their eyes turned and fixed on their hope in heaven who is seated at the right hand of the Father.
The Spirit’s love assured them that Christ will fulfill His promise in coming back to restore all of creation. They held tight to this promise, to the gospel in which they saw and understood the truth of God’s grace.
Which poses a question that we need to consider seriously:
Do I understand the grace of God?
I’m not sure Paul is talking about understanding as much as he is about receiving. We must understand God’s grace enough to know we are in desperate need of it, but how many of us really receive the grace of God? Do we understand grace so deeply as to let go of our past mistakes along with the shame and guilt they hold?
The grace that God gives us leads to Him declaring us to be blameless, holy, redeemed and forgiven.
God wants us to see ourselves in light of the truth of His grace. I think many believers are all too aware of their shortcomings and failures. It is necessary to remember these and learn from them, but they do not define us. As believers, our works, skill, craftiness, accomplishments and failures don’t define us. The blood of Jesus defines us.
I am so very convinced that it is time for the Church, for me, for you, for our friends and family to receive the grace of God in truth and to begin living in it! We must be confident in who God says we are so that we can go and love others from Love Himself through the Spirit’s filling.
My desire, and I pray it is yours as well, is to go deeper and deeper into the mysteries of Love, to know the amazing Creator I serve and to help others intimately know Him who knows them intimately.
But, we can’t love others until we know what it is to be loved, until we receive Love. We must constantly remind ourselves of this as we strive to figure out how to be loved by God while loving others in His name. It is a process that the Spirit walks with us in great patience and gentleness. We won’t be perfect and that is okay. God sees that our hearts’ desire is for Him. Don’t be afraid of messing up or failing because it will happen no matter how hard we try to prevent it. The beauty is that God’s grace covers us and this frees us to get up, to keep pursuing God knowing that He is better than anything else in this world and to continue to love others for His glory.
As for how to receive God’s love and grace, I wish I could tell you some formula to do and then you would be set for life.
But I don’t have one.
Because relationships don’t have formulas.
They have faith. They have trust.
I struggle daily to receive God’s love and grace. I admit that I have given up on some days choosing to believe things I know are untrue. I struggle to run to God for love and affirmation of who I am and not to others. It is so easy for me to find my worth in what I can do for others rather than in being a daughter of the King. I often find my identity in being a “fixer” or “listener” and forget that while those are good things they don’t define me or my worth. Christ defines me, and my worth is not in what I do for Him but in what He has done for me.
We are simply yet extravagantly loved. Oh, how often I need to be reminded of that. And oh, how often my Father calls to me saying, “Stop and be with Me awhile. Listen and receive. I don’t love you for what you do. I hold the universe in My hand, so stop and rest awhile with me. I will remind you of who you are and why you do what you do. Yes, stop my daughter and spend time with your Father.”
Lord, help myself and others who struggle to receive Your love and grace to see that having faith in Christ means letting go of the past and taking hold of all that You want to give us. Help us see that it is not selfish to receive what You want to give us and that it actually hurts You when we refuse and reject it. May we be filled with Love, Holy Spirit, so much that it saturates every part of our lives and others can’t help but see You. May we be examples for others on how to receive Your grace and live guilt- and shame-free in the hope of Christ never forgetting the price paid for such precious liberty. As we struggle to remember these truths, help us keep our eyes fixed on the hope laid up for us in heaven. Amen.
Thank you for allowing us to serve and encourage you today. If this post was an encouragement to you in any way, please let us know and consider sharing this post to encourage someone else.
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