Ephesians 3:12--In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
I love this verse. It epitomizes everything I desire in my relationship with God that feels difficult to grasp right now.
The key words for me in this verse are FREEDOM and CONFIDENCE. These are two things I rarely feel when approaching God, which is why I believe He stuck this verse onto my heart with metaphorical gorilla glue. I find that I approach God timidly, fearfully (not the right kind of fear, but scared-fear), not with complete trust and confidence.
The problem is, I have EVERY reason to approach Him in freedom and confidence. Jesus died for every little thing (and big thing) I do wrong, and when I ask God's forgiveness He takes it away, 100%. So why fear? It's done and gone. He's not sitting there continuing to shake His head in sad disappointment. He's not pushing me away. He's sitting there welcoming me into His loving arms, waiting to dote on my heart some more with His limitless grace and mercy.
I'm not entirely certain why this concept is so difficult to immerse my heart in and believe wholeheartedly. I know I tend to live in fear too much, and it's tough to break out of fear when it gains a stronghold. But I am determined, by the power of the Spirit of God, to keep this truth in my mind and heart until it takes hold more strongly and becomes my natural reaction to God--to approach Him in freedom and confidence rather than in fear.
1 comment:
LOL @ the metaphorical gorilla glue!!
Seriously, though...amazing reminder. It's such a tough thing to find balance in fearing the Lord and coming to Him as our loving Heavenly Father. I struggle with it, too, but every once and a while it all just seems to fall into place and everything else in the world melts away, so that it's just me and God in that moment and everything is just...right.
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