Live in His Love and His Strength

How weary we sometimes get ! Either through the troubles this world sometimes brings or through our efforts to live for Christ in our own strength - so here's some encouragement!

If it's troubles you know that you can "cast(ing) all your care upon Him, for He cares for you". And that's certainly a great comfort to me! I love the way The Message translation puts it, "Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you. He Gets the Last Word" 1 Peter 5:7 So like children we are to be 'carefree', it's His job to look after us, not ours. Or another way of putting it, "I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love" John 15:9 Make yourself at home in His love!

Living in our own strength: Sometimes we subtly forget that our Father totally accepts us for who we are. We may even be able to explain to someone the difference between 'Law' and 'Grace'*, yet suddenly we find that all the things we are doing for Jesus have become a real chore. We can easily start being really hard on ourselves. A sign we are being hard on ourselves is when we are hard on others, perhaps bemoaning that others aren't, 'doing enough'. Perhaps at these times we think God will only fully accept us if we do certain things . . We need an antidote to this . . !

All our past and future sins are forgiven, God accepts us completely. More, our Father rejoices in who we are and rejoices in the friendship He has with us. It is from Him we receive our strength. Psalm 105 v4 'Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always'.
"Seek his strength; that is, his grace; the strength of his Spirit to work in us that which is good, which we cannot do but by strength derived from him, for which he will be sought." Matthew Henry Commentary. I think 'for which he will be sought' is old english for 'He's willing to be found' and willing to give this.

So Pslam 105 says, 'seek his face always'. When I come in from work sometimes, one or both of my kids come running, shouting, 'Daddy, Daddy'. They are 'seeking my face'. In the same way we need to run into the arms of our heavenly Daddy and the verse says 'seek his face always' ! Always, not one off top ups! Instead we should be seeking the romance of that fantasic relationship ALWAYS. After all He wants us ALL THE TIME! Loves us ALL THE TIME, is rejoicing, laughing and singing over us ALL THE TIME. He's just waiting for you to come running shouting 'Daddy, Daddy' !

Andy

ps What we do for Jesus should be out of the overflow of a love relationship, but, how do we get back to this? In Ephesians 3 Paul prays that we would have power to know the height and breadth of God's love for us. Notice, not the power 'to do', instead the power to 'know' God's love. And I'm pretty sure that's a 'know' as in 'experience' God's love. (However, re-learning or getting to 'know' some scriptural truths can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, unblock the overflow. Bob George's book, 'Classic Christianity' is packed with these truths, see below*)
* Classic Christianity by Bob George is a fantastic book, I've just borrowed it from Steph (who borrowed it from Genese, who couldn't stop telling everyone how fantastic it was!), I had to wait because Steph wanted to read it a second time! It's a very easy read with lots of real life stories and illustrations, all about us being a 'new creation', God's acceptance of us, etc, Get it here or from your local christian bookshop