Fear anxiety and anger connected

Fear, anxiety and anger are tied together. How?

They all have to do with harm, loss or pain.

• Fear is in anticipation of harm, loss or pain
• Anxiety is in expectation of harm, loss or pain
• Anger is in reaction to harm, loss or pain

1. Fear occurs if and when there is no action or before any action is taken.  

2. Fear turns into anxiety when we are ready to take action or once action is necessary and about to occur.

3. Anxiety turns into anger after we have taken action which results in the harm, loss or pain.

Ever since our rebellious distrust of God in Eden we all live in a constant, though often unconscious, state of fear and anxiety and ¹anger.

What is the solution? Knowing God, who redeems harm, loss and pain, is using it to strengthen and advance us in our relationship with him, if and when we trust him.

For a discussion on why God continues to allows evil click here.

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job click here.

For a further discussion on the value of paradox click here.

For a further discussion of how big is God exactly click here

For a discussion of how pain can help us see Christ's love click here

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¹If you question or doubt you have any anger, have you ever questioned or become upset over why there is so much pain and suffering in the world or felt it's unfair? This question usually comes out of a "low grade" anger over harm, loss or pain; either yours or others. (for more on the blame question click here) 

We can express sadness over harm loss and pain but this is different than anger. Sadness recognizes our plight is the result of our own choices. Anger plays the victim and blames God or others for our harm loss or pain.

What's really inside?

The true state of the ¹human heart (and condition) is often not evident until everything that we depend on to gain a sense of meaning and value is stripped away.

What surfaces emotionally when you're really cold, really sick, really tired, really hungry, totally alone or in any other state of extended deprivation? 

What if you also find yourself in one (or possibly several) of these circumstances with no hope of relief? What surfaces then? (think of Job)

Whatever it is... fear, anxiety, anger, complaining, whining etc... this brings to the surface who you really are; the real you. Not a flattering picture. But not an uncommon one either.

We all do well when things go well. It's when they go wrong that we find out what we're truly made of, i.e. the true state of our being.

When everything is stripped away, it becomes very clear that we are dependent (our true state of being), very rebellious, and rather miserable (our true condition) creatures, who are often ungrateful.

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¹I am making the distinction between "heart" and "condition" and suggest that "heart" addresses who we really are - i.e. creatures dependent on our Creator - and "condition" with those circumstances we find ourselves in; circumstances that create pain and suffering which bring to the surface what's in our heart. Possibly too fine or unclear a distinction?

Feedback is always welcomed. Nothing I post is final simply because I know much of our (my) heart is hidden from us (me), which in turn, affects our (my) thoughts and ability to see clearly.

Unbelief diminishs us

Because of our rebellious distrust of God and our subtle but passionate desire to make life work without him, we are no longer in a relationship with Him (as we were meant to be) and experiencing His infinite love (the necessary spiritual nourishment we were created and designed to have) with all the delight, bliss, and strength that comes from being connected to Him. As a result, we are stunted in our abilities and ¹never develop to our full God given potential. We are ¹far less than we were created to be. 

This is true not only spiritually and emotionally, but physically. As our health declines with age, we experience disease and eventually die. None of this was part of our original design. 

As well, our senses and abilities are only a fraction of what they were meant to be and we have the potential for (and will one day be if we are in Christ. In Christ, all of this will one day ultimately be reversed and eliminated).

If we are not restored to God, our diminishing abilities and the negative results will continue beyond our present existence and only increase. We will become even more fragmented, diminished and entrenched in the negative dispositions we now have and display, e.g. frustration, anger, fear, anxiety, depression, indifference to or even hatred of God, etc. 

Without connection and union with the Source of love and life we are like spiritual and emotional black holes collapsing in on ourselves from the void left by God's absence. We will only increase in our sense of emptiness. This will become even more acute over time with no chance of relief.

In our current existence we at least experience occasional temporary relief through the use of the various gifts that God gives us - both internal and external - but always with a constant search and hope for more (this drives all our actions when we are not connected and in union with God). 

In our next existence, without our Creator or access to His creation, we will be fully given over to our own devices and have no such experience or hope of love. We will have no access to the external gifts or the ability to exercise the internal ones, but only an perpetual longing and thirst for love - now masked by the use of God's gifts. This will be our hell.

So what is our problem? 

In this life, we try to build our sense of identity, meaning, purpose, and value trhrough ²everything but God. He is not our focus, His creation is - with access to and use of all the gifts this life brings us. 

However, created things are finite. We were created for the infinite.

If we refuse God's offer (again our choice) to restore us back to Him and our ³true identity, we will go into eternity continuing on this current trajectory. The difference is we won't have all the resources, blessings, and gifts we now enjoy and use to maintain our independence from God. 

Absent God, we attempt to use all things to maintain our sense of identity, meaning, value, and purpose. We are like rebellious children using all the good things our parents give us to avoid the very ones who gave them to us i.e. our parents.

If we return to God and abandon our rebellious attempts to make life work without Him, we will be restored to the true purpose of our existence, and experience our greatest potential, fulfillment, and the delight He longs to give us (you) in Him. Will you return?

"The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come.' And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." - Rev 22:17

Are we truly rebels against God? For more click here.

Does God love rebels? Click here and find out. 

For a further discussion on why hell is our choice click here.
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¹Not unlike a malnourished child genetically encoded to be a genius or an exceptional athlete who never developed to their full potential. As a result, they developed with less than average intelligence or become wheelchair-bound because they never received the proper nourishment they needed and were designed to have.

²We use all the good gifts of God - meant to show us his love - to maintain our independence from God. Not unlike a rebellious child using the good things his parent provides to betray his parents.

³His beloved image bearers who are designed to partake in the community of love between the Father, Son, and Spirit - and all the delight that comes with and in it - in the same way they do (because we are like Him).

No shortcuts to maturity

Pain is a ¹necessary part of ²growth. We either experience it through... 

³Self-denial and submission to God's ⁴directives - necessary because of our brokenness and inclination towards ⁵rebellions distrust of God.

or 

As a result of living in a broken world among others who are also broken from their rebellion to God. 

There is no way around pain. It comes to us through the offenses of others in this broken world. There are also no shortcuts to being weaned from our own ⁶brokenness and the pain it causes.

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation (The meaning of tribulation in the original Greek - persecution, affliction, distress, pressure). But take heart (i.e. do not be fearful or lose hope); ⁷I have overcome the world.” - Jesus in John 16:33

The good news is God knows and understands our pain because Christ stepped into our broken world and suffered far more than we ever will - and for our benefit. 

And not only so but he also uses our pain and struggles for our good. In knowing this, we find peace - i.e. "...in me you may have peace." 

Though pain continues in this life, it no longer disturbs us in the way it did before. We now see how God uses it for a good purpose if we love and trust Him.

In Christ, we therefore live with ⁷hope in the midst of pain, not despair, anxiety or fear.

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility click here

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Footnotes:

¹Pain reminds us that we were not designed to operate without God. The more we come to see and understand this the more we look to God for true life, and not to creation with all it's "creature comforts."

Coming to see and know God as the true source of life, love, and all things is at the heart of our transformation - growth. Pain often is a - if not the - primary means  by which this occurs if we receive it by faith as such, i.e. we do not become angered or embittered by our suffering, pain, or struggles but welcome them as our friends to help us grow deeper roots into God and find Him more and more as our true life and joy.

"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence..." Jas 1:2-3 JB Phillips

²We are so blinded by our selfishness we will never see how deep it runs until we are pressed beyond our ability to handle the pain it causes.

³God actually calls us to go through pain to advance us spiritually. We don't think of self-denial as a form of pain. However, self-denial is a call to turn away from those things we use to find comfort in and ease our pain, so we might pursue God as our comfort.

To expand on this, Christ says we are to take up our cross and follow him. The cross is a symbol of pain and death. Christ is calling us to take on and embrace pain in the same way He did in order to follow him. At first, we might think this is insane. Why would God call us to willingly take on and embrace pain when we spend all our lives trying to avoid it!?

When the world asks how can God be good and just, when He does not relieve all the pain and suffering in the world (including our own), it reveals the depth of our rebellion towards God. Pain is the organic fruit of our rebellious distrust and independence from God, not as deliberate punishment by some angry supernatural being. It only remains to wean us away from inappropriate dependence on the creation and turn us to dependence on the Creator for true life where it belongs and where we will flourish and experience life most. 

If we allow pain to do this, we will be saved in, by, and through our pain and suffering, i.e. It remains for the exact opposite of what we assume. God ultimately uses it to advance us spiritually, not harm us. But only if we receive it as from His hand for our advancement, not our harm. If we believe it is only for our harm we will not gain from it the good God intends.

⁴The primary directive is that we love God with all that we have and are and our neighbor as ourselves.

⁵Pursuit of something other than God for life is at the heart of our rebellion. This says these other things are more important or valuable than God i.e. they become our God. 

⁶The heart of our brokenness - selfishness - is our rebellious commitment to being our own god. We put greater trust in ourselves into gaining what is best than trusting God to do what is best for us. This is due to not believing God is who he claims to be... the Source of life, love, and all things. The result is the pursuit of creation itself and making it our god. 

How's that working for you so far? 

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things." - Rom1:18-23

Of course, today we do not worship birds, animals, and creeping things as they did back when Paul penned this. But these are representatives of creation. We naturally ascribe to created things - i.e. anything from our earthly existence - the value and glory that can only be ascribed to God. That is the application and underlying truth of this passage for us today, not the primitive worship of animals.

⁷How did Christ overcome the world? He embraced the world's pain and suffering (including ours) and allowed it to kill him so that we might not have to remain in pain and die. Then He overcame that pain by resurrecting so that we might also resurrect one day if we put our trust in Him.  

Pain and death do not have the final word, life does in and through Christ demonstrated and confirmed by his resurrection. Because he resurrected, we will also in him. This is our hope in our pain.

rest

What does it mean to "rest" in God? Is there only one meaning?

I would suggest the Bible teaches there is an initial rest and an ongoing rest. 

After we have come into God's Kingdom and into our initial rest from His rightful judgment and condemnation, we are called to enter into and partake in an ongoing rest (contentment). 

The rest of this article will address ongoing rest. 

This occurs when we live according to two key truths.

1. We thank God for everything - especially the "bad" things - whether we understand why they are happening or not.

2. We faithfully (though not perfectly, necessarily) seek to do everything God calls us to do, whether we like it or not.

The 1st (i.e. hard circumstances) we do not control and must accept (receive) ¹passively, and the 2nd we do "control" and must pursue actively. 

Both require a choice we make by faith, and in this sense, both are active i.e. we choose - "control" - how we respond and how our circumstances affect us, not the circumstances. 

But neither can happen without God's strengthening/ empowering us (i.e. we can't do it in our own strength). But by His strength, which only comes through deeper trust in Him. 

We must come to a place where we fully recognize He is trustworthy in both what he allows (#1 above) and in what he calls us to (#2 above), and respond accordingly i.e. in and by faith. 

This is our choice alone and determines how these circumstances influence and shape us.

The theological underpinnings needed to live this way are infinitely deep, because they are grounded in our trust in the infinite love, power, faithfulness, care, and wisdom of God i.e. they must go as deep as God is vast, and as much as our faith allows us to embrace Him as being exactly who He is and claims to be.

To give assent to and ²faithfully carry or live these out, we must recognize (believe) God ³is always good, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving at all times and in all things. 

If you doubt these things about God concerning you and difficult circumstances, you will not be in a posture of humility and dependence needed to enter His rest. You will remain - abide if you will - in a state of agitation i.e. unrest, anxiety, or fear.

Resting in God is the essence of the now-popular saying, "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good."

Does this mean we will never struggle with believing these things?

Christ himself - the founder and perfector of our faith - wrestled with this in the garden of Gethsemane. He wrestled with both obedience (active) and acceptance (passive) of what God was about to allow him to go through. 

What settled it for him was one very simple decision, "...not my will but yours be done." He came to the place of complete surrender and trust. Once he did, his struggle was over. He was at peace i.e. resting in his trust in the Father, regardless of what He was about to and did go through.

This is why he was able to calmly say to his disciples, "See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer, is at hand.” Matt 26:45b-46. 

He stared pain straight in the face and, out of his total trust in His Father's love, wisdom, and power, was able to embrace the pain, the humbling, and the shame he was about to go through during His crucifixion. From this point forward, he set his eyes on the cross and never looked back. 

Christ was empowered to make this decision because he believed (trusted) his Father was all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving at that moment in that given circumstance. 

We, too, are called to this and can carry it out by the same strength we receive through this same trust in the Father. When we do, we too will calmly (peacefully) and deliberately move forward in life, no matter what is in front of us. 

For a discussion on how God uses evil for good click here.

For a further discussion on why God allows suffering and evil click here.

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¹Passively only in the sense that we don't necessarily have to or can do anything regarding challenging circumstances (of course, if we can, we should take action, but sometimes nothing we do can change things). However, we are never to be passive in terms of faith. Our faith must be actively and willfully engaged to enter and remain in an ongoing state of rest - peace. 

Both being thankful for challenges and engaging others in sacrificial love require faith (in the same way it did for Christ), so in this sense, everything involves active engagement and is not passive. 

²Some have suggested that if you break the word faithful down, it simply means full of faith i.e. faith full. To be faithful (obedient) no matter what we encounter, we must be full of faith.

³To acknowledge these things about God is not easy (it wasn't for Christ either), especially when staring into the face of great evil, struggle, and personal pain. 

What would you say is the biggest thing God is after in the lives of his children? 

Is it not our experiencing a closer relationship with Him?

and

The most important element of any relationship is trust

and

That which requires our greatest trust is suffering, pain, and challenges. We must embrace these and thank God for them. Without faith/trust this isn't possible.

How? The "good" God works in and through all the things we go through - for those of us who love Him (Rom 8:28) - is to make us like His Son (Rom 8:29). In doing so, we experience the same level of glorious and blissful communion with the Father that the Son did (and does). This is the ultimate good end God is working toward, for us, through our struggles. Not necessarily improved circumstances. This has nothing to do with improved circumstances (though it could and sometimes does lead to them, just not automatically). 

What better end is there than to experience God in all his love and glory to the greatest extent possible? 

And what better means is there to participate in this, other than having the same faith (and faithfulness) Christ had? 

And what faith do we have if not a tested faith? 

And what tests our faith most - and Christ's - if not pain and suffering?

Free will? Our passions vs our will

The following is an excerpt from an article I had read somewhere online. Unfortunately, I did not save the link and do not recall the original source or author but it grabbed my attention so I saved it. 

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Excerpt:

“Choosing God’s will over ours makes good sense to me,” he said. “Anybody who has ever tried to change anything significant about themselves has to know how useless the human will really is. We are not losing much by giving it up.”

(The below excerpt continues apparently in response to the above comment)

"I was completely taken by surprise. I had assumed my friend lived by the strength of his will. But as we talked more about it, I came to see that he was right when he said his passions directed his life much more than his will. He drew his energy from the causes to which he was fervently committed. His will was in the service of the basic allegiances and directions of his heart—the things in which he most passionately believed and to which his life was devoted. His will, he said, could help keep him on track with things he already deeply valued but was quite useless for getting him things he merely wanted."

My thoughts/comments…

"..his passions directed his life much more than his will..."

Passions and will are not necessarily opposite each other. We choose (will) what we are passionate about. To separate the will from passions is not truly possible, as indicated by the following… 

"...His will, he said, could help keep him on track with things he already deeply valued but was quite useless for getting him things he merely wanted..."

Again, what we value and what we want are not necessarily separate. That which we value most we desire/want most.

However, we can want things simply because we "know we should" and not necessarily because we truly value them, i.e. They don't really hold value for us. We only say they do because God (or someone else) said they should. So we don't truly want them. We only think or pretend we do.

And of course, none of us, as God's children, want to admit openly that we disagree with Him. So we disagree "quietly" instead, i.e. we hide our true feelings and beliefs from ourselves (though not from God) and others thinking by so doing we can avoid dealing with them i.e. We don't have to look at and address our unbelief/distrust in God and our subtle/hidden commitment to valuing something more than God.

"..his passions directed his life much more than his will..."

This is true for both positive and negative passions. Fears are a kind of passion as well as anxiety and anger. And they are all rooted in a broken value system - we value (worship) created things rather than the Creator. Rom 1:21-23. 

These passions are what drive our actions. We choose to go after what we value most, and we value most what we believe will best give us what we need, i.e. what we value most is what we are most passionate about. A solid belief in what is valuable is obstructed by our spiritual inability to see what is truly valuable above all things; God himself. 

When all is said and done, we are driven to act by our passions, which are rooted in our beliefs, whether right or wrong. Our wills do not "lead" in this process, but are subject to our passions, which are tied to our beliefs. 

Our will is not free in the absolute sense, it is the servant of our passions.

Or to quote from the above excerpt, "...His will was in the service (or slaves) of the basic allegiances and directions of his heart..."

For a recap, summary and overview of the above click here.

Being "in the will of God"

The notion of whether we are "in" or "out of" God's will is binding, harmful, and destructive. It produces guilt, shame, fear, and anxiety.

On maybe the most important level, God's will for us is clear and simple. We are to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. In fact, we are told this is the ¹greatest expression of what He wants (wills) us to do ...  yet who among us does this perfectly? Not me!

If we don't, does that mean we are now "out of God's will" and forever off-track to fulfilling “our destiny" or "God's will" for our lives? If so, then we are all out of God's will in this way, for no one loves God and neighbor perfectly, even the most mature among us. 

Typically, when someone says they are anxious about "missing God's will," or wish to be sure of what His will is, they are referring to "vocational" type decisions - sometimes referred to as ¹God's "secret" or providential will - e.g. whether to marry this person or not, to take this or that job, buy this or that house, move to this or that location, etc.

However, these are more our concern than God's. It's not that we shouldn't consider these things or that God doesn't care about whether they are important or not. They are! But God says ²whatever we do, do it for his glory. In God's economy, why we do things - for or not for His glory - is stressed far more and is more important than what we do - i.e. do we act for God's glory or our own? 

 

This is the most important question. There is no uncertainty on whether doing something for God's honor is His will. It always is. The challenge is knowing our hearts well enough to know if we are pursuing or building his kingdom - living for His glory - instead of our own. This is by far the more challenging and important question.

What we should do is determined more by our skills, gifts, resources, and circumstances, etc. 

Why we do it is determined by our hearts.

It's not that God doesn't care about the “what” decisions or that we shouldn't pray about them, but only after we assess if we are doing them for his honor or not i.e. out of trust in Him and love for Him. Then we can better assess if, when, and how our choice fits our resources, skills, and circumstances. 

Using all God has given us in the way He intends and designs for us individually is part of doing things for his glory and is the heart of walking in His will.

The biggest reason we are so concerned about "vocational" type decisions is often because we do not wish to be responsible for a decision if the outcome is not favorable (e.g. "it's not my fault things didn't work out, it's God's. I was just following 'His will' ") when in fact these type of decisions are exactly the ones God calls us to make and be responsible for.

The following passage may be appropriate in this regard. 

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways." -1 Corinthians 13:11 

Becoming wiser in our choices is part of the growing-up/maturing process. He works with us accordingly. Early on in our walk with God, He works differently. As we grow in our faith we are to walk more in His wisdom not by some "sense" of God's will - which may have more to do with our present state of mind (which can change day to day) than inspired by the Spirit of God.

The reality is, no matter what our choice, God is always ultimately going to use it for our good (though not necessarily for our comfort or ease). So we should always move forward in hope, not fear, when we are seeking to honor God, regardless of what direction we choose or what the outcome is.

Someone once said it is not what I don't know about God's will that is most challenging but what I do know. 

How well do we love God with all our hearts? Christ said if we love him we will keep his commandments. This is pleasing and honoring to God. This is clearly His will and should be our primary focus and concern, not if I am taking the right job or getting the right place to live. Those type questions are answered more by our gifts and circumstances, not some special revelation or "sense" from God.

Regarding God's will, we are told the following...

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Rom 12.1-2

This passage tells us discerning the unknown (secret or vocational) will of God (i.e. decisions like which job or what place to live) is contingent on living out the known will of God i.e. If we wish to discern what God’s good, acceptable, and perfect will is for us, we must present our self in sacrificial obedience to God and align our thinking and will with His and His direction i.e. the first and greatest command on which all other commands rely. As we do, we can be assured he will reveal to us what we most need to see or do in our obedience. As the analogy goes, God can't steer an anchored ship, but only one that's got its sails up and moved along by the wind. 

We are to leave the guidance to God as we focus on our part of being faithful to Him i.e. loving him with all that we are and have and our neighbor as ourselves i.e. being that living sacrifice He calls us to be.

Another guiding principle we often hear that runs parallel with the greatest commandment is given in Proverbs 3:5-6.

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

What both the greatest commandments and the above passage have in common is God's guidance (the "straightness" of our path) occurs in our moving forward out of love for and trust in God, not normally by some mysterious sign or signal from Him. Though He may certainly provide guidance in this way on occasion, it appears to be secondary and contingent on our faithfully pursuing Him out of love and trust first. Our focus should be on faithfulness not on a sign or signal to "confirm God's will." God's will is already laid out as mentioned above. We may be perfectly in line with God's will without ever receiving a particular sign to continue on any particular course outside of what is already clearly given in God's written words to us in scripture.

• For further discussion click here
• For a discussion on the value and importance of following God's known will click here. 
• For a discussion on being led by the Spirit click here. 
• For a discussion on doing all things for the glory of God click here. 
• For a discussion of how God is sovereign over all things both good and evil, click here. 
• For a discussion on how God works with the "real you" click here.

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¹this is sometimes referred to as the "revealed will" of God whereas vocational-type decisions are referred to as the "secret or hidden" will of God.

²One thing we can be sure of, whatever choices we make, God will use them to draw us closer to Himself, conform us to the image of His Son, and teach us to love Him more so we might bring greater glory to him and find Him to be our greatest joy. This is the good God is bringing about through "all things" of life.  

Also, loving God with all our hearts and doing all things for his glory are not two distinct expressions of pursuing God's will but are tied together i.e. I should do all things for his glory because I love and value God above everything else. And because I love and value him above all things, I seek to do everything for His honor. 

The greater our sin the greater his Grace

When we are most ugly and unlovely, God is loving us most.

How so? 

It requires more love to love someone when they are most unlovely than when they are most lovely i.e. To love us at our worst involves a greater love (commitment to love) than loving us at our best (Just think of your own experience in loving someone angry, ¹hostile, fearful, untrusting, bitter, or anxious versus someone thoughtful and kind). 

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Paul an apostle of Jesus. Rom 5:6-8

So how can God do this... how can He love the unlovely? Because God's love has nothing to do with our performance. It is based entirely on someone else's performance. God himself through Christ!

That commitment of love was made a long time ago (Eph 1:4-6) and the decision and follow through on it is already completed i.e. "it is finished (John 19:30)." Therefore nothing we do can add to or take away from God's love, nothing!!! If we are His child, His love is secured for us and is now fixed on us no matter what! (Rom 8:31-39) 

Why? Because it is secured by someone else's efforts not our own. And not just anyone's, but the efforts of none other than the perfectly loved and lovely, perfectly faithful, and obedient eternal Son of God. The love God has for his Son is now the very same love he has for us. Let this sink in!!!

As we come to recognize this is the kind of love God has for us as his children; a love that, in the above sense, is more intense and steadfast the more unlovely we are, this love... his love, begins to transform us. The more we "get it" the more we change. 

To put this in practical terms, think of one of the areas you struggle with most. Anger, gluttony, anxiety, fear, lust etc...fill in the blank. Whatever it is, think of the last time you blew it in this area. How did you feel? Dejected, rejected? (Not by God. That, my friend, is all in your head, not in God's heart. More on this later). 

Next time you find yourself failing in the area you struggle with most, make yourself (choose to) think in the midst of that struggle, "God is loving me right now while I am in the middle of this. He is loving me in my sin and in my struggle!" Then make yourself think of why he is 100% with you and for you, loving you at the very moment of your failure, and what Christ did so the Father doesn't turn away but is always seeking, pursuing, and loving you, as much as ever (in a sense more than ever); that Christ died for that very sin you are in the middle of. Your specific sin helped put him on the cross. This thinking is what the Bible means when it says "reckon" these things to be true. 

Romans 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live (present tense) with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also (in the exact same way) must consider (reckon in the KJV) yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

How will this "reckoning" affect what you are struggling with? My suggestion is if you really "get" his love (i.e. believe he loves you the way he says and has already proven) it will cause that sin's pull to lose its grip as it's happening. If it doesn't, it is only because you don't truly believe He really loves you as He claims (and proved) and is loving you in and at that moment of your turning away from trust in Him. That He already knew in advance how, when, and where you would fail him, and he went to the cross anyway. 

Are we getting better or worse? BOTH!

God's love for us wasn't just before we came to Christ but also now that we are in him... And in a sense, even more so. How? As we mature the awareness of our need for God's love increases (our objective need for it, however, remains constant and never changes, as well as its availability. This is a constant and settled reality because of Christ). 

But as we mature, our actual sin/unbelief/distrust truly declines over time (i.e. our faith increases resulting in greater faithfulness/obedience) while our subjective awareness of our sin/unbelief/distrust increases. Or to say it another way, we are getting better in one sense but getting worse in another, at the same time. And this trajectory continues until we go to be with him. 

Our sense of increasing dependence, need, and appreciation for the grace of God also increases (the need itself is and has always been constant, our sense of that need does not; it grows over time).

As we mature in our faith we become more keenly aware of the various areas of our rebellious distrust we still subtly cling to, as well as God's grace extended to us in that rebellion. It's not that these (our rebellion and God's grace) are new areas. They were always there, we just weren't as aware they were. They are only new to our awareness of them. 

That is not to say sin/distrust/unbelief/unfaithfulness does not matter (or to say it positively, whether faith matters), it does. Rom 6:1-2  But we are talking about God's disposition of love towards us in our sin, not our subjective experience and participation in that love i.e. our rebellious distrust of God does not change his actual love for us, it only changes our experience of it.

God's objective love and our subjective experience of that love are entirely distinct even though connected. One is always true and constant (his objective love) while the other (our experiencing of his love) comes and goes according to our faith i.e. our trust (our resting or abiding in it) that His love is there, never-ending, uninterrupted, no matter what we go through or how we feel. 

For a further discussion on our participation and experience of God's love click here. 

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¹Loving our enemies is a very radical idea and totally contrary to our broken, rebellious, and distrusting nature. But Christ calls us to love our enemies because this is exactly what he does and who He is. He is seeking to make us more like Himself i.e. to conform us to his image. 

 The deepest and greatest love is always sacrificial. GOD IS LOVE.