Participating in the promises of God

How do we engage God's promises -- and thereby God Himself?

We "plugin" to God and more fully experience his love when we are ¹singular in our focus on:

·       What He has already done for us by and in Christ as past proof of His love.  

·      What He is now doing for us as present proof of His love -- i.e. he is present with us, revealing Himself to us via His Spirit, praying for us. He is for us, not against us no matter how much our circumstances appear to indicate otherwise.

·      What He promises to do as our future hope and confirmation of His love -- i.e. we will be glorified, enter the bliss of eternity and fully partake in His glory once we behold Christ in all his unveiled beauty, wonder, and majesty. Now we only see "through a mirror dimly" (or glass darkly -- depending on the translation). 

Obedience i.e. singular focus on God - involves pushing away from anything we currently draw a sense of identity, significance, meaning, purpose, and value from -- "If anyone would come after me, let him ²deny himself..." -- so we might draw near to him i.e. position ourselves to experience and receive meaning, purpose, and value in, through and from Him, not something else.

For example, when we feel the need to disconnect and relax, instead of ³watching our favorite show, catching up on the news, playing a game or reading an engaging mystery, fantasy, or sci-fi etc ⁴we turn to God in prayer and meditation on his promises. We remind ourselves of all that Christ did, does, and will do for us. When we do, our sight of Him becomes fuller/clearer. We are reminded again -- something we constantly need -- that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God - i.e. words of God's promise, knowing our trust in God is strengthened when we meditate on and are reminded of those promises.

What promises exactly? 

*The promise of His love -- demonstrated by Christ sacrificing His life (past) so we might be fully restored to the Father in all His infinite love. 

*The promise of God's complete commitment of love to us now (present) by working in all things -  the good, bad, and ugly things - for our good.

*The hope (future) of experiencing the uninterrupted fullness of that love-Spirit in the presence of both Christ and the Father throughout eternity where there no longer is pain, tears or dying, only perfect unending joy.

Living out His love leads to a greater experience of it

We start out now by faith in his love already demonstrated in the past work of Christ, which leads to a present response by us of love/trust/obedience. This results in experiencing further evidence of His love in the present i.e. we receive a present, first-hand experience of His love in and by our obedience. We experience His love in some tangible way, such as answered prayer, in addition to simply believing He is for us. This isn't the full experience of His love yet to come, but it is a reminder of what God has in store for us in eternity.

So there is a cycle by which we participate in God's love. It starts with faith in His love demonstrated in the past work of Christ, which is the basis for our obedience - and the evidence of that faith -- resulting in our further experiencing that love through that obedience. Both faith in His love demonstrated by His past actions and directly experiencing that love now in some present tangible way are ⁵how we receive His love. It always begins with faith in what God has already done which leads to experiencing Him doing something now, which increases our hope of what He has in store for us in the future.  

Another way of saying it is we participate in God's love demonstrated by actions God has taken in the past -- actions that already prove His love to us - by believing in it. 

We also participate in God's love now through some manifestation of it e.g. answered prayer, a demonstration of some special circumstance/ providence as evidence God is with us, a special sense of His presence, heightened awareness and clarity of God's promises to us. 

So when we are told in His Word or given some circumstantial/providential indication we are to take a certain action, we first simply step out by faith in His love already demonstrated in the past, trusting that His direction for us is out of love and for our highest good as well as his greatest honor/glory.

Our faith is such that we know the outcome of obedience will be good -- not necessarily easy -- because He's already proven He loves us from the past actions of Christ, the greatest evidence of His love.

Rom 8:32  He who did not spare his own Son (the greatest gift) but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things (the lesser gifts)? 

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¹The following words of Christ -- with commentary -- indicate the necessity of having a singular focus:

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

i.e. whatever it is we value (treasure) most is what we long for (desire in our heart) most.

Mat 6:22  “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 

If we value -- and therefore focus on -- the right thing -- i.e. God -- the nature of our actions will be true, right, according to our design.

Mat 6:23  but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 

If we value (focus on) the wrong things all our actions will be a lie, violating our design and resulting in complete separation from the Source of life, light and of all things, leading to our harm and eventual destruction.

Mat 6:24  “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

We either value/worship the right thing i.e. God or the wrong thing, created things; money and the things money can buy. If we love the creation over the Creator we will come to hate Him and see His commandments as interference in finding life on our terms. If we love him above the creation we will come to disdain the creation as the source of life (not the creation in itself for it is created by God and therefore good) recognizing only God is life and all created things are from Him.

²We usually don't think about what it is we are denying ourselves of. It's more a sense than an understanding i.e. we know when we do but can't necessarily put into words what it is. In essence, it is denying ourselves a sense of value, meaning, purpose, and significance -- in a word, love -- through self-achievement and self-gratification, instead of finding this in God through Christ's achievement on our behalf. To say it another way, we attempt to "self-love." The interesting part is "taking up our cross" appears to be the key way we engage and experience God's love most. Suffering is not just unavoidable, it's necessary for our transformation. Through it, we are reminded of our need for His love and the inadequacy of finding love anywhere else. 

³None of these things are bad in themselves. The issue is why do we engage in them. We are told, "...whatever you do, do all for the glory of God." There are times we can do these things for the glory of God and there are times when we don't. The intent of our hearts is the key. 

⁴This is not something we must work up the will power to do but is the organic/naturally occurring fruit of seeing and experiencing God's infinite love. We are responders to love. We love God because he first loved us. 

⁵Hope in the unobstructed and uninterrupted fullness of that love also plays a role. For a further discussion of hope click here. 

Not everyone believes what God says about why Christ took on flesh and died. Followers of Christ do.