Circles

Oh, God, where do I start? I have been through more in the past 6 months in my life than I ever expected to go through at my age. I thought foolishly that the dash between 18 and 25 included indulgences in binge drinking, conquests with women and friends. I got the last part right. I’m sure somewhere in this area people are doing the first two items on that agenda, but not me. I asked God to “make me more like Him” and to “fill me with Him” and to give me “intimacy”; He took me seriously and I’m never going to understand why He decided to bless me with the things that He’s done and given to me. I have no clue how to connect this to my writing, but I needed to vent a little.

I wrote not too long ago about love and commitment and the linking of emotions. I explained that emotions, although not being bad in and of themselves, are only temporal things and cannot be counted on to always be there. On the other hand, a commitment brings about emotions. We should, instead of basing decisions on emotions, base our decisions out of the commitments we make and the proper emotions will pour out.

Now, I failed to mention that although emotions may be present, they, at times, may be absent. This seems a minor overlook to most, but I promise, it is not. It is far simpler to act upon good or bad emotion, than to act in the absence of them. In fact, it is not even acting on emotions in the first place; it is more of a reaction, or a response to emotion. In an emotional void, we have nothing to react or response to. We have to be the action. We have the responsibility to act.

This seems like it would not be a great deal, but, it is. It is far easier for one to blame their actions on a situation, or to be polite when they are happy, or to turn the other cheek and respect someone who has harmed them, than it is to be courteous and loving when you don’t feel anything for the other party. In the absence of emotion, however, we have the power to speak truth in perfection. With the full weight of the words behind them, we can speak the truth in committal love, not in emotional love.

This I have learned over the past year, and it has been proved helpful: our circumstances do not affect Gods eternal being. God IS good. God IS love. God is perfection. God IS righteous. These are all true, and our emotions, or how we feel, do not affect these attributes. Also, if God is eternal, and absolute, do any of His aspects change? The answer would be no. So, if God is absolute and He is truth, if we, then, speak the truth, we are speaking eternal words that are everlasting and true.

If I say “God is good” with no emotional attachment to the phrase, I am speaking the truth still, and God is being glorified. This is the beginning of faith, according to Romans 4. Abraham was building his faith by glorifying God, in emotion, and while being void of it I’m sure. Then, by growing in faith, we are credited righteousness. This is also stated in Romans 4 that Abraham was “credited righteousness” for waiting on the Lord and having “faith” in Him. With the introduction and development of faith in our lives, we are then justified, (Romans 5). Being justified by faith, we then, can walk peaceably with God, in intimacy with Him. With this intimacy we can walk down the path of righteousness and fulfill the purpose in our lives. This purpose is worship.

I will illustrate it like this. In life, there are four stages. There is the stage of enmity with God: where we are at war with God in our rejection of His son’s payment for our sin. Then, we step in to Redemption, where we are saved, by grace, through faith, that His son can cleanse us from sin. From there we walk with and in Christ our Savior on the path of righteousness. We do this to obtain our final destination, a place of constant worship of our God.

This is the simpler, clear cut version: War; redemption, righteousness, worship.

Now that we’ve established that, I’ll bring this back to the close.
We gain faith by glorifying God. When we have faith, and grow in faith, we are credited righteousness. When we are found in right standing with God, we can walk in peace with Him and be satisfied. We are most satisfied in life, when we are fulfilling our purpose, which is worship. And, in turn, worship is merely the act of glorifying God. This completes the circle a Christian must walk.

Grace gives us the power to have walk in this path, but it takes faith, and I believe that is where this starts. But, I could be wrong. I just found this amazingly beneficial in my life and I hope that this blesses someone. Thanks for reading.

Love,
-Josh

God, please continue to grow in me. I ask for comfort, continued comfort and love and affection. I want and need and deserve to be loved. Thanks.
I love you, God. Amen.