Ephesians 3:17
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love”.
I love this, “rooted and grounded” in love. I think of the guilt and compulsion I felt as a new christian, it was difficult and not of God. Even though I was born again, I felt the pressure of many wrong expectations.
While my experiences with guilt predated the WWJD movement, it was essentially that type of thinking that prompted my guilt. I would think, “If I were a good christian, I would…”. I saw these as commands that if not obeyed were a sin.
The Word of God (the bible) began to liberate me. I saw scriptures like I John 3:20, “Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.” That meant that this guilt wasn’t God, it was my conscience. Then I began to study the conscience and learned that our conscience is an umpire that uses the rules that we know. If a rule is wrong, then our conscience will condemn us in a faulty way.
I began to inquire what God expected of me through scripture. Basically to love God and love people. That was still somewhat subjective, but it helped. 2 Corinthians 9:7 brought more insight, “Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.” When we are guilted into actions that is rarely God. So, I began to learn that the will of God is usually something I want to do (Philippians 2:13).
All of this that I was learning was being rooted and grounded in love. While the word love rarely surfaced, that what it was. My guilt presupposed an angry God. While the reality was that God was not angry, but loving. A good parent delights in a child and wouldn’t want him or her to feel disproval that wasn’t there. God was delighting in me and wanted me to feel that.
When a contractor works a job, there is often some tearing down of the old before the new can be built. All of this guilt was being dismantled by the Lord as I was in His Word, going to church and fellowshipping with other believers.
What a joy life is walking with the Lord. I am still denying myself, taking up my cross and following Him, but I’ve learned that ends up as the right way and it is filled with joy. Thank You God for Your love. Thank You for the wonderful foundation You built in us. You are the master Builder and You do great work.