| Find the Rhythm of God |
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I believe in grace. I believe in forgiveness. I believe because I'm convinced that God is far more interested in us becoming what He wants us to be than we are, so He is "gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love." The Bible tells us: "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."
God is gracious and compassionate because He has placed us here on earth to be in a process of becoming. I read somewhere that instead of human beings we should be called human becomings. We're all becoming who we will be through God's grace, but based on the choices we make.
And here is what I'm chewing on today: although I am saved by grace through faith, I need to make sure that my life shows that I'm becoming what God wants me to be. Every choice I make strengthens something in me. What will it be? The fruit of the Spirit or the lusts of the flesh?
All of us can look back on our lives and see patterns of thought and behavior that we have developed over time. They're like grooves or rhythms that are playing out in our day to day life, and we're moving to those grooves. And sometimes we feel desperate that we'll never be able to see those rhythms changed.
I've found that our problem is this: We've been taught so often about how God forgives us, loves us, and takes us back, no matter what, that we rarely actually do anything to change who we are, to change our groove. Our lives look and sound like the worst of the auditions on American Idol. Simon would say we're like bad karaoke, an embarrassing, horrendous mess.
But listen, God has a rhythm all His own, and He wants you to find it. It's a rhythm that moves you daily into love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfullness, gentleness, and self-control. It starts with prayer, with a hunger for His Word and His presence, and it grows into a life full of compassion. It's a walk in the Spirit. It changes us from the inside out.
God offers to forgive us and cleanse us so that we can know that when we mess up, the show's not over. But we should never allow ourselves to continue becoming anything other than the image of His Son. Every day we need to ask God to throw off our groove and help us find His. Then we can move to the rhythm of heaven, the rhythm of God that makes us humans becoming like God. |
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