It’s a question my wife asks me sometimes when I am in her physical presence but I am somewhere else in my spirit. I believe God asked a similar question to Adam and Eve after they sinned in the Garden of Eden.
Throughout our spiritual journeys there are times when we just get stuck. We get trapped in our circumstances and mind and no matter what we try, we can’t get things to change. It can become almost unbearable and sometimes it goes on for extended periods of time. It could be that God is dealing with an area of our flesh or sin nature that we have been unable or unwilling to deal with and it is holding us back.
We are all familiar with the amazing transformation that happens in the life of a butterfly as it goes through the different phases of its life. The greatest part of the journey is when a caterpillar goes into the cocoon and emerges a butterfly. As we go through our stages of spiritual growth, we are always in danger of becoming stuck at different points if we refuse to endure the pain necessary to complete any part of our spiritual journey.
A life of obedience is to legitimately follow Jesus in order to fulfill the purpose that He designed us for on this earth. Legalism means that we can follow a set of rules to control God’s favor toward us. It means our behavior makes God obligated to save and bless us. God exposes this legalistic concept as ludicrous in the book of Job.
What if God knows us on such a level that it is incomprehensible? What if He hand crafts each of our DNA that makes us unique among everyone who will ever be born? What if this is an external symbol of an inward reality in that we are as unique spiritually as we are physically?
Our lives are like intricate jigsaw puzzles that create a masterwork when we are completely put together. When we are whole and complete, each one of us is a unique portrait of Jesus. The style of each portrait is as unique as we are as individuals. The goal of our lives is to become complete in Christ. This results in our soul being satisfied in Jesus no matter what comes our way.
Joshua was only one of two people who entered the promise land from the first generation of Jews who left Egypt in the Exodus. The rest died in the wilderness because of their hardened hearts. I believe the reason is because Joshua relentlessly stayed in the presence of God.
We know from scripture that we are a work of art that God is crafting into something uniquely His. He allows the world to view the Artist at work as He shapes, molds and sculpts us right before their eyes. This is amazingly stated in how the New Living Translation translates the following verse.
In our world today, identity theft is epidemic. There are those who take your good name in order to steal what is yours. At the same time they are taking what is rightfully yours, they are destroying your name, reputation and trust that you have built over time.
Sooner or later, as a follower of Jesus, we have to reconcile scripture with scripture. We have to make passages like Matthew 5:29 square with Matthew 11:28.
Becoming spiritually farsighted is the vision correction that Jesus offers all of His followers. There are no bifocals with Him. When we learn to see all the way to heaven inside the throne room to where Jesus is seated, our nearsighted vision of this world becomes out of focus and we start to see Jesus clearly as the only source of our faith.
God‘s love is the big gun in the battle of the ages for men‘s souls. It comes with a 100% guarantee from God.
1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails