Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I No Longer Mistrust God

I'm still kinda thinking this through, but over the years this realization has begun to dawn on me the longer I have been on this journey away from the oppressive hand of Spiritual Abuse. The realization is this: I no longer mistrust God.
A person really doesn't realize that they have God trusting issues under the prosperity/word of faith doctrine until they have left it. Many of the doctrines and teachings of that movement really set you up to fail, to be disappointed, to come to the crashing understanding that our faith isn't enough to move God's hand, that we are not enough. Somehow, we didn't believe hard enough to make God intervene. We didn't quote enough scriptures or we weren't standing on the right ones. Maybe we have some hidden sin or generational curses that are holding us back from the all encompassing redemption that happened on the cross?
Wait! Did I just say the all encompassing redemption that happened on the cross?
Just focus on that for just a second.....the ALL encompassing redemption that happened on the CROSS!
OK, so I had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with what happened on the Cross of Calvary. I didn't have to quote 25 scriptures on healing to make that happen and I didn't have to go through a 10 page prayer on breaking generational curses to make the redemption of the cross effective in my life. Jesus did everything I needed to provide for my redemption and salvation. Jesus, Yeshua, the Son of God, did it ALL. My part was grace through faith, I believed; a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8
So tomorrow I must spend at least a 10th of my time awake in prayer and study of the word to qualify for any blessing that God may or may not have had for me that day. All in hopes that my prayer for God to move mountains will be answered. I must earn the favor of God with my works, with extra long prayer times, quoting scripture, and volunteer service at my church. If I don't my "Holy meter" will be too low to earn the blessing that is mine as a "King's kid". Right?.......Right......(insert sarcasm here).
There's a song that I just absolutely love at the moment and the verse is so simple. It says: All sufficient sacrifice. So freely given, such a price. Bought our Redemption. Heaven's gates swing wide.
Then the chorus simply states: There is power in name of Jesus, to break every chain, break every chain, break every chain. And just in case you really need it to sink in they repeat it many times. Jesus is the ALL Sufficient Sacrifice that provided our All Encompassing Redemption and we didn't have to do a thing to earn that or make it happen. There was no exercising our faith or activating it, or faking it till we made it. It had nothing to do with anything we did. See, as followers of Christ, he does the work and we follow. It doesn't mean that we don't need to pray, or study scripture, or volunteer at our churches or in our communities, it means that the work of the cross was not contingent on those things.
Somehow, Faith and acting out our Faith is so much deeper and more precious than what the Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel portrays. I know that even though I have gone through, and will go through, some very deep valleys in my life, the Sovereign God, my King of Kings, will make a way for me and work all things out for my good even during the darkest times of my life. I trust Him to know what's best for me and I no longer worry if I've earned His favor with all of my "works". I just take his scripture to heart (most of the time, because I'm not perfect in the least and sometimes I need reminding). Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths (paraphrase quote there). So I try and recognize God in every situation. The situation may look pretty hopeless at times, but I know that me jumping through spiritual hoops has nothing to do with whether or not my God will come through or not. Because He will. He always does. Plain and Simple.