Dang. Launch is 13 days away. These 2 months of waiting in between training camp and launch have really flown by. They have been challenging, but so good.
I have tried my best to live out my last blog of keeping my hands open and not resisting the work the Lord is doing in me. It is amazing what can happen when you really let go and let God.
I have been trying out listening prayer this month. What is that? It is a conversation with the Lord. Prayer is meant to be a two-way conversation, not just our venting and crying out to God, but listening to His reply.
The first day when I tried this God just really taught me some things about myself that I didn’t realize. I just want to share that with all of you, because maybe it is something that you currently do or believe.
When I was trying to listen for God’s reply to some questions I was asking, I felt like He was saying that I try and earn His love. I was kind of taken back and started to really think about it. Wait, do I? Do I do Christ-like actions as an act of worship, or to earn God’s love? He started telling me that my actions do not get me into greater love, and that is why I feel so condemned when I mess up, because I feel like I “lost” the love I “earned”.
He started to tell me that His love is never-changing. It is never-failing. That includes when I mess up. His love is not earned, but given freely.
He told me to read Romans 3.
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin” – Romans 3:20.
No one can earn right standing with God on their own. You cannot earn salvation by only doing good works. There is only one way that you can earn right standing with God, and it is by receiving the gift of salvation. By believing that Jesus, who was perfect and blameless, died on the cross for your sin. Took YOUR place. Died for YOU. Paid the price for YOU. Then rose from the dead 3 days later and conquered death.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood–to be received by faith” – Romans 3:23-25
Justified means to be declared not guilty. I stand not guilty in the sight of God when I believe in what Jesus did for me. God sees me through a blood stained filter and I am seen pure, holy, and righteous.
So, am I a laborer or a heir? Do I work to earn God’s love, his promises, his blessings, or do I receive them all by faith because I am a daughter of Christ and therefore a heir? Up until 3 weeks ago I was unknowingly working to earn my keep.
God told me sternly, but gently, that I wasn’t receiving the gift of salvation fully, but I was trying to earn it. It cannot be worked for, that is why it is a gift. It is a gift of love. You do not have to earn the love of God. It is poured out freely over me. And you.
Are you a laborer or a heir?
If this is a taste of what being on the field is like. It is going to be incredible.
13 days!
LOVE,
A
