Good morning brothers and sisters!
I have asked the Holy Spirit what He would like to say this morning, (which is the only thing worth hearing) and I believe He said there are some reading this that have been hurt by the church, meaning the church or body of believers that you, in the past assembled with or are assembling with now.
Don’t let your experience be what directs the rest of your life. Go back to your first love of Jesus! Remember how free you felt, how loved and accepted you were by Him. There were no strings attached, no services to perform, no hoops to jump through, just Him and how much He loves you.
This is where He wants us to live from; a heart that wants to let good works into our lives and walk in His will, not because it proves “we love Him”, but because “He loves us” I John 4:19! That’s where our motivation needs to be. If you’re like me, I started out my Christian journey wanting to serve Him with all of my heart because of what He did for me in my spirit (making me a new creation 11Corintihans 5:17), but after some years it became what was expected, and if I loved Him, I would do this or that. Sound familiar?
Let Him heal your heart in this area, because it causes offense and living life offended is not worth it. Your Father wants you to live free in Him and let your service in His church body and in life be from what Christ has worked in you. Paul said in Colossians 1:29 “To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily”. It’s not what you do for Christ, it’s what Christ does through you.
My prayer for you today – Colossians 1:9-14 Read this, think on this and let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart.
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Remember, you are Loved, you are Righteous, and you are His!