You Deserve Better!
(5 minutes)
Pastor Tim had two significant words for our Kingdom family on Sunday that we need to hold close and remember.
The first one is this: "Sunday, we are making another shift. We attempted to go into where we are going once before, but we were still too out of order to make the journey. This is going to be an incredible year of healing. The shift is this: a Father is sending us into Healing Waters."
The second word is this: "Some of you are going through things right now, and will go through things this year, that will be hard. And this is the word of the Lord to you in that situation: 'You settled for something that you were never intended to settle for.' You got comfortable with it. You built your life around it. And you tolerated things God never intended for you to tolerate. You went through things, you went through rejection and abuse, that you were never called to go through. And the reason it's coming up now is because God says, 'You deserve better! Your family deserves better! Your kids deserve better!' So when you're in the midst of that you need to look back to this word and stop saying, 'Why is this happening?', and, 'Why is it so hard?', and understand that this is God's goodness, too."
Now, let's go back and allow the words of John the Beloved to go deep in us. Of all the things that John could bring up, he chooses this one truth to highlight and call our attention to:
This is the life-giving message we heard him share and it's still ringing in our ears. We now repeat his words to you: God is pure light. You will never find even a trace of darkness in him. If we claim that we share life with him, but keep walking the realm of darkness, we're fooling ourselves and not living the truth. But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continually cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5-7)
God is pure, radiant light and you will never find even a trace of darkness in him. Why is this message so important?
Like Pastor Tim said on Sunday, certain situations arise in our lives that cause a deep question to come to the surface - Why? Why me? Why us? Why is this happening? Why am I struggling so much? I thought I dealt with this. Why is this hurting so bad? Did I do something wrong? I must be wrong!
If we aren't fully convinced that God is pure light, we will think we're being punished for some bad behavior. We'll trace every hard situation in our life back to our failures and what we're going through is God's judgment in our life. Pastor Tim has said this before, "There are people in the hospital right now, on their death bed, and they think it's God punishing them for their bad decisions." This is why John the Beloved brings up this singular truth as the one that needs to be ringing in our ears in the same way that it was ringing in his - because if we're not fully convinced that the Father is good, we'll live our life always looking over our shoulder, expecting punishment from an angry, distant God. When a hard situation arises we'll secretly believe that God is getting us back for something we did, said, or thought. And this is NOT the God that Jesus introduced to the cosmos.
Remember Philip, the disciple, who had been walking with Jesus for years. Philip was okay with Jesus, but he was still leery of the Father.
Philip spoke up, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be all that we need!"
Jesus replied, "Philip, I've been with you all this time and you still don't know who I am? How could you ask me to show you the Father, for anyone who has looked at me has seen the Father." (John 14:8-9)
Even Philip was still dealing with the lie that there might be a trace of darkness left in the Father. Philip grew up with the same distorted, darkened perspective concerning God that some of us grew up with, and Jesus came to destroy this lie and our delusional thinking concerning the nature of the Father. He's nothing but good! He is pure, radiant light and you couldn't find a single thread of darkness in Him if you tried!
We have to believe this no matter what happens in our lives, no matter what we walk through. Abba wants us to know (intimately, not intellectually) His nature so well that nothing could cause us to question it ever again. He wants us to trust Him and His goodness in every situation and circumstance.
Let's soak in these words that Abba is speaking over our Kingdom family. Let's soak in what Abba has to say about us. It's the only thing that matters now! Let's soak in His goodness and allow His love to remove everything that's hindering our ability to pour out the extravagant love that we were designed to pour out. Are you ready to wade out into the healing waters?
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Worship: "Jesus What A Savior" by Housefires
Honor: Give Online to The Wilderness Place
Share With Us: We would love to hear how you're encountering Abba in your daily walks. Don't hesitate to share what you're hearing, seeing, or sensing in His presence. Email us here!
