Thankfulness
unto the Lord for all that He has given us is part of what Paul is saying here;
the other part comes through the Aramaic translation, which says: “Accept
God’s grace” for our victory as conquerors through our Lord Jesus. It is this provision of His grace that we
stand in the utmost victory in every situation.
As sons and daughters of God, we have at our disposal unlimited grace to
achieve the seemingly impossible task of loving others even when we are not
loved in return.
God’s love has no boundaries
or limits to restrict us if we seem to “not measure up,” His mercy is
always reaching out to us to remind us of His unconditional love that goes the
distance with us and never gives up and runs out.
The Lord paid for us by His sacrifice on the
cross to redeem us regardless of how we think of our ourselves, that is the
true beauty of love which sees beyond the faults and imperfections of our lives
and sees what is in our heart.
The Lord
sees our true self which at times is buried deep beneath a facade of false
bravado; He sees that vulnerable inner self behind all of our hiding. He
appeals to that inner self to come out of hiding and step into the light of His
love to experience freedom and release from everything that torments.
He heals our toxic shame by letting us know
we can surrender to Him all of our hurt and pain of the past and receive His
love in exchange. His love is affirming
and accepting of us as we are, we don’t have to become anything more than we
are for His mercy to become our new identity in Christ.
The Lord desires that our lives be fully
integrated with all of that we are, that vulnerable inner self, with our outward
expressions of our personality. That is what
it means becoming a conqueror in Christ, for we have overcome everything
that holds us back, and this present time is our opportunity to shine brightly for
Christ. All of this comes from grace, the
unmerited favor of God!
“May grace (God’s unmerited favor) and
spiritual peace [which means peace with God and harmony, unity, and
undisturbedness] be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians
1:2-4 (AMPC)
The passage for
today reads: “So now, beloved ones,” the wording is much more intimate
than that; it could better be interpreted “So now, my beloved brothers and
sisters,” which falls in line with the intimacy expressed elsewhere in this passage.
“Stand firm and secure. Live your lives
with an unshakable confidence.” Paul can make this bold statement because he
is relying on the grace and mercy of the Lord and he is expecting us to make
the same reliance. That is something
that never changes which is the grace and mercies of God which He has poured
out upon us. We can live our lives with
unshakable confidence that this will always be the case with Christ.
He loves
us and will never leave us or forsake us.
He is always there to speak with us and to assure us that He has our
inner self firmly placed in His hand.
“We know
that we prosper and excel in every season by serving the Lord,” The Greek
translation is much more defined “Always have the Lord’s possessions in
abundance.” Here Paul is saying that we have confidence that we will
prosper because of the Lord’s possessions we have in abundance; those
possessions are the fruits of the Spirit.
“But the fruit produced by the Holy
Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions:
joy that overflows, peace that subdues,
patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue,faith that
prevails, gentleness of heart, strength of spirit.
Never set the law above these
qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 (TPT)
“Because
we are assured that our union with the Lord makes our labor productive with
fruit that endures.” Or “Your labor in the Lord is not without effect.”
This final clause is litotes, a double negative, which is best conveyed in a
positive form, much like “you won’t be sorry.”
We know that we prosper and excel in every season by serving the Lord because
it is all about our relationship with Him and His love for us which gives us
such confidence. We are triumphant overcomers
because we have overcome the flesh and have the fruit of the Spirit as evidence
of our victory.
That is our
testimony to others that we live lives that are completely free from the
bondage of the past and are free in Jesus to live for Him in complete surrender
because He loves us.
Be Blessed;
Stephen Barnett
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