Liberty is Found with God

I looked up the definition of liberty to find the following that apply to how God and His Law work:

1)      The power of choice – God gave us free will.

2)      Permission especially to move freely within specified limits – we can traverse the world God created, but must follow His Laws and those of creation in order for things to work properly.

3)      Positive enjoyment of various social, political and economic rights and privileges – accepting Christ adopts us into His family as heirs and as his brothers and sisters with all the rights as Christ has.

Luke 4:18-19 NKJV

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;  19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."

Jesus read this in the synagogue one day and it was first written by Isaiah about Jesus. He came to tell the world how we could be set free, liberated, from the bondage of sin. Those of us who know we are poor spiritually and know we have sinned against God, know we need a Savior to fix us and help us live like God intended. We are the sick that know we need a doctor. We know we can’t keep the Law on our own and if we keep trying to do it ourselves, we are slaves to it rather than it helping us to know how to live free with God. We need the Holy Spirit to help us understand the Law and its proper place in showing us right and wrong in order to know we are sick with sin. We will find God’s liberty when we realize we need Jesus as our doctor and Savior against a life of sin.

2 Cor 3:17 NKJV

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Once we realize the truth of our sin and accept Jesus, we don’t throw the Law out. We need to understand it so we can live properly and to teach others of how it will set them free and become blessed in whatever they do. God will help all of His children grow up to be like Jesus and teach them how to spread the Gospel to the ends of the world as commanded.

James 1:25 NKJV

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

Ps 119:45 NLT

45 I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.

Be a doer of the Word because you love Jesus, not because you want to earn your way to heaven. You can’t earn it because God is offering it as a free gift. We just need to reach out and take it properly with a humble attitude. Doing His Word should be a way of showing praise and thanks for Him setting you free from the bondage of sin. Stop trying to do it on your own, spinning your wheels in slavery.

Gal 5:1 NLT

So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Delight In The Lord

I’ve found many things that give me delight in this world, but nothing has lasted like my relationship with Jesus. I am still learning how deep and how wide His love is for me and that He delights in teaching me. I should be delighted every time He disciplines me because in the end things always work out best if I get out of the way and let Him teach me to do it His way.

Psalms 37:4 NKJV

Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

We should not be worrying about how we will pay our bills or that we can’t have something our neighbors have. If we walk hand-in-hand with Jesus, we will find the proper desires of our heart. We will be content even when the world tells us we shouldn’t be. We have an eternal delight due to our relationship with Jesus and nothing should take that away. Nothing should diminish that relationship. I’ve stumbled on this a lot, but I have become even closer to Him.

When I follow advice that does not align with God’s Word, our manual for living a blessed life, things get messed up. I don’t have to wonder why I’m in a dark place or some rut. I can look back and see where I did not wait for God or I just said, “No,” like some stubborn two-year-old. He never wants to bring bad on us. To be honest, I think we bring most of it on ourselves. Anytime things get rough or even if we were bad, we can turn to God for help, accept any discipline He wants to give us so we learn, and then watch how it turns out for the better. I kept slogging through life without Him and His very useful discipline for too long, and definitely had no delight in life even if I had far more worldly possessions and advantages at the time.

Psalms 1:1-3 NLT

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with scoffers.

2 But they delight in doing everything the LORD wants; day and night they think about his law.

3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season without fail. Their leaves never wither, and in all they do, they prosper.

I rather do it God’s way like this psalmist says we should. Then we can prosper in ways that boggle the ideas of the world. Some of God’s ways are counterintuitive to the way our Western culture has taught us. I’m glad I could get my analytical mind past that and give Jesus a chance. I’m not turning back now.

Psalms 40:8 NKJV

I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart."

Keep God’s Word close. Let Him reveal all that He has already engraved in our hearts, so that we may learn what a delightful person He is and show the world the truth. Grab onto the relationship with all you have and never let go. The journey may have trials and tribulations, but there will be great delight as you see God working in your life and the world.

Where are you putting your desires today? If not in a full relationship with Jesus, I urge you to take a closer look and examine what His Word is really telling us about Him and how to live with Him. Every other delight is temporal and will disappear, possibly as fast as the flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow.

Understanding

Psalms 147:5 NLT

How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!

Psalms 119:73 NLT

You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.

We will only see in part what God knows while we are here on earth. He is our mighty creator and gave us a free will to choose how we will face a life full of trials and tribulations. We can do it God’s way or our own way. Considering God created the world and everything in it, including you and me, I rather keep trying it God’s way rather than my own. He knows how it is supposed to work. I did it on my own long enough to know I definitely did not handle things the way I should. I keep striving to gain God’s understanding because despite all the bad issues going on in life, having His perspective of it helps immensely.

Proverbs 19:8 NLT

To acquire wisdom is to love oneself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.

This verse is not a self centered one for our own desires. If we truly love ourselves we’ll seek God’s wisdom first for our lives and then we will know how to prosper.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.

Life is not easier because of following God, but learning to understand and do things His way will lead to far better outcomes. It’s having the right perspective to understand and move on with God even in the worst of times.

We should feel the same as the writer of the following psalms, not to be egotistical, but know we are living the way God wants us to and He is making us into the full creation He expects.

Psalms 119:97-104 NLT

97 Oh, how I love your law! I think about it all day long.

98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for your commands are my constant guide.

99 Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your decrees.

100 I am even wiser than my elders, for I have kept your commandments.

101 I have refused to walk on any path of evil, that I may remain obedient to your word.

102 I haven't turned away from your laws, for you have taught me well.

103 How sweet are your words to my taste; they are sweeter than honey.

104 Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life.

Having God’s understanding and seeing things from His perspective are freeing indeed. Once we understand how He meant the world to work and people are to be His children, we are liberated to be ourselves and find ways to do great things for Him. If you are still thinking of God’s rules as restrictive, you are not looking at them the right way. Ask God to help you gain understanding and He will definitely guide you through the process.

Merciful

2 Corinthians 1:3 NLT

All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us.

God truly wants to show us His mercy, comfort and love. He is the source of each of these attributes. We should be passing this fact on to others so that they can also see God for who He really is.

Exodus 34:6-7 NLT

6 He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Even so I do not leave sin unpunished, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations.”

What people get hung up on is that God must punish sin. If we confess our sins, He will clean them away and not remember them. If we don’t, they are still in the way of our relationship with God. We need to let Him forgive us and clean us, and we do this by repenting with confession of our sins.

Matthew 23:23 NLT

"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law — justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things.”

Jesus condemned the Pharisees harshly in this entire chapter because they were not properly following God’s Law, which led to the people not learning how to follow God correctly. All Christians should be telling the world about God and convincing them they need Jesus, but it will not work unless it is done God’s way. We are to be showing the world that God may have to punish sin, but He wants to show us mercy and love far more. He wants everyone to return to Him. We should respond to knowing we have sinned like Nehemiah did.

Nehemiah 1:5-6 NKJV

And I said: "I pray, LORD God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments. 6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father's house and I have sinned.”

Nehemiah prayed this prayer for Jerusalem and the remnant left there because the walls were all broken down. The Israelites had been exiled from their land by God for not obeying Him, but Nehemiah knew that God could restore them if they submitted themselves to Him and confessed. Due to his prayer he found a way to get the wall built by following God obediently.

God will show us great mercy if we submit to Him. If we are holding out for a sin that we cannot give up, then we are causing a broken relationship with God. Despite all His mercy and love, He must also exact justice against the sin of the world. Where do you want to be standing when the time comes for justice to be served? I hope you chose the side where the Lord will call you a good and faithful servant rather than someone He never knew.

God Is Happiness

When we think of happiness in our culture it is when all is going well. However, most of us have lives where something is not going well. We base our choice to be happy on what is happening around us.

Happiness is far more than this. A few synonyms are contentment, satisfaction, cheerfulness, joy, glee, delight and well-being. I would say it takes all of these synonyms to truly understand God’s happiness.

Psalms 146:5 NLT

But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God.

Some versions have joyful instead of happy. Despite everything going on in life that is not making me feel content, I can still have a joy deep inside that nothing can take away. True Christians exemplify this inner joy because they place their faith in the LORD their God. It was the joy I saw in the true Christians I met and got to know that originally led me to God.

I like that God wants us to interact with Him in a full relationship that should surpass anything we can manage on earth. He is the source of everything and this includes the Law He made to help us understand right from wrong so we can learn how He intended us to live.

Proverbs 29:18 NLT

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy.

When we run wild from one thing to the next we will not find contentment. We will feel restless without a steady place to be. We should have God as our rock so we have an anchor in the stormy times that want to take our peace away.  Paul has this solid foundation and close relationship with God figured out.

Philippians 4:11 NLT

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little.

Even when he had little and got thrown into prison for following Christ, he knew how to get along happily. In other words, he had contentment in life no matter what happened. I’ve found this with Christ even if I do have days where God has to point things out so don’t whine about life. Most times there is nothing we can do to change our circumstances other than changing our perspective of them. It takes time, but learning to see things the way God does makes for far better days.

The following are a couple more verses to meditate upon to help you understand God’s joy better.

Psalms 30:5 NLT

His anger lasts for a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes with the morning.

Night represents time without God. Morning comes when we renew our relationship with God.

In Nehemiah 8:10 NLT Nehemiah told the people, “Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

I especially love this one because the joy of the Lord is my strength. Without it, I lose direction and become discontent and sad like the people Nehemiah talked to upon realizing they had not properly followed God and His Law. As soon as we learn where we went wrong, we should repent and if we haven’t already, accept Christ as our Savior and Lord. Then all this joy can be yours and you’ll have the hope and strength to endure anything with contentment.

Blessed

When I first looked at this attribute of God and His Law, I had to wonder why God had to have this attribute. After all, He created everything and can do what He wants with it. Further thinking led me to realize He had to be blessed in order for us to be blessed. Attributes cannot be passed on by someone that does not have them. Also, God wants relationships with all of us. Even in His three fold personage He gives us the full view of how blessed such a relationship can be.

So how does the Creator of all get blessed? I put the following verse here in two versions to help explain how God’s people bless Him.

Psalms 28:6 NKJV

Blessed be the LORD, Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!

Psalms 28:6 NLT

Praise the LORD! For he has heard my cry for mercy.

He is blessed because we pray to Him and tell Him of our desires. He will hear us and answer. Some think He won’t answer if it doesn’t happen quickly enough, but He is always on time. Because of this nature true believers are going cling to Him and praise Him for all He has done so far expecting His works to continue into eternity. God wants an open, two-way relationship with us. He is blessed when we do, so don’t just give Him lip service.

In 1 Timothy 1:11, Paul called God blessed when talking of how all should be done according to the gospel. Every believer has had this gospel committed into their trust. If you are sincerely making the effort to obey His gospel and share it with a pure heart, you will be blessing God and He will help you to improve.

That is how we can make God blessed, but how does the Law have this attribute? Again an item needs an attribute in order to pass it on to another. The Law of God will lead us to understanding how He wants us to live and in doing so the Law can make us blessed. The Law is not there to make us right with God, but is a tool to make us understand where we have wronged God.

Revelation 22:14 NLT

Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior our robes are washed. We cannot wash them ourselves. The act of realizing we have sinned against God per what His Law says should make us run to Jesus.

Another way God’s Law is blessed occurs when we keep His Sabbath holy. The first law is to put God first before all things and this leads into His example of one way to take time to praise Him.

Exodus 20:11 NLT

For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

We are to honor and praise God for everything. This blesses us and God. It is a time of sharing with Him. God wants us to come to Him for all things, but we are to learn how to do according to His Law.

Where are you with your relationship with God and are you blessing and praising Him no matter what life is throwing at you? Are you honoring Him every day of the week both in a one-on-one relationship and corporately with others on His Sabbath?

Enlightenment

Enlightenment in the dictionary is defined as the action of enlightening or the state of being enlightened. I found the following synonyms listed helpful in understanding this term:  insight, understanding, awareness, wisdom, education, learning, and knowledge. Most of these words have come up, or will be talked about shortly, in this study of God’s attributes.

God wants us to be in the light so we can see the truth and know it. If we don’t let Him enlighten us, we will remain lost to spiritual darkness. This was discussed in Light Pierces the Dark posted on February 21, 2018. The following verse is an example of God’s enlightenment.

Psalms 18:28 NKJV

For You will light my lamp; The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

If we let Him, He will lead us into the correct way of living that truly sets us free. His Word not only talks of moral issues, but many day to day things including health, diet and work. The Israelites did not go without diseases, but had a system to help keep them from spreading without doctors and hospitals. That was from God. He knows what we need to live healthy and productive lives. He knows how we are to treat one another and work with one another to accomplish the proper tending of the world around us.

Psalms 19:8 NKJV

The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;

His laws teach us how to treat one another and to keep everything in perspective with God at the head. Three of the commandments are about how to honor Him and the Sabbath. It starts with the fact that He loves us and expects us to love Him back. He wants relationship not ritualistic religion.

The Enlightenment Period removed God from the center and produced men who believed reason was the primary source of authority and legitimacy. Many still believed in a Creator, but they robbed God of His position by writing off miracles as not existing since reason and science could not explain them. Some gave up on Christianity because of the how rigid Catholicism was. A lot of great things came out of this period, but there was a movement to deism and even atheism.

God did not give us the Ten Commandments to be a rules monger. He gave us ten simple things to do that would help us keep things correctly aligned in life. I know I have issues doing this and I strongly believe God’s laws are perfect. It’s natural for man to want to do it his own way. Most two year olds know the words ‘no’ and ‘mine’. We are naturally a selfish lot, but if we put God first and work on a lasting relationship with Him, the rest falls into line. We will know how to love even our enemies and how to treat everyone we meet. Simple reasoning and logic is not going to produce the love we need to have in order to correct the deepest issues of this world.

Does your life feel like a struggle instead of liberating? Check your source for how you live your life. Give a true relationship with God a try.