Many of us walk around in life feeling secretly guilty and unworthy of life's blessings. We believe that deep inside our soul is darkness... if our true nature is explored we are fearful of what we might expose! So terrified of the answer we hide from ourselves... from our God.
It is not difficult for me to understand that I was created by a Perfect, Loving, All-Knowing God... nor do I ignore the feeling I am on Earth for some greater purpose other than mere existing day to day suffering from my own inadequacies and traumas. I have found myself questioning my true nature as a child of God.
When God created us He said "It is good!" And yet the great idea has never really crossed my mind... that deep down I might be good. That underneath my poor choices, self-centered behaviors & faulty thinking I could be holy and perfect... having been created in God's image. Can you imagine He would create us as anything less?
Evil and sin are not of God... they are shades of deception that we have pulled down... keeping our perfect light hidden from our sight and from shining in our lives. With our light hidden our path is overtaken by darkness. In the dark our mind plays tricks with reality... shadows masking the truth... misleading and frightening us! And yet, in the Light of Truth we are able to see we are God's perfect creation and are loved eternally beyond measure!
We fear the recognition of this truth will make us arrogant & conceited, but actually it is the most humble self-concept of all! For if I am created as perfect & holy, so are you, not by choice but by design! All of us are children of God... as our earthly children are connected to us... so are we connected with Him. To deny God does not change our relation. To run away does not change our Home.
God created us for His Holy Purpose & His Glory! He celebrates with us when we recognize our holy inheritance! Jesus is a catalyst in our transformation by reminding us of the Truth. Evil and sin are Earthly diversions that keep us from returning to our rightful place with God. With God we are perfect... we are holy... we are home.
great topic! Here's my thoughts, since you wanted to know other's ideas: Our Heavenly Father loves us, and we were born into this world free from sin, having the Light of Christ within every person. Yet, the natural man is an enemy to God, and he knew we would sin, that we would sometimes mess up. Which is why he sent us a Savior, who willingly agreed to step up and take the burden of our sins, sadness, suffering, and any pain we could imagine and bear it for us. He expects us to repent of our sins, forsake them, do our best in all that we do, as faith without works is dead. That is where his Atonement or "at one-ment" with our Savior comes to play-we can never be perfect, we can never erase sin-but He can, and gives us the opportunity to be better, to do better. I think to many of us remember too much of the guilt of our own mistakes, our own sins, that we don't allow the Savior to take on our burdens as His-its almost like we say, "Yes, Lord, I believe you, but I'm still going to suffer the guilt and shame of my sins on my own." We don't see ourselves as celestial material-something I think probably saddens Him, because that's not taking advantage of his Gift to us. I have a great, easy to read book called, "Believing Christ" that talks about this very topic, easy read, really opened my eyes to it, I'd be happy to let you borrow it. Hope you don't mind me sharing my thoughts, love your writings as always :)
ReplyDeleteYou are sooo correct! From the very start you say "Many people believe that we are inherently bad and require Jesus to transform us into something completely new. They believe only Jesus can increase our value...turn us from someone despicable into someone acceptable to God."
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of your question involves the concept of original sin--that we all are sinners because Adam sinned. But it seems that you do not accept that and neither do I!
May I suggest that what we are born with is no more than 'original selfishness' or self-centeredness that we see clearly in every baby. As we mature, we can maintain or modify this selfishness, but there is no need for us to feel we are born despicable. Jesus says for us to love others as ourselves and this is the only rule of behavior we need.
Possibly my favorite blog of the week...
Thank you both for your comments/compliments... so grateful to those of you who think spiritually and share those thoughts with others, including me! :)
ReplyDeleteawesome!!!! love the pic at the end, too!!!
ReplyDeleteGod created us for the good but Adam and Eve's decision to listen to Satan flipped out soul around and turned out soul into darkness. This caused original fellowship with God to be darkened and thus we choose to do things our own way and not believe God for anything except that maybe He is that lucky rabbits foot.
ReplyDeleteHow does a soul get flipped? If it can get flipped one way... is it possible to flip it back? I'd wager to say our souls are flipping then moment to moment as we choose good vs. evil... And that thought makes me dizzy!
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