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Each of us has our own relationship with God. It may be a love relationship, an angry relationship, a neutral (neither hot nor cold) relationship or even an "I am not speaking to You, God" relationship. But all in all, we have some sort of unique relationship with God. I remember telling my teenage son, "I don't have any issues with Jesus, as I can see how loving and compassionate He was with the sinners of His day, but God is another story. I don't feel safe with Him." My son piped up and said, "Mooooooooom!!! They are one and the same."

I knew that but that was not how it felt to me. Jesus was safe but God, I was not so sure He was safe. Since then I have settled that issue with God- both are safe for believers. However, back then I had my own skewed relationship with God and His Son Jesus. The amazing thing about our having skewed relationships with God is it is similar to the song sung at the end of every Billy Graham revival. God takes us "Just as I am without one plea." He accepted me confusion and all.

We are all somewhere in life where we might not desire to be. What is crucial for us to knowis it is not where we are that is our focus but Whose we are and where He is taking us that is essential. If I focus on my ability to love God, I will always fall short and when I fall short, I have a tendency to berate myself, which pushes my spirit down into some degree of oppression.

I often say to the students in my classes, "When you and I made a commitment to God through His son Jesus, we made an imperfect commitment to Him, because we are human. What do humans do best? Operate imperfectly. God, on the other hand, made a perfect commitment us; a commitment to make us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ." I find this gives me comfort as the emphasis in on God's work in and through me to perfect me not on my work to perfect myself.

It is like a surgeon who is preparing to operate on you. Your job was to make the appointment, follow up on that appointment and when told you needed surgery, show up for the procedure. The surgeon and his team will do the rest. They will remove that which is keeping you from living a rich, full, healthy life.
So it is with God. He prefers working on us from the inside out and desires we corporate with His expertise. His disciples asked Jesus the same question we seem to ask.

"What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." John 6:28

We have a "to do". That to do is to believe. Believe God sent Jesus to show us the love of God. God not only loves us but also accepts us with all our idiosyncrasies, inhibitions and neuroses.
We are to believe: Ephesians 1:5-7 (Amplified Bible)

“5For He (God) foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [[a]because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]--
6[So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor."

Because we are accepted in the Beloved, we can take any condemnation off ourselves for not being all we would like to be in Christ. In so doing, we will align ourselves with God. He says in Romans 8:1,
1THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.

Imagine that, no condemnation for the believer! So were does that condemnation we feel so intensely come from? It comes from us, which by default commissions Satan to fan the fires of disbelief into a wedge between God and ourselves. Satan longs to build up hundreds, even thousands, of wedges between you and God until they become an impenetrable wall. When God says I love you, I accept you, I forgive you past, present and future, I do not condemned you; it is then our job to agree with Him. If we are not in agreement with Him then we are choosing to be in agreement with Satan. What would that look like? We would live and express life through our lies. "I am not loved. I am not accepted. I am not forgiven and I am condemned by God."

We can know what the Bible says yet until we can know because we know in our "inner man/woman" that what the Bible says is true for me, our lives will be as James 1:6 declares,
"For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind like a wave tossed upon the sea.”

I find my best approach at this Christian faith as a human is to remind myself Jesus came for the sick and He uses small, seemingly weak things. By sick I mean all the way from our having neuroses, to lack of faith, to addictions, both good and bad ones, to relational issues, to anger issues, and I could go on.
A father asked Jesus a tentative question regarding his sick son. He asked,
"If you can do anything have pity on me and my son."
And Jesus said, “[You say to Me], If You can do anything? [Why,] all things can be (are possible) to him who believes!”
24At once the father of the boy gave [an eager, piercing, inarticulate] cry with tears, and he said, “Lord, I believe! [Constantly] help my weakness of faith!”
This verse speaks to me. Even if my faith is weak and my "believer" seems to be set on barely audible, God can and will work with our authenticity about our lack of belief.

I find the most difficult requirement from God is for us to admit we have a problem. Yet we see this father confess his faith as muted. Jesus honors the father's integrity to admit that he may not have enough faith. God acts for those who see they are the problem and they desire to be changed.

As an aside, I hope this helps you understand why we have so much hate and pain in this world inflicted by humans. There are millions of people who do not stop to consider God's existence, who will not admit they have problems that need healing and do not desire God to change them. God will not cross our boundaries. Being real with God is immense to Him. If you are where this father was, then that is where you need to begin. Know it is "a ok" with God. He takes us wherever we are and loves on us.

In closing, we have four to do's as Christians. These "to do's" minister to our Father.
1. Desire God.
2. Believe in the Son and all the good He has for you, even if the faith is the size of a mustard seed.
3. Agree with God as to who I am to Him.
4. Be authentic with God regarding your weaknesses and "can't do’s."

One last verse to remember is 1Peter 5:10b:
"The God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you." Your job is to believe this.

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