Anyone who visits here, or has listened to me teach before, has probably heard me mention our identity in Christ. I speak about our identity more than any other topic, simply because it is so very vital to understanding our relationship with Jesus Christ. Nearly every day, I end up meeting someone, or having a discussion with someone who fails to understand the reality of who they truly are in Jesus, and who He has made them to be. This literally breaks my heart to see people in such a state, because I know the pain of living that way far too well. I was stuck in that same spot for many years, and there was no one around to help me through it.
So whenever I encounter someone who needs to know this truth, I don’t hesitate to share it with them – and so I end-up talking about it quite a lot here as well in our studies. Yet I don’t always explain exactly why it is true. Most of the time, I mention it in passing, or as an aside to whatever topic we may be studying in-particular, and this sometimes leaves people wondering where exactly I am getting it from, or if I just made it up!
In light of this, today I want to share with you, how we are to truly see ourselves in Christ Jesus, and why it is true. And by seeing this, it is my wish (and God’s wish) for you to stand on the solid foundation of the finished work of Jesus Christ, for you.
Many times, I have heard people say, “I have prayed and prayed, but nothing seemed to happen!”. They are expressing their honest frustration at the apparent lack of results – and that’s okay. If we are honest, we have been there before, we know how that feels, and it is okay to express those feelings. God is not upset when people share their heart, in-fact He would much rather have open honestly than religious pretense.
When I have talked with these people sharing these feelings, we eventually get down to one main thing though, and that is the place they are in. And most are shocked when I mention this… because they don’t expect it… they don’t see it coming. You see, people have all sorts of places that they actually are in every single day. We really should only have one, but we have many, and the scriptures have something to say about it, in regards to faith and prayer in Christ; and what it says, may surprise you.
Rights. We all have them, although they are not always respected in certain places or in certain times, unfortunately. However there is one place in-particular that they are always respected. And that is spiritually. In Christ, we all have certain spiritual rights that are absolutely undeniable, and the Bible tells us specifically what they are because God wants us to know what our rights are, and He wants us to make full use of them.
Even so, many believers are not making use of their rights in Christ. They have been sold a false narrative that they have no rights at all. They have bought into the lie that they are weak, powerless, and without any real recourse in this world… that they must wait until the sweet by-and-by up in Heaven for any resolution. And that is simply not the truth. What I want to share with you today, is what the Bible has to say regarding your rights and what you can (and should) expect in Christ Jesus – not later when you get to Heaven, but right now, today, in this life.
God is generous. I know by making this one statement, I’ve probably managed to offend someone. The idea of a truly generous God is not very popular today. Many people will say that they believe in a giving and generous God, but when you dig a little deeper, you will find that those same people only have a superficial belief in the generosity of God – which is to say that they don’t really believe that He is generous at all. I have encountered quite a number of people who feel that they must beg God to give them things and barely scrape by in life, and even some who think that the more needy and poor they are, the more it gives God glory and keeps them holy and humble.
On the other side, I have encountered people who say that God could not possibly be generous, because He wants to “test and try us” or “teach us lessons”, and then there are those think that God would just be some kind of magical genie, and so they oppose His generosity on those grounds. So what I want to share with you today, what the scriptures say about God’s generosity, and what He says about Himself.
Over and over again, I hear people say “If God loves me, then why did this happen?” – and you can fill in the blank with almost anything. If God loves me, then why did I get sick? If God loves me then why did this person die? If God loves me… then He would’ve prevented it. This is a real stumbling-block for a lot of people. And it’s okay to admit that. It’s okay to ask the question, and it’s okay to admit feeling that way. And I want to prepare you for what I am going to share with you today, because I am not going to give you the standard canned-response that most religious leaders would… I’m not going to tell you that the bad things that happened were actually good. I’m not going to tell you that you just need to grin and swallow it because God works in mysterious ways and we can never understand it so just suck-it-up and take it. Absolutely not!
Now here’s the shocker… The Bible also does not tell us to behave that way! Those are all things that religious leaders have come up with. Distorting the truth of scripture, usually not on purpose, but because they themselves didn’t have the answer and they were trying to protect people’s feelings and emotions, but ended-up doing more harm. So what I want to share with you today, is what the Bible actually says about the love of God – specifically in hard times – and how His love can be clearly seen in it.