Reflections

Wow. My mind has just been blown. Many people have issues with believing that God loves them. I mean he is ultimate love and still, maybe because of his unbelievable greatness, we do not receive it. We have these walls up. We feel unworthy. We are broken after all, right? I on the other hand do believe that God loves me and does not pollute my life with crap. I do get down sometimes but I don't blame it on him. But still, even though I do believe he loves me a whole lot, I don't really realize just how deep it is.

Many people use, or try to use, God. They will say, "Yeah, I tithe so he will bless me financially." or, "I serve at my church so God will fix me." God already said he would! He is not a means to an end. He is the end. Tithing is a command, not a means. Serving is a command, not a means. We are to do these things not that we would be rewarded as if we could actually earn God's love, grace, or mercy. He is a loving God and gives out of his own perfect heart.

Now the part that really gets me. We here on this earth are to point to Christ with our lives, right? We are supposedly "ambassadors of Jesus". Now I was listening to a message from Francis Chan on Christ-centered relationships. Not that I am planning on getting married any time in the very near future, but I will one day. So I was listening to the message that talks about how husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. I have heard this so many times but today it really clicked. As he was speaking out of Ephesians 5 I thought about John 17 when Christ is praying. He prays that as he and God are one, that we would be one with himself and God. In Ephesians 5, Paul talks about a husband and wife becoming one. This is a picture of what Christ and the church looks like. We are one with Christ, we are a part of the body of Christ. Jesus loves us as we are a part of his body. He love us that much. When I am hungry I eat. I take care of my body more than just about anything. Marriage is a reflection of this. Just as some people have difficulties seeing God as the father because of their bad earthly fathers, I have a hard time getting this because most of the marriages I have seen are crappy pictures of what marriage should look like.

After all, like I said, we are to point to Christ with our lives. We should also do this with our relationships. Our marriages, our families, our friendships. We should not "use" God to fix our relationships. We should constantly give them over to him as we run after him ourselves but not "earn" his repair. We should ask for strength, grace, mercy, and love as we fill our roles in our relationships here on earth as we try to point to Christ. People should be able to look to us and point to Jesus through it. I pray that I may become a better friend, daughter, and sister so that through those relationships I may have another opportunity to point to perfect love.

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."
Ephesians 5:25-33