Our Beliefs Must Be Lived

4.24.23            Our Beliefs Must Be Lived

It is a wonderful thing to come to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and in God as the Creator and Sustainer of this whole universe, but we must not stop there. Our belief is just a mere beginning to loving God, if it invites us join a church, attend services there, and even become active members of the church. A belief in Jesus Christ and God is merely the first step in a life-long journey of learning to love God and our neighbors and to follow Jesus Christ through the Indwelling Holy Spirit who is embedded deep within us. As we follow Jesus into the life for which we were created, we will be, through listening to that Indwelling Spirit, gradually surrendering all that we have been taught by our parents and the culture about how we are to be in this world in favor of following Jesus and ultimately taking on God’s purpose for us and as we live in our own true nature.

Our beliefs have to be lived out in our attitudes, conscious and unconscious, in our actions, and in what we say and think. We are to be expressing Jesus Christ’s teachings every day in how we live our lives and in how we treat others, that is, any person whom God puts in our lives, because we are all children of God made in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). It’s not just that we follow the Ten Commandments; we are to follow Jesus’s deeper interpretation of them in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). We are not to judge, to be prejudiced against anyone. We are to give more than is asked by another person, to go the extra mile. We are to love our neighbor. And above all, we are to love God.

If we love God, then we would see His love and forgiveness for everyone, even ourselves. Our first task will be to take in His love and forgiveness for us. If we love God, then we would take care of His earth and honor all that God has provided for us in this incredible, interdependent system that provides for every human being, every plant, every animal, and even every insect and worm—the lowest of the low. God’s love shows up in His creation everywhere. If we love God, we would accept His love for each of us and learn from Him how to love ourselves, so that we can truly love others. For how could we love anyone else if we have no love for ourselves?

If we love God, we would value each and every person we meet. We would be interested in their lives and their hopes and dreams. We would treat each one as a child of God, no matter what they have done in their lives. It is not up to us to judge their lives; after all, we all have made mistakes, we all have sinned, we are all flawed human beings. Who are we to judge another for the turn their lives have taken? Can we listen to the other person? And really hear what they are saying to us? Or are we judging them and writing them off as not worthy of God’s love? We are not to be doling out the human kind of love which is prejudiced and self-centered. We are to be passing on God’s love, His embrace of the person regardless of what they look like to our oh-so-human minds and hearts. His love is all-embracing, all-forgiving, invested in each and every human being that He created in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). He knows what each of us was created to do and to be, and His desire is that we each repent of our sin and our distance from all that we could be and embrace Him and our future as He reveals it to us.

We can really help every person we meet to awaken to God’s love for them, if we are interested in who they are, if we are affirming of their good choices, if we are loving them, no matter what our personal opinion might be. Love is passed on to another by our interest, our mirroring of what they are saying to us, just by our interest in them as a child of God. And think of the effect we would have on them, because we all know when someone is truly interested in us.

Once we believe in God and commit to loving Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, then we enter the life of following Jesus “through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate that leads to destruction” (Matthew 7:13-14). The narrow gate means that we must leave the world behind, although that is a journey of some length as we give up to God all that the world has taught us, all that our egos think is essential to our lives, all that we have been. As each of our issues becomes apparent to us, highlighted for us by the Holy Spirit, we give it up to God in prayer for healing, we will feel lighter and lighter as we follow the plan that the Lord has for us. We will feel the growth of the fruit of the spirit within in us, and take in the love God has for us. As we continue on this journey, we will find ourselves loving more, embracing more and more different kinds of people, all of whom are made in the image of God. At last our purpose is revealed to us which brings the most amazing blessing as we take it on: fulfillment and healing of our lives. An incredible gift! Another way to say all this is that our lives, as we give up the hold that the world has on us, are a prayer to God.

Questions to ponder over the week: Are you living your beliefs, do you see yourself growing in your faith in God, are you following Jesus Christ?  Have you surrendered some of your pain, grief, and challenges that you‘ve endured? Or are you trying to forget what happened to you in the past?

Blessing for the week: May we be the people of God who give up our sin and pain and difficulties in our past to God. May we not bury them deep within our unconscious where they still affect us so much. May we live in the truth of who we are.

Check out my two websites: patsaidadams.com and deepeningyourfaith.com.

Two Announcements

1. I am giving away a 10-week journaling guide to Jesus’s Two Great Commandments. If you are interested, email me at patsadams@gmail.com and I will email it to you, free of charge.
2. My latest books, “Called to Help the Poor and Needy” and “A Study Guide to the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount” are now in bookstores and on line. The first is about the more than 2,000 verses in the Bible which detail God’s instructions for caring for those in need. The second is a journaling/pondering guide to Jesus’s most complete sermon.