The Changes In Us Add Up As We Follow Jesus
6.12.23
As we follow Jesus, we will begin to see and feel the changes that He offers us as He heals each issue that stands between us and God that we lift up to Him in prayer. Step by step, issue by issue, the freedom from the world’s ways that He offers us begin to show in a growing lightness and, along with that, a growing sense that we are becoming our true selves, anchored in God, true to the person He created us to be. The fruit of the Spirit of Galatians 5:22-23[1] begin to arise in us, bit by bit, so that soon we begin to feel a taste of the joy and peace at times which are wholly new to us. Another area that arises in us lies in how we treat other people—with goodness, kindness, and gentleness. Patience and humility might be the last to arise in us, but love is another whole issue.
Since we see ourselves through our own personal lens which is filled with memories of our childhood guilt and shame plus any trauma we experienced, to feel loved and forgiven by God is another huge challenge. It is so hard to let go of our own self-image which was set in us before we are six years old. We can “know” that God loves and forgives us and never feel His love or His forgiveness. I know that for me, it finally took a decision on my part. I decided that if God could love me, and He knows everything about who I am and what I have done in my life, then, surely, I could love myself. And it took a while for that love and forgiveness to emerge in me for me. I do believe that we can’t really pass on God’s love to anyone else if we can’t love ourselves. How could we possibly love others with God’s kind of love, if we can’t take in that love for ourselves. So, loving ourselves becomes the bottom line for our true conversion to God’s love and forgiveness for all others.
And, if we are willing to follow Jesus wherever He leads, we will be giving up our prejudices and judgments of others, no matter who they are. For all human beings were created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27), no exceptions. I feel like I have been on a 20+ year journey of learning to appreciate and to love all people no matter what they do or what their background or their skin color is. I went to Haiti twice, Mexico twice, took a course at the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio, interviewed people seeking financial help at Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte, and read books by Black American, Latino, and Asian authors. I’ve met lots of different kinds of people in my church and in groups I’ve been a part of here in Charlotte. I still see the differences in skin color and education and anything else in other people, but I do enjoy all those differences. In fact, I have learned so much from people who are not white-skinned/middle class like me which has taught me about forgiving any wrongs done and seeing the good in everyone. After all that is how God see us, too.
Scientists have totally backed up the Genesis 1:27 verse in their DNA research. They have found that there is less that 100th of a percentage point difference in the DNA of all human beings, that is, we share 99.99% of our DNA; nothing, not skin color or physical features, means that there are differences among us. Of course, science won’t affirm the existence of the image of God in each of the 7+ billion people who live on this planet. Following Jesus where He would lead us is the best way to get to that truth about all human beings.
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Questions to ponder over the week: Have I experienced a widening of my personal lens or is my childhood lens still intact? What would it mean to read the Bible as if it were written about me/to me? What would change in me? How much love am I capable of? Do I experience the capacity to love growing in me?
Blessing for the week: May we be the people of God who see our lives, ourselves, and others with love and forgiveness, peace and joy.
Check out my two websites: patsaidadams.com and deepeningyourfaith.com.
Two Announcements
- 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.
- 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.
[1] Love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and humility