There's a scene in the movie "Legally Blonde" where the main character, a woman who is supposed to be ditzy gets into law school. Her former boyfriend upon hearing the news says to her in disbelief, "You got into Harvard Law?" And she responds with a nonchalant, "What, like it's hard?"
For whatever reason, that was the scene that kept popping into my head as God confirmed over and over that this was the topic I was to write about today.
Yesterday morning, my oldest daughter and I discussed it. Then last night I had a short interaction with a woman struggling with the topic and so finally...I'm sitting down to type.
I'm writing this assuming you already know God is real, Jesus is who He says He is and that you know there is also a far less powerful enemy of everyone's souls who seeks to steal everything God has ever given you: peace, joy, hope...anything.
It's important to know this isn't an all-powerful enemy, the devil, but one who has been allowed to have a certain amount of power in this earth for a time. He is in no way as powerful as God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit, I believe the vast majority of his power is given away to him freely by people who are unaware they are doing so.
The enemy isn't intelligent as God is of course, but he does watch, observe and see what works best on people.
There are people who love God who the enemy knows he can't make stop loving God, so a common trick he uses is to make serving, loving, and being in relationship with God appear difficult.
If someone believes prayer is ineffective, they won't pray. If they believe one must pray for years and years for something to happen, they'll become discouraged and may not even begin.
But if someone believes God hears the prayers of His children and acts immediately, they would pray all the time. If someone truly believed the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of them and they have access to that power all the time, they'd move differently in the world.
What someone believes changes how they go through life with God. When the enemy can't stop a person from believing in God, he'll just seek to distort the details to the point where a relationship with Him feels like too much to bear.
Jesus was clear about this. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30
"My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
This doesn't mean serving God won't come with certain things you give up or struggles, but the relationship is not characterized by burden: Jesus already took that. The things we give up, worldly affection, the praise of people- these things are empty in the hands of someone whose heart is turned to Jesus anyway.
Last night I saw and answered a comment on social media from someone who was struggling to feel intimacy with God.
Sometimes people sense a closeness I have with God and it makes them feel a type of way. I've said it before: my relationship with God was born in complete isolation and intense life or death struggle. I didn't have family or even friends around for a long time. You meet God differently when you live like that. It's the same way that if you're in complete darkness candle is brighter than if you're in a lit room.
It produced an intense, raw relationship that started very unrefined (but He is refining as that's what He does) that I never believed had anything to do with my own power because I had none. He met me in a pit of desolation and there was never any confusion if I had anything to do with it other than saying yes.
We're saved by grace and not anything we can do.
Jesus was talking to a crowd once and some children were brought to Him to pray over. The disciples didn't like they. Perhaps they felt like Jesus' time was wasted on children. But Jesus didn't share their opinion.
"Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for the kingdom of heaven belong to such as these.” -Matthew 19:13-15
He talked about children again in Matthew 18.
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, 'Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?' Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Children can't do hard things. They love and trust openly. Their faith is unshakeable and pure. They climb into the lap of those they know love them with ease and lay their heads against the chest of those meant to care for them without a care in the world.
That's how Abba wants us to be with Him.
It's not meant to be hard.
I told the woman who was struggling with intimacy with God that the answer was faith. Belief, trust, unshakeable knowing that God is who He says He is and Jesus is who He says He is that is what will take her where she want to be with Jesus.
The feeling that God couldn't be with her came from somewhere. Perhaps the enemy. Perhaps people who had made her feel not good enough in some way. But I'm telling you: you can be not good enough for people or places and extremely valuable to God.
And regarding feelings...we chase feelings in this world but feelings will have you working overtime to obtain something freely given because they move and change. Feelings are rooted in shifting sand, they are born on the past: traumas, experiences: they're an ever-moving goal post. Feeling will have you working overtime for something that was already done on the cross and something you could never earn with your own goodness.
But when you know that God is real, when you know Jesus is with you because you believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that God raised Him from the dead, feelings have nothing to do with it. Your faith has saved you and our faith is what we walk by.
It's not meant to be hard.
So, if you've been trying to be good enough, feel good enough, feel like God is with you, feel like you're saved, stop.
Become a child at the foot of Jesus. Let Him put His hands on your head and bless you. A child doesn't believe they have to earn anything. They just receive. He wants to give you Life. Say yes and then know it's done. You're walking with Him now.
My prayer today:
Dear Abba. I love you. If I ever try to put You in the box of my feelings, or define what we have by what I feel or what I am capable of, remind me that I'm Your child. You don't judge me by the rules of this world that say I'm worth what I can do or who I appear to be. I am Your child because of what Jesus did, the end. I'm thankful to be Yours. I believe what You said that neither life nor death, nor angels nor demons can come between Your love and me. You're bigger than anything I can do or feel and I am grateful for that.
Please help anyone who needs to know this. Reveal Yourself to them. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen
"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39
The promises of God begin and end with Jesus because He is the reconciliation. If you've been walking through life on your own and want to walk with a Shepherd who will never let go of your hand, here's how to start.
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