Day 22

Inner Narrative Pleasing God

In Your light we see light. (Psalm 36:9b)

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me (Psalm 43:3a)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You, Adonai, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:15 TLV)

We’re beginning our fourth cycle of meditations and are continuing to consider our true identities. Knowing more of our true identity is helpful in building and reinforcing a godly inner-narrative. Recently, we stressed this: Your love for God is important to the God you love because you were successfully created to be the type of creation whose love for the Creator is meaningful to the Creator.

Now, that’s a mouthful, but it’s worth reading, and it’s worth saying. Let’s personalize it…

My love for God is important to the God I love

because

I was successfully created

to be the type of creation

whose love for the Creator

is meaningful to the Creator.

We are called to live in the light of this reality. The brightness of this light might make the eyes of our hearts squint, but we can become accustomed to this light. As we do, the light gets brighter. As we grow in God we continue to acclimate ourselves to greater light.

God gave light about how He values you when He demonstrated His love for you while you were His enemy (Romans 5:8). Father gave  Jesus as an atoning sacrifice for who you are, your rebellion and transgressions. He desired you and your reciprocating-love (Deuteronomy 6:5). You responded to His loving overtures. Your love for God is a result of His love for you (1 John 4:19). Your love for God is meaningful to Him (Jeremiah 2:2).

The following is true and can be said by you:

I was loved while I was my Creator’s enemy

He reconciled me to Himself through Jesus’ blood

I’m learning to fully respond to this love

My response is pleasing to God

We need to believe and bask in this light.

We dwelled in the domain of darkness; now we are children of the light (Colossians 1:3; Ephesians 5:8). Each believer is in a relationship with the Messiah, who is the light (John 1:9).

Light has no fellowship with darkness. Light aggressively invades darkness. Darkness yields (John 1:5). However, in the illustration of light and darkness, given in John 3:19, those united with darkness resist light.

“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

We have been called out of darkness (1 Peter 2:9b). Our souls have been called into the astonishing light of a living relationship with the God who is Light (1 John 1:5). He resides in you, and your soul exists in the sphere of His shining favor (Psalm 67:1).

We know that we have been brought out of darkness into light for the purpose of a relationship with our Creator. In, and of itself, that relationship is eternal life.

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3)

An aspect of this relationship is coming into agreement with His perspective. This is a godly priority. We want to walk with the Lord (Amos 3:3). We have to begin somewhere. He, first and foremost, reveals Himself to us. He also beckons us to fellowship with Him about how we see ourselves. God has a point of view. He is not about to change the way He sees us. We must adapt.

Yielding Releasing Receiving

We have been given the opportunity to come into harmony with Him. His view is true, His will shall be done, and the blessedness of the coming Kingdom is the result of His nature being fully expressed (Habakkuk 2:14). As we yield our perspective to His, our lives change, and we experience the benefits of pleasing God.

Compared to God’s knowledge, of who we really are, our most precise insights are comparable in value as brass is to gold. Thankfully, God promised a holy exchange.

… you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Instead of bronze I will bring gold, And instead of iron I will bring silver, And instead of wood, bronze, And instead of stones, iron. (Isaiah 60:16b–17a)

We all have some degree of sane self-awareness. At the same time it is always only partial truth polluted by confusion and deception. We can’t help that. But God can help us. Our Creator-Redeemer’s discernment of who we are is pure and true. He is our guide and teacher.

There is a way through confusion. By means of the Scriptures we can isolate what the LORD sees and adapt His perspective. If we choose to do so, we can trade our iron for silver and our brass for the refined gold of His revealed point of view. The Holy Spirit will lead us into more truth than we already know.

I cannot imagine a better way to develop a godly inner-narrative than to see ourselves in the light of God’s eyes. To do this righteously, not according to what we wish, and not according to what we fear, we must submit ourselves to the Scriptures. Even then we have to learn to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15)

How does the Lord see you?

Many of the ways our identities are described in Scripture portray us as part of a corporate entity. Examples of this are the believer as a part of the Messiah’s body, or bride.

There are a couple of descriptions that are specific to each one’s individual identity which are portrayed as participating in that which is corporate. Yet, they are doing so as singular entities. For instance, the believer is a child of God within the family of God. The disciple has Jesus as his-or-her brother within a company of siblings. Such individual and corporate identities are connected. They both need to be integrated into the disciple’s inner-narrative.

The most foundational true identity we need to reinforce is this: You are God’s child.

You are a child of God.

There is no greater blessing, no higher dignity, no calling more significant, than being a true child of God.

This true identity-matter needs to be highly valued. It is a great love that Father has for you. That is why this familial status has been granted to you. Ultimately, you will be vindicated to a hostile cosmos as God’s child in fully revealed splendor.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:1–2)

This is not something which is left up to the strength of your intellectual convictions or the fertility of your imagination. This is really a spiritual transaction.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, (Romans 8:16)

You are a chosen, beloved child.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; (Ephesians 5:1)

The enemy may assail the truth of this reality, but you have received Jesus and have the legal right to view yourself as a child of God.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, (John 1:12)

The reason God sent the Messiah’s Spirit into your heart is because you are a child of God. God has united Himself to you by His Holy Spirit. That is the type of relationship He desires to have with you.

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Galatians 4:6)

The cry, “Abba!” was heard at Gethsemane when Jesus, in a time of inner agony, spontaneously cried out to His Father (Mark 14:36). The same Spirit lives in you. You are a child of God. By the way, adoption is always a matter of choice and not a matter of mere biology. His eternal Spirit empowers you to relate to the One who adopted you. You have been adopted by God. This is the result of His choice.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

Open up and receive this light. See yourself as God sees you: You are a child of God.

Meditate on this identity-matter.

Go deeper.

Make a decision to seek to assimilate this reality. Talk to yourself about it. Remind your soul that it’s true. Speak to your soul.

My love for God is important to the God I love.

I was successfully created to be the type of creation whose love for Him is meaningful to Him.

I was loved while I was my Creator’s enemy. He reconciled me to Himself through Jesus’ blood. I’m learning to fully respond to this love. My response is pleasing to God

God wants me to believe that I am definitely a child of God. God’s love for me is like a good father’s love for his children, only immeasurably better.

I have been born again and have been chosen to be an adopted child of God.

God my Father’s presence dwells in me and I can give His presence pleasure.

As if it were bread and wine, eat and drink this truth and digest it. Your inner-narrative needs to reflect this reality, so please reflect upon this reality. Become accustomed to this light. It will give God’s presence pleasure.

Pray:

Living God, may the words of my mouth and my heart’s deepest thoughts give Your presence pleasure.

Verses Cited:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)  

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)  

We love, because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)  

“Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, The love of your betrothals, Your following after Me in the wilderness, Through a land not sown. (Jeremiah 2:2)

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, (Colossians 1:13)

for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (Ephesians 5:8)

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. (John 1:9)

And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it (John 1:5)  

… the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1 Peter 2:9b)

This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. (Psalm 67:1)

Do two men walk together unless they have made an appointment? (Amos 3:3)  

“For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14) 

Make every effort to present yourself before God as tried and true, as an unashamed worker cutting a straight path with the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15 TLV)

And He was saying, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:36)