Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today- God has done everything to enable me to be me.
Romans 8:29-30 NLT
[29] For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. [30] And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Observation
I am like Jesus, this is my true self. This is what spiritual rebirth is – it’s born again into the likeness and image of God, restored to God’s original design and intent. So God chooses us and calls us “to come to him.” The first gift is the gift in Jesus of “right standing with himself.” We do not behave, earn or deserve, right standing – it is “given to us” through Jesus plus nothing else. This is critical. If you don’t get right standing you will never move onto or into “his glory,” which is His image and likeness.
What I am discovering is that restored likeness flows from my participatory experience of the character of God. I must understand my rightness before I will come into His presence from where I experience His likeness and then reflect, or mirror, this likeness to the world I share. If I am disqualified by my poor performance from his rightness then I will never experience His glory, His love, joy, peace, kindness, generosity, etc, therefore I will never know from experience what I am like, and therefore I will never live the true-self me, reflecting His glory.
“And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.” There is a critical sequence here. This is why the enemy of God constantly works at disqualifying the children of God from the presence of their father. Undermine, destroy, challenge my rightness and I will withdraw from God’s presence under the weight of condemnation, shame, and the story of failure and unworthiness. It’s only from a position where I understand that my worthiness, my goodness, my personal holiness, has nothing at all to do with my rightness, will I be able to silence the persistent voices of disqualification. It is only when I stand upon my rightness that is based in Jesus + nothing will I ever be able to agree with Paul and say “therefore there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
Application
His glory, my true-self, flows from my experience in His presence, which is made possible because of rightness in Jesus. Here is the good news. I will live this story out in all its fullness. I will find a rhythm of inspiration and contemplation in my life. Inspiration shows me what God, what I am, like, contemplation is the space for a participatory experience that then overflows in me becoming me. This is the way of the Kingdom. I will not work hard at being my made in the image of God-self, I will reflect Him from my personal experience of Him.
Response
Thank you for gifted, I changeable, forever rightness with you. Thank you for restored glory. It all flows from you. It’s all the gift of your love and presence. I can take off the false-self me I have created and become my true-self because you invite me into your love, your presence, yourself. A blessed person knows who they are and are able to be themselves – how blessed am I?
Meditation
Meditation truth – my rightness is in Jesus + nothing.
Consider:
Do I work hard to be the person I believe I should be, or do I come into the presence of God to be transformed by Him?
How hard is it to receive that your true-self is like Jesus, made in the image and likeness of God? How many lies has the enemy sowed in your life to keep you from receiving this truth?
JOURNEY DEEPER
