LEARNING TO LIVE WITH GOD

REAL

That’s what I want. It’s what I have always wanted.

I am learning to live with the Spirit of God in me. Once, I lived in this debt system, this world, where I ended up with a pocket full of bills I couldn’t pay, and nothing to show for it. I am not talking about money….

Yesterday’s post now has a purpose. You see, I am learning to know God, and learning what it means to know He is always with me. In the words of my pastor today, “Yeah but sometimes, He’s just too Holy, isn’t he?” IreneQ made a good point; sometimes, we’d rather He wasn’t around.

We still live in this world full of temptations and systems of debt. We can do anything, but there is a price. No, we are not under obligation to pay that price anymore, but still, someone paid for it, and in some ways, the people we claim to love still do. I can make you pay for my arrogance, or my selfishness, without even a moment’s notice. We aren’t home yet, and there will always be price tags for someone who can’t afford to pay the cost.

This may sound like legalism, until you understand what I am trying to say. This world is a debt system, and there is always a price, even if we are free from the ultimate price. Sin costs. So what are we to do, act like we don’t know this? Go on our merry way, and do as we please? Someone will pay the price if we do. It may be someone we love, it may be us. This world costs, someone is going to pay.

Now having been freed form the Law, and having this deposit of the Spirit, we can know a better way. And that is what learning to live with God is all about while we are here. If I enjoy being around God, then I will do the things that please Him. I won’t tally those things up, and present a bill for services rendered. Instead, I’ll be thankful for the God who actually wants to know ME.

So how much do we enjoy being around God? If He is in us, do we love His presence? ALL OF THE TIME? Are we learning to live with God? Or are we fighting it?

Is there something about God that makes us uncomfortable? Actually, there are many things about God that make me uncomfortable to this day, like the way He sent the Israelites to destroy every man, woman, and CHILD in certain wars, just to judge whether they were obedient enough to be His people. And that He would punish them if they actually had mercy, or avoided a war He had ordained, and instead, made a treaty. These types of things make me very uncomfortable. Yet what am I to say? Am I to say, “How dare you, God?” Give me a break. Job was the most righteous person who walked the earth, and even He didn’t have the right to take God to task for the things He does.

So how do I live with that which I am uncomfortable with? That’s the real question. I can’t hide from it, it’s right there in black and white.

I think I live according to His grace. And if according to His grace, then I am able to live with Him, even if at times, He makes me uncomfortable. This is the God of Abraham, the one who speaks with a boom, not only with a whisper. In fact, of the times the bible talks of God speaking, only once can I recall an actual whisper. Truly, were God to speak to me audibly, I’d die from fright.

And yet here He is, inside of me, and how am I to live with this God? Peace. That’s how.

Beyond anything I have ever known, peace is the word I can use that best describes what it is to have God in me. That’s how I can live with Him, even when I am uncomfortable.

And in time and experience, as I grow closer to God, I know for certain, I will enjoy being around Him even more. It won’t always be pleasant, this I know. There are going to be some dark times ahead. But the light will always shine, because the Light lives in me.

Christianity is not debt management. It is not sin management. It is learning to live with God in us. We have this body so fragile in form, and inside this body is the Holy Spirit, whom we will not be without ever again. Learning to live with God in us means learning to enjoy the very presence of God. If I don’t like being around God too much, I am unlikely to do that which pleases Him. Jesus must have liked being around His Father an awful lot, because He ALWAYS did the things that pleased God. And therein lies our key.

We can run from that which we cannot escape. We can hide in vain. Or we can learn to live with God in us, because He’s not going anywhere. This world will continually assault us with things that look too good to be true. We may even want those things. But I think, the only way to stand against temptation is to like being around God. To enjoy Him.

We seek that which we enjoy, and if sin is something we find more enjoyable than God, then possibly sin is where we will find ourselves. That’s not legalism, that’s just the cold, hard facts about our flesh. But if we learn to co-exist with this God in us, even learn to enjoy being around Him, what will temptation look like then? I say, you will not leave your Master’s side when sin is crouching at your door, because sin will have nothing to offer that beats what you already have.

Learning to enjoy life with God is the only way to live free of debt. If everything we want is in God, the world will have nothing to tempt us with. Jesus spoke of this many times, but I recall the time He told us not to worry about what to eat, or what to wear, that our Father in Heaven knows we need all these things. I recall now how I used to worry.

I am on a journey, and I am learning how to live with God. Want to come along?

Please don’t fear if you currently don’t feel like you love God. He has you in Him, and He has enough love for the both of you. Rest in that. It is enough.