What Is Real?

Hello again, friends!

I took about a week off after the challenge but I’m back and ready to take on a new challenge which I’m excited to tell you about!

First of all, to those who have been asking and wondering…

The write31days.com challenge was wonderfully succesful! It was, however, a challenge and not a contest. There are no “winners” in the traditional sense. In fact, my only real tangible prize will be the shirt my mom has purchased from the write31days.com website that reads, Writers Gonna Write. I love it! My mom was on top of that before I had even hinted I wanted one for Christmas. How cool is my mom?

So, I suppose some who committed to the challenge along side me might say…

“I submitted 31 posts within 31 days to successfully complete a writer’s challenge and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.”

But you WON’T hear Jessica M. Weber say that. And I’m happy to tell you why.

First of all, I really am excited about that shirt. It’s quite adorable.

Secondly, I know the challenge did what it was meant to do. It taught me something about myself and about my words. It taught me that if I follow my desire to write, not only will my heart respond but other hearts will, as well. What an absolute blessing. Now, I’m not afraid to write. Even though I have no way of guaranteeing what I write will be favorable to all readers (no writer is ever guaranteed that), I still have tons more confidence than I had before the challenge and I am thankful to God, the challenge and to you for providing that.

God is good.

Which brings me to my next step in blogging.

I have to be honest with you about something to preface why I’m giving myself a new challenge in blogging:

Lately (namely, this past week), I have been tailspinning a bit. Do you ever tailspin? Do you know what I mean?

If I’m being REALLY honest, I would tell you this is the story of my life. There are periods of time when things seem pretty right with my world. And ones when just about everything seems wrong. Sometimes I wish there was a happy-medium where I could set up camp for a while because the extremes make me sea-sick. But, the more I open my ears and heart to those around me, the more I see that’s a pretty familiar struggle for all.

I believe God wants better for us. But it seems we’re missing the message.

All throughout the scriptures, God tells us important truths:

He is our refuge and our fortress. He is the God who gladly intervenes. He loves us unconditionally. We are under a covenant of grace which came through Christ. We have nothing to fear. We are protected. The very things that threaten to steal our joy have no power against the power of Christ. We can be still. We can be loved. When we live by the Spirit of Truth, we are set free to live better and more fulfilling lives. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Friends, if this is true, what are we doing?

I asked myself this question quite a bit this week. Here’s how my week started out.

I sat down to dinner to catch up with a dear friend. As she poured out her heart, I poured out my opinions. I heard her heavy heart lament over the same things that have troubled her for a while but instead of just loving and supporting her through it, I went into “fix-it” mode. I tried to, albeit gently, tell her what she’s doing wrong. And why her choices aren’t producing any real change in her life. Then, I pretty much avoided her the rest of the week because my heart was too heavy to keep dealing with the heaviness of her own. I was overwhelmed. With her. With myself. With life in general.

I beat myself up for not loving her better. I beat myself up for not taking my own advice and living better. And then, a whole slew of other things happened this week to steal my focus from God’s grace. When that happens, I change. My heart gets a bit bitter and I find it very hard to offer grace to others. The problems of others, as well as my own, seem monotonous…and too burdensome. I can’t seem to navigate well under the weight of them so I try ignoring them. I push down feelings that should be dealt with and my body, mind and heart feel the effects. At first, just a little. Next thing I know, I am bottoming out.

Why does life have to be so hard?

I asked God this morning for a fresh revelation of His love and grace. Why? Because I know I live better when I am functioning from that understanding. My heart was directed to Galatians…

Galations 5: 16-24

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control: against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Wow. That’s a heavy Scripture. And one that makes us squirm a little…or a lot.

But maybe that’s because we are missing the message.

Paul wrote these things to the Galatians. He was deeply troubled when he learned they had turned from the gospel of truth. What was the gospel (good news) he had shared? Let’s gain some biblical wisdom and context here by looking at Galatians 1: 6-7…

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ are are turning to a different gospel – not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

Following those words, Paul offers a quick review of his history and how the gospel of truth turned him from a murderer of Christians to the man he currently was in Christ’s love. Then, he delivers these powerful words…

Galatians 2: 15-16

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Wow…did you catch that? We are justified by faith. Not by our works. This is the gospel of truth and anyone who would live differently will not find themselves justified before God.

Friends, this truly is good news.

But it is also the debate that has plagued believers and distorted the views of well intended Christians since the Galatians and before.

If we know the truth, the truth will set us free. (John 8:32) So, let’s find the truth.

The truth is Christ came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. We are no longer under the covenant of the law given through Moses but the convenant of grace given through Christ. (John 1:17)

The law says we must beat ourselves up when we’re not living perfectly. Grace says we must look to our Savior to live better and clearly see that is it HIS work and not our own that has not only given us heaven but the ability to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. The Spirit IS grace and truth. Grace and truth are one in the same.

And, as we believe in grace and God’s unconditional love for us (as well as our uncompromised right-standing before God because of what Jesus has done), we are transformed into people of…now what were those fruits again?…

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control.

Friends, we might look at Galatians 5 and think that God is only out to do one thing: steal all our fun.

But the truth is, this passage is not telling us we can’t have fun and enjoy “fleshly” things. He gave us desires and the ability to feel for a reason. We have our 5 senses because we are loved…and God wants us to know pleasure.

But He also teaches us how not to be overtaken by unhealthy desires that will wreck our lives and hurt us as well as the people we love. Instead, he offers us a way to live by the fruits of the Spirit; the first one being LOVE and love being what we all want more than anything anyway.

God knows our hearts better than we do. And God gave us grace. Through Christ Jesus. When we choose to live by the acknowledgement and understanding of grace, our behavior changes. We don’t turn to things that aren’t good for us, like the Galatians. Instead, we turn to life lived more abundantly and beautifully in Christ!

Here’s my new blogging challenge:

For the next month, I am committing to writing about God’s grace at least 3 times a week. I want us to learn together what the truth of His Word says and experience the power of it to change our lives. I guess I’m experimenting a bit. And I’m taking you along for the ride, should you choose to join me.

I’m wondering who we will be at the end of this experience. And I’m counting on God to show us the way. If there are two gospels out there, which one is real? Which one changes lives for good? And which one traps us in a cycle of defeat? I think it’s worth exploring this together. I do hope you can join me.

Father God, you’ve told us we can count on the Holy Spirit to usher us into all truth and we call upon You now to do just that. God, show us how to live better. Show us how to live in the victory of Christ instead of our own self-defeat. You don’t want us to miss the clearest message of your heart: love. So, gives us the wisdom of Jesus that we may better serve you and those around us. For this is your beautiful plan and our greatest joy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.