Good news  . . . and bad news!  The bad news is that we’ll never find all we need within ourselves.  The good news is that God can’t wait to help us! Who doesn’t want to give and receive more love? We long to experience peace with others and within; have patience with others, ourselves, and our circumstances; and have enough kindness to shower on everyone we come in contact with.  And God is willing to give us this love, peace, patience, kindness and more!

Anxiety has become a byword in our society.  Mental health is a serious issue.  Depression is crippling a whole segment of our population.  Suicide and drug abuse are claiming the lives of too many of our people. No wonder there are so many self-help philosophies taught by well-meaning life coaches, ‘spiritual’ mentors, books, webinars, retreats, etc.!!  But these ‘choose to make your life better’ philosophies are limited in what they can do for us because they can’t change our natural inclinations to do wrong.  Yes, we can muster up good intentions and do many good things.  But only God can effect deep change at the soul level by giving us a completely new identity with new desires to do right made possible by his Spirit in us.    

“All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature, we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.”

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” 

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  Ephesians 2:3-6,8-10

Being beloved children of God with his kind, hovering Presence over us shielding us, guiding us, encouraging us, warning us, and enlightening us is way better than depending on ourselves.  Especially since our default is a tendency toward harmful behaviors which enslave us.

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”  Romans 8:15

“And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”  Galatians 4:6

There are different ideas of the definition of the Aramaic word, ‘Abba’, but it’s generally agreed that Abba is an informal form of Father that indicates my own personal Father that I have a loving relationship with, not just a generalized idea of a father or someone else’s father.  That we would be allowed to call the all-powerful God our own father is beyond understanding.  But we know this privilege isn’t on the basis of our own merit but on the merit of Jesus who paid for our privilege.

Having a loving, involved father is crucial to well-being.  Just read the stats on crime in America, or poverty, or any social ills.  Not having a father present in the home predisposes the children to unsuccessful life outcomes.  Not always, of course, but the odds are against single-parent households.  What if all those fatherless kids knew they were dearly loved by a Heavenly Father who would never leave them?  What if they embraced living to please him?  This is a personal truth for me.  For most of my growing-up years, it was just my mother and me with sporadic periods of time when my father was with us.  My parents’ relationship was unstable due to his breaking his marriage vows repeatedly.  I’m so grateful that I learned early to trust my faithful Heavenly Father who has never left me.

We can easily see that the natural results of being left to ourselves aren’t pretty.  The list is definitely depressing when we default to our own direction.  Here’s a partial list of bad outcomes when we leave God out of our choices:  immoral behavior which harms us and others; putting things before  God which never satisfies, calling on dark powers puts us on a downward spiral; broken relationships that can’t provide the love we need to flourish; selfishness that shuts others out and makes our world very small; addictions that steal our lives, and irresponsibly indulging in fun which makes us shallow. This way of living puts us outside of God’s presence and kindly rule.

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”  Galatians 5:19-21

I noticed that at least eight of these wrong behaviors are relational.  They break relationships.  They hurt ourselves and others.  But what we all yearn for is love, joy, and peace.  We want loving relationships; deep happiness; and peace from fears and conflicts.  However, we can’t manufacture this state of living in ourselves because they are not our natural bent.  They are the result of God’s Spirit working in us to change us.

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”   Galatians 5:22

In this happy list of what God puts into our lives, there are eight behaviors that build relationships.  Who doesn’t want to give and receive more love?  We long to experience peace with others and within; have patience with others, ourselves, and our circumstances; have enough kindness to shower on everyone we come in contact with; default to goodness instead of revenge; always hold onto faith and act faithfully; not react with anger or harshness but with calmness and a quiet demeanor: and have enough control of ourselves to do what’s best.

In view of the brokenness and hurt around us, it seems like a good time to let God pour out his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness on others through us.  Fortunately, he has plenty of all of those to put into us!  Just what we need.