God is not looking for you to "DO" more for him. He is simply and passionately looking for more "OF YOU". He is looking for more of your heart. His constant passionate cry is, "My child, give me your heart." (Proverbs) "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show HIMSELF STRONG on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him." (2 Chronicles 16:9a, NKJV)
You are at your best resting in His loving heart and grace, not in some piety or religious service and performance. Even though it may be well intentioned. "Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into (by faith through grace) what God does for you. True freedom develops best in the fierce battle to live loved and to love others by the fruit of grace."
The Christian may be like a ship tossed in a storm. Nobody on board may be aware that the ship is making headway at all. Yet it is sailing on at great speed (but not without resistance). Great winds and storms help fruit-bearing trees. So also do corruptions and temptations help the fruitfulness of grace and holiness...corruptions and temptations develop the fruit of humility, self-abasement and mourning in a deeper search for the grace by which holiness grows strong. But only later will there be visible fruits of increased holiness. (John Owen)
"Gospel freedom means to neither indulge your whims nor keep My rules. Whim-indulgers and rule-keepers are slaves to the corruption within them that demands a kind of satisfaction My Son will not provide for you in this life. My Son has set you free to love, to believe I am good and that the good story I am telling is unfolding under His control. Faith in Me and hope for tomorrow frees you to love today. And loving with a divine power releases a kind of joy into your soul that nothing else can bring".
Father is not freeing us to keep on sinning so He can keep on forgiving. He does want us to live in the freedom of knowing He will keep on forgiving when we keep on sinning. We are not free to do everything right-we can't. And we're not free to do whatever makes us feel complete-that's wrong. But we are free to love. And exercising that freedom releases a joy that provides power to resist the appeal of lesser but still strongly appealing satisfactions.
"My Spirit is the love that My Son and I have for each other and for the world. To live by My Spirit means to love others no matter how painfully you're hurting or how badly you fail. Focus more on loving others than resisting temptation. The fruits of holiness, the fruit of My Spirit, will become visible in increased power over compulsive sin and more freedom to love Me, yourself and others.
Let the corruption within you become an occasion for humility and self-abasement that will release your desire to move toward others for their sakes. Make every effort not to sin less but to love more. Whatever sin continues not only will be forgiven but also will become an opportunity to celebrate the grace that alone supplies the power to love again. And it will also supply the power to resist temptation as you realize that yielding to it gets in the way of what you most want to do, to love as I love. You are free not to everything right and not to do whatever pleases you in the moment. You are free to love!"
Much of this revelation of true Gospel Grace is from '66 Love Letters' by Larry Crabb. I celebrate true grace and I implore you to receive and walk in it by faith. Ron Ross
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