When we
accepted God’s free gift of life through Christ, hopefully we realized that
salvation was something He did for us – not something we could do for
ourselves. Now that we are forgiven and reconciled to God, our future hope of
heaven is secure because of Christ. To put it simply, God has secured our
beginning and our end.
The big question
now is, “Does God have our middle?” We have trusted Him for salvation and
heaven, but do we trust Him with everything in between? We human beings want
proof before we act or move. Even when proof is provided, we want our emotions
to line up with that proof.
If someone is
afraid to fly on a plane, it doesn’t matter how much proof is provided
regarding the law of aerodynamics, airplane engineering, and pilot skill; if
the person’s emotions are telling them they are not safe, they are not going to
get on the plane.
Our struggle
with our emotions hinders us from accepting the truth. If I feel unloved, it
doesn’t matter how much you tell me I am loved when I am trusting in my
emotions. When did our emotions become truth?
Truth can stand
without our emotions being in agreement. When Jesus prayed in the garden to His
Father “let this cup pass from me,” (Matt. 16:39) His emotions were raging. His
emotions were telling Him that He didn’t want to go through the trial ahead.
However, His choice was to follow His Father’s will. His behavior lined up with
what He believed regarding His Father. He believed His Father was good and that
His Father knew what was best.
What do we
believe about God? Do we believe He is kind and good? If we believe He loves us,
how much does He like us? How much is He paying attention to the details of our
life?
How we answer these
questions will reveal how much we trust Him and believe He has our back. God
loved us so much He gave His only Son to demonstrate His love for us (Jn. 3:16).
The problem with our belief system is we have left out the most important part
of God’s gift. He has gifted us life. His gift of life is for now, not just
future in heaven.
There is a gap
between being “born again” and going to heaven. God never intended for us to be
in charge of that gap. As we trust Him with every moment of our life, He proves
His faithfulness to us. He proves how much He likes us. There is no detail of
our lives that He does not notice and with which He is not concerned. God’s
life in us secures our beginning, our middle, and our end (which is really not
the end).
