Dear sweet flipflop 2234
I love you so much and I know that God loves you!
I wholeheartedly believe you are saved and fully loved by God! The fact that you so desperately seek Him shows that! You genuinely wish for true and living faith, and does it not say in John 6:37-39
"37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39" (NKJV)
You are very clearly coming to Him. God has given you to Jesus! You would not even be coming to Jesus at all if God had not pulled at your heart.
I've been in a similar situation as the one you find yourself in right now, and I am here to tell you that you are genuinely loved, accepted, pure and righteous in God's sight!
For me there were a few truths I had to learn to fully accept that I was indeed saved and that I had been made righteous. I pray Jesus will help me with the right words and that you'll be blessed by what is written down here.
1. Starts in Eden. When God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit created man in their image.
"26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26 NKJV
- So we humans are designed and created by God. A human is a godly design.
- Not only that! we are created in His image!
But what does that mean?
- well think of it like a sculptor who puts all of his love, all of his characteristics and all of his joy into a masterpiece. Our original design, before the fall of Eden is one filled with God's love and characteristics.
2. But if we are created in God's image, then who is God?
One clue is to look at Jesus, because he reveals who the father is.
"7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10" ( John 14:7-9 NKJV)
So if we look at Jesus, we'll see who the father is. Well what do we know about Jesus?
A big one would be that He loved everyone on to death, even those who hated him, and he was sent by the Father. Does that not mean that if Jesus loves everyone and died for everyone that God also loves everyone?
I think 1st Corinthians 13: 4-7 gives a good image of God and what image we have been created into.
"4 Love suffers long
and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." ( NKJV)
3. So we are created in God's image, but the fall of Eden did happen and sin put us in bondage, so what does it matter what image God created us into before the fall?
- think of the statue again. The stone carver has finished this beautiful statue and has lovingly placed it in his living room where he can be with it, watch it and touch it every day. But, one day a thief sneaks in! The thief sees the statue and takes it. The thief is so jealous and angry and miserable that he throws the statue down into the bottom of the ocean. Down in the ocean stuff starts to grow on top of the statue, and it turns a gushy green color.
But the stone carver has a rescue plan. He sends his son to retrieve the statue and place it back in his living room. The son retrieves the statue and brings it into the living room, only now the statue is covered in gunk, and below all of the gunk you hear the statue sobbing. " look how ugly I am! I am not fit to stand in your living room!", but the stone carver knows what the statue really looks like, and starts to speak lovingly to it and gently brush off piece by piece of gunk until it is fully restored again.
The image that God created us in, that righteous person who lives and breathes Corinthians 13 is still in there, and that is why God sends his only son Jesus Christ. God would not send Jesus if you were not exceedingly valuable and important to him. And you are! Because he sees what you can't see right now, and because of Jesus that is how God sees you and deals with you in your present circumstances and in the future.
"18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense
judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act
the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous." ( Romans 5:18 -19 NKJV).
Please notice the word righteous here! When you have accepted that Jesus died for you and that his blood is enough to cover all sins, past, present, and future. You move from death to life, and from being a sinner to being a righteous child of daddy God who loves you and rejoices over you.
"5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only
that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." ( Romans 5:1-5 NKJV)
Now that you have accepted and believe that Jesus is real, that what he has done he has done once for ALL, you've also been given Holy Spirit who lives within you. Your spirit has been restored to the original image of God. ( your spirit constitutes the innermost part of you that you cannot feel. Without it your body would not be alive. It is basically the breath breathed into you by God. " 7 And the Lord God formed man
of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."( Genesis 2:7 NKJV) )
You must understand that there is nothing you can do prior to salvation or after salvation to keep it. Jesus shed his blood once and for all and that was it. Nothing more is ever needed
it is a free gift.
"10 For
the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but
the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." ( Romans 6: 10-11).
In addition to winning over sin ONCE for ALL, he has also given you a new life. You are dead to sin and you are alive in Christ Jesus.
4. So what does it mean then, if we can do nothing to become any better, try and harder, be more sincere to gain or keep salvation, but instead it is a FREE GIFT that we must ACCEPT in whatever mode of sin we find ourselves in, and then after that our spirit is restored to the original image of God?
- for one it means that we are truly free from sin indeed.
"6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." ( Romans 6:1-4 NKJV).
- We have a new life, and in that life we get to come before God and live in the relationship He always intended to have with us. Like Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall, like the statue in the sculptors living room, like the son who was lost and comes back to his loving father who throws a big party for him and loves him all the days of his life.
- We get to work on the salvation of our souls by living in the Spirit ( our soul is the tangible part of us, our thoughts, emotions, personality etc.). Basically what this means is that we get to change our minds from old thinking which focused on sin and the flesh, and instead think new thoughts, the same thoughts God has for us and about us. We are learning to see ourselves as truly New creations in Christ Jesus who loves us. This part of our salvation goes on all our lives as we gradually become more and more like the original image in our thoughts, emotions and personality.
"12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for
His good pleasure." ( Philippians 12:13 NKJV)
Now I don't believe that fear and trembling here means that you are to be afraid of losing your salvation in Christ, but rather that you are to revere the process, be aware that you'll likely be sad, miserable and fearful all your life if you do not work out the salvation of your soul with fear and trembling ( which we already established means to align your thoughts with God's thoughts for you).
"8
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God
did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those
who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." ( Romans 8:1-5 NKJV)
When we work on our salvation of our souls ( minds) it is not to be a heavy and burdensome try try as hard as you can and if you can't do it beat yourself up kind of thing. Working on our salvation here means agreeing with God's word NO MATTER WHAT.
- it does not matter what we feel. it does not matter if you don't feel saved. If God's word says you are saved by faith through grace, then you are. In the midst of feeling horrible, even if you are crying, pray thanksgiving over the fact that you are saved and that God's word says so, and thank God for pulling you close to him, that you are worth the blood of Jesus and that you are a child of God.
- it does not matter what your circumstances are. Even if it seems like everyone hates you, you get really sick or lose your job, whatever it may be. Just believe God's word. Find scripture relating to your situation. i.e. you have no money for rent, God's word says He is our provider. Thank him that he provides for you.
- God always brings peace and encouragement, even when he rebukes us of something ( rebuking means correction, not punishment by the way) there is hope and peace attached to it.
If there is no hope and no peace attached to what you are thinking, feeling, hearing, seeing etc. then it is not from God. ONLY the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, he is weak and worth no other mention than that because God is stronger and love casts out fear! So remember peace = God, no peace= not God.
I don't know if you made it to the end, but if you did I hope you find this to be a blessing and an encouragement, and that you'll go be alone with Jesus in a new way filled with hope and love because you are SO worth that!! You would not have been created if you were not worth the blood of Jesus.
P.S.
I strongly encourage you to read all of Romans 5-8 and meditate on it, and ask God to show you the truth about who you are.
if you want me to send you some video links to teachings about all this that I've written down or if you'd like to watch a video bible ( book of john I think it is) let me know and I will send you a link, or you can search it up yourself on bible.com
I love you! and I know God loves you! <3