The exclamation echoed loudly in my head as I awakened that morning. “You’re a fraud!” The indictment was coming from an adversary – the adversary – but I had to agree with him. I not only felt like a fraud, but I also had behaved like one. I had sinned against God. The night before, when an unbelieving friend wondered aloud with me about how I’d been able to remain standing after our son’s passing, I had let fear overtake my faith. Rather than tell her it was because of Jesus and His abundant, eternal love for me, I simply answered, “I don’t know.” The conviction hit me immediately. And here’s the kicker: earlier that very day I had stood with Sue in front of a large crowd of women encouraging them all to pass along Jesus’s invitations to others. Lord, have mercy!
Now, just to give you a little more access to my heart, as humbling as it is, I have to tell you what my response to this circumstance would have been not so long ago. My response to moments of Spiritual conviction would have been to run. Like Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, I would have hidden, certain that God would be mad at me. But this day was different. This day I sensed the Lord Jesus saying, “Come to Me.” And so I did. I immediately met with Him in prayer, confessed my sin, and waited for His admonishment. But that’s not what happened. Instead, I sensed Jesus opening His arms in love, to receive me, restore me, and redeem my mistake. Oh, He agreed that I had sinned. He spoke to my heart about trusting in Him more and demonstrating my love for Him through obedience. But, in true reflection of His character and His plan, Jesus met me with forgiveness and cast my sin as far as the east is from the west. Because that’s who He is, and that’s what He does. We read about it in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. – Ephesians 1:3-6 MSG
By His love. God wants to make us whole and holy, not by our cleaning ourselves up, not by us living perfectly, but by His love. The One who is Love wants to redeem us by His love. And when Love extends love, our hearts become vessels of love as well. Love for Him, love for Life, love for walking His way, and love for others. What a glorious gift! Yet, how often do we mischaracterize Him? How often do we see Him as Heaven’s bouncer, turning us away because of our sin, rather than as our Host preparing a table before us and anointing us for the battles against our natural tendency to sin? How many of us have received the gift of Christ’s salvation, only to try to re-earn it out of fear? The truth is we do go astray. The Bible is clear that we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned, every one of us, to his own way. And what is God’s response? The Father laid our sins upon His Son. The Son, Lord Jesus, the Shepherd, leaves the 99 and pursues the one who has strayed from the flock. Because He wants to make us whole and holy, and His instrument is His love.
Would you like to live your days in full BLOOM, friends? Then, as we’ve been outlining for the last several weeks:
- Be mindful of your heart, taking care to let God’s seeds of truth and love take deep root.
- Let God search your heart and unearth the sin and snares that harm it.
- Open your heart to His Word, by spending time opening it daily and asking God to reveal new depths of His truth to you.
- Open your mind to His Spirit, allowing Him to remind us of God’s truth and to empower us as God’s vessels.
- Move back to our Savior when your heart goes astray, believing deeply that Jesus loves you and wants to make you whole and holy.
That’s been His aim since the beginning of time. Run to the One who has had His eye on you from Day One. He meets us where we are, and He adores taking us to new, freer places, revealing His glory to us and through us.
Linda R. Maynard for The Sublime Soiree © June 2025
