Further Up

Don’t downgrade your joy, your dreams, your faith, or your relationships to fit your circumstances. You are who God says you are, not your critics, and not your bank account. Every time you agree with the enemy’s negative views of your life, you put a limit on how far and how high you are able to go with God. Instead of letting God upgrade your life and expand your influence, you stuff your identity into an ever-shrinking box to protect yourself from being hurt by what might go wrong. Every day that box has less and less room for God’s truth, love, grace, hope, joy, and freedom. There’s barely enough room for frustrated obedience to religious expectations, much less following Jesus to the tops of the mountains.

For years, I could read (or preach) something like “in Him is fullness of joy”, but I couldn’t receive it. I would either believe that was for someone who wasn’t so broken, or someone who was more successful, which I was told meant large numbers of people who put large numbers of dollars in an offering basket. I would listen to the enemy’s judgments, lies, twisted half-truths, and live in them, dragging my family down with me.

Obedience is so important to our growth in God, but it took me a long time, and God patiently getting me through some hard, self-imposed trials, to accept that God loves me regardless of my obedience. He doesn’t measure out His acceptance or approval of me based on my performance, despite my opposite experiences with people. He actually cares about all the details of my life- and your life- what you think, what you feel, and who you are. He is fully invested in upgrading your heart and mind to occupy the ever-increasing realities of His love for you, despite what is going on around you. He is totally committed to demonstrating that love, and His grace, peace, kindness, goodness, joy, favor, hope, and freedom to you, so that they become not just second-nature, but your first.

Get rid of the box. Burn it. That means you don’t allow yourself to see today from anything less than God’s point of view. Not your family, not your job or coworkers, not your house, car, or bills, and certainly not yourself. It means you intentionally look and listen for all the ways He is showing you His goodness. Determine to make decisions based on His peace, rather than on just pros and cons. Put yourself on a constant watch for His blessings and encouragements, instead of looking for everything that could go wrong. Don’t tell me how difficult that is. I know. I am a recovering what-might-go-wrong addict. Determine to be happy based on what God tells you about yourself, instead of letting your circumstances determine how happy you’re allowed to be. Let Jesus upgrade your relationship with Him, and you will upgrade every part of your life. It’s time to go further up, and further in.

“You will show me the path of life, because Your presence really is full of joy” (Psalm16)