“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 ESV
Wow, this verse is loaded with hope, comfort and encouragement. God is in your midst, with you and beside you. He is PRESENT and aware of what you and I are going through and he cares. He is POWERFUL and he wields his strength on your behalf to rescue you from yourself and all your enemies. He is PLEASED with you. The Lord doesn’t just tolerate you, He takes great delight in you. He is 100% for you not against you. He really loves you and even sings over you.
Why do we as God’s people struggle to believe this? Why do so Christians live as if the Father has a perpetual frown and feelings of disappointment directed toward them?
I believe it’s because of amnesia. That is gospel amnesia. We have a tendency to forget how amazing the grace of the gospel is and seem to think, perhaps subconsciously, that the guilt of our sin must be carried by us for a certain amount of time as way to show remorse.
We forget the Father’s heart towards us or we just don’t know it deeply, intimately and accurately. Often our experience with our earthly fathers or lack thereof plays a significant role in distorting our view of the Heavenly Father. Earthly fathers are designed by God to reflect a mirrored image of the love, compassion, patience & faithfulness of GOD the Father.
When you became a Christian you were given a right standing before the Father, declared righteous before Him because of the righteous work of Jesus‘ life given for you as a sacrifice for your sins. You are now “accepted in the Beloved”, you are redeemed, you are forgiven and you are sealed with the HOLY SPIRIT (Ephesians 1:3-13). The Father has lavished love and grace upon you who are “in Christ”. He chose you and set His love on you even before you were born, knowing all the sinful choices you would make that He would forgive and cleanse by the blood of Jesus. God demonstrated His love for you that while you were still a sinner Christ died for you (Romans 5:8). He took your place, your sin, your guilt and your shame. So why would you walk in any of that any longer. You died and now have new life because of Christ. You now have a new identity and trajectory for life. God has given you purpose and has good plans for your days here on earth. It’s time to live in these realities and avoid false narratives and influences on your thinking and your feelings. It’s time to be fully alive as a beloved child of God, enjoying the grace of God, doing the will of God and reflecting the glory of God with joy inexpressible!