It is our human nature to try to be in control of our lives. We want to be gods instead of being godlike in our relationships. We need the light of God's Word to reveal the darkness that is deep within our hearts. The spiritual condition of our human hearts is diagnosed by the prophet Jeremiah as follows:
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
One of the important objectives of reading and reflecting on the bible is to open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit. We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and to reveal our unconscious sinful desires to our conscious minds. We need to be aware of our imperfections and weaknesses so that we can draw close to God to seek His grace to overcome them.
Unlike Adam and Eve, we need not be ashamed of our naked imperfect selves and hide from God for "Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13 NLT
Jesus came to set us free from guilt, the fear of death and the wrath of God so that we can live new transformed lives in the Spirit. This will change our attitude towards the bible. Instead of looking for facts to bolster our faith, we read and listen to God's Word for the Holy Spirit to reveal truths that we need to put into practice in our lives so that our faith in God's love will grow:
"No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us." 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 NLT
The apostle Paul drew the attention of the Galatian Christians to the following truths from the Old Testament:
1. The way of the law:
If you obey my decrees and my regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord. Leviticus 18:5 NLT
2. The curse of depending on the law to be made right with God:
‘Cursed is anyone who does not affirm and obey the terms of these instructions.’ And all the people will reply, ‘Amen.’ Deuteronomy 27:26 NLT
3. Abraham's faith:
And Abram believed the Lord , and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. Genesis 15:6 NLT
4. God's promise to Abraham:
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3 NLT
“For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. Genesis 18:18 NLT
And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” Genesis 22:18 NLT
5. The need to live by faith:
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Habakkuk 2:4 NLT
6. Christ's rescue from the curse of the law:
“If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree, the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God." Deuteronomy 21:22-23 NLT
It is our faith in what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross that will set us free from trying to please God by trying to obey rules instead of having a relationship with Him. When we receive the promise of God's gift of the Holy Spirit we become God's new creations. The life of Abraham gives us a glimpse of how God is at work in our lives when we live by faith. We will not live for worldly blessings but we will live to be spiritually fruitful by being a blessing to others.
We may not live perfect lives but we can trust that God will use even our imperfections for His glory. May we live by faith and grow in faith. May we live with heaven in our hearts so that we can face whatever hells we may face here on earth.
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