God is Simple

Religion teaches you that you have to do a bunch of things to reach perfection in the eyes of God. Nothing could ever be further from the truth of God! You are born forgiven, though imperfect. If you believe and walk on the state of perfection God has declared for you, you will die forgiven, though imperfect. You are perfect by God’s TOTAL, complete forgiveness, though you will always remain imperfect as a human being! The opposite of what I am describing here is PERFECTIONISM. Perfectionism is a constant striving towards being better and better (morality) in order to gain the acceptance of God, and also earn reward or points towards a better looking mansion in heaven! Wow! Everything in our culture strive to teach you that you earn status by adopting rules and standards. Consequences is what corrects behavior, mostly. God, instead, begins with love, forgiveness and freedom!

Here is the reality, friend, unless you read the simple story of God from the Bible, unless you let God love you FIRST, and believe every single hour and day that you ARE perfect in the eyes of God, you will be confused by what religion will tell you! Religion will tell you that you are PERFECT if… if… if… God says, “YOU ARE! GO INTO THE WORLD AND LIVE IT OUT!”

If you choose to walk on the perfection God gave you, you don’t need to try to be better, you simply need to surrender to the power of the God who is with you all the time (The Holy Spirit). The improvements and changes of your life you get by effort and sacrifice DO NOT IMPRESS GOD at all! They don’t matter. What matters is your humble surrender to the transforming power of God. And that is the fundamental difference between RELIGION and a RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

“Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us. (1 John 4:19, TPT)

• God loves you, He created you good, like everything else in creation
• There is only one unique person like you in all of creation
• God longs to live inside of you. He is waiting for you to say Yes to Him!
• So believe in God, let God love you, love yourself and others

GRACE #

Nothing is more explosive in the Bible than the concept grace. This is the bottom line that separates all RELIGIONS (Including the Christian religion) from those WHO have a RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. RELIGION is the attempt to help God, to reach out to HIM. A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD starts with God, it follows that you surrender to His love, and God finishes the world of perfecting you. In GRACE, who believe in a 100%, undiluted, raw GRACE rooted RELATIONSHIP with God.

“What actually took place is this: I TRIED keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.” (Galatians 2:20-21)

“Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.” Powerful words of Jesus!

One of the marks of a follower of God is simplicity. Simplicity in our culture tends to have negative connotations. When we speak of someone who is “simple” we don’t necessarily mean it as a virtue. But in the Bible simplicity is the basic quality of those who will live with God throughout eternity. Did you know that? Here are the words of Jesus…

“For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes SIMPLE and ELEMENTAL again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.” (Matthew 18:2-5)

“God is simple… stop complicating your life with religion and personal anxiety…”

In Matthew 6 you will catch a glimpse of God’s view that states that the “flow,” enjoying the now, being free from worry and anxiety is the way to experience God’s best for you. On the other side “religion, and trying to be and do” is the best way to lose sight of God’s presence.

Matthew 6 introduces you into God’s wholeness, God’s simplicity and begs you to walk into it and let yourself be. Read it slowly and you will get the idea Jesus is trying to convey.

“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.” (Matthew 6)

“When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. THAT IS THE WAY YOUR GOD, WHO CONCEIVED YOU IN LOVE, WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES, HELPS YOU OUT.”

“Summing it all up, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, GRACIOUS—the BEST, not the worst; the BEAUTIFUL, not the ugly; things to PRAISE, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” What you just read is in the Bible. God is into the beauty of simplicity. (Philippians 4:8)

Simplicity in its true meaning, and out of the frame of the four misconceptions I listed above, can be a powerful voice for God. Children are simple. The most passionate love is simple. Authentic emotions are simple, as opposed to neurotic and twisted manifestations of denial.

Whatever you are facing, good and bad, offer it to God and then embrace it, I promise you will see God opening your eyes and producing magnificent spiritual, emotional and mental growth, that will impact your body, relationships and your world around.