{"id":11685,"date":"2018-09-15T08:18:51","date_gmt":"2018-09-15T12:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=11685"},"modified":"2018-09-15T08:36:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-15T12:36:52","slug":"11685","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/?p=11685","title":{"rendered":"Christ-life Inside Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I’m reading in C. S. Lewis’ Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature<\/em>, compiled by Andrea Kirk Assaf & Kelly Anne Leahy, and found this quote on page 56, taken from Mere Christianity<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or — if they think there is not — at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To me, this puts the whole idea of guilt and that we can somehow disappoint God into perspective.<\/p>\n

He doesn’t love us because we’re good. He makes us good because He loves us.<\/p>\n

Was the Father disappointed when the prodigal son took his inheritance early and chose to squander it and go feed the pigs?<\/p>\n

Well, it’s not like he was happy<\/em> with the choice, and it’s not like he wouldn’t feel his son’s pain along with him.<\/p>\n

But an all-knowing, all-seeing Father would also know that the son He ended up with has much better character, is a much better person altogether than if he had pouted and sulked and not really lived out his rebellion. In fact, he ended up in a better place than his older brother who did everything “right.” So, knowing the big picture, can the Father really be disappointed?<\/p>\n

He sees His son make a bad choice — but knows that it going to make him end up as a good person — and better than he started out.<\/p>\n

He loves his son. His bad choices, his treating the father disrespectfully don’t change that. And he knows that in the end, good will come out of his son’s bad choice.<\/p>\n

And that, to me, is an answer to when I feel like I have let God down. Who do I think I am? Did I think God loved me because I was doing everything right and now I’ve jeopardized that?<\/p>\n

No, God loves me. God loves me!<\/p>\n

I do think He watches with joy when I make good choices. And He feels my pain when I make bad choices.<\/p>\n

But He knows that the circumstances He lets into my life are shaping me into a better person, in spite of myself. And that’s delightful.<\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m reading in C. S. Lewis’ Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature, compiled by Andrea Kirk Assaf & Kelly Anne Leahy, and found this quote on page 56, taken from Mere Christianity: The Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}