17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”
2 Corinthians 5:17-20
I read a list of “Who We Are In Christ” to Ann and myself each morning. The list is taken from one of Dr. Neil Anderson’s books. One item in the list caught Ann’s attention today. It says, “I am reconciled to God and am a minister of reconciliation.”
Ann said, “Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they would not be reconciled to all the trust, love, peace, rest and joy He knew He could give them.”
As Ann and I talked about being reconciled to God, it hit me that, just like the rest of scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6 and Romans 8:28 are inseparably linked by the love of God. We can trust in the Lord with all our heart because God is working all things together for our good. We can yield to the love God is reaching out to us with, and making available to us, through these two scriptures or we can choose not to yield to them and not experience a large part of His love, a large part of our Father.
God, Who is love, wants to reconcile us to Him, to all that He is. He does this so we can trust Him all the time. This is what faith is all about and why our faith is so important.
“Be reconciled to God.” What an immense declaration from God to attempt to bring us back into His love where we can trust Him and never feel the need to ever fear again. All we ever have to do is yield to Him, to His Word, to His amazing love.
For (Because) God so loved the world (that’s you and me) that He gave His only begotten Son (He held nothing back so that reconciliation with Him could happen), that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
For God so loved…Mmmm.
Reconciliation – Can you hear Him calling out to you today with His love? Trust Him. Rest in Him.
God bless,
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.