I’ve always been an optimist. Never really seen things 1/2 empty but have looked at the best in people and the situations that I find myself in.
I believe that God the Father and Jesus are the ultimate optimists! They see everyone through eyes of love; always thinking the best, always willing to forgive, always going the extra mile.
When we accept the sacrifice that Christ made as payment for our sins, they see us as new creatures in Christ – we are forgiven, sins blotted out and created in their image.
We are going to look at a few verses today and see the fullness that God has blessed us with. Relationship with God is not something that leaves us half empty.
“Be sure you are not led away by the teaching of those who have nothing worth saying and only plan to deceive you. That teaching is not from Christ. It is only human tradition and comes from the powers that influence this world. 9 I say this because all of God lives in Christ fully, even in his life on earth. 10 And because you belong to Christ you are complete, having everything you need. Christ is ruler over every other power and authority.” Colossians 2:8-10 ERV
Paul, who traveled the world telling people about Christ, had the same message everywhere he went. Without Christ we will never be good enough to win God’s favor. But when we accept that Christ became our substitute sacrifice, dying for our sins to restore us to relationship with the Father, we are made new. We have open access to the Father.
“Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. 18 God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
19 What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace. 20 We were sent to speak for Christ, and God is begging you to listen to our message. We speak for Christ and sincerely ask you to make peace with God.” II Corinthians 5:17-20 CEV
Did you notice these words in the verses above; all, complete, everything, fully, and new? God doesn’t help us with part of our new life and leave us to flounder and do the best we can. No, it’s by His wonderful, loving-kindness (grace) that we are saved. We can’t do it on our own.
“I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. 9 You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. 10 God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-10 ERV
The Apostle Paul spent a lot of his time praying for the Christians in the different areas that he went to. Those prayers were recorded in the Bible so that we can also pray them and profit from them.
“I want you to know that I am trying very hard to help you. And I am trying to help those in Laodicea and others who have never seen me. 2 I want them to be strengthened and joined together with love and to have the full confidence that comes from understanding. I want them to know completely the secret truth that God has made known. That truth is Christ himself. 3 In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are kept safe.” Colossians 2:1-3 ERV
There are those words again – full, completely, all, confidence. I hope you are being as encouraged as I am in reading that God has provided for us, through Christ, all that we need.
“And we have a great priest who rules the house of God. 22 Sprinkled with the blood of Christ, our hearts have been made free from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. So come near to God with a sincere heart, full of confidence because of our faith in Christ. 23 We must hold on to the hope we have, never hesitating to tell people about it. We can trust God to do what he promised.” Hebrews 10:21-23
We CAN trust God to do what He’s promised he would. He’s never lied and He never will.
I know this is a simplistic illustration but how many of us have helped our children or grandchildren learn to ride a bike? They were wobbly, uncertain, they don’t want us to let go. So we ran beside the bike, all the time telling them “you can do it, you’ve got this”. We were instilling confidence.
God, our Father, does the same. He repeats these precepts time and again, building our confidence. He has given us everything we need to live this life in victory. He sees us as He saw Christ, complete in Him.
Fully persuaded, full of confidence, full of faith, full of hope – letting God live fully in us!