SCRIPTURE: 1 John 3:18-20 MSG My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
THOUGHT: I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about something I’m calling parallel kingdom. We have two choices as we walk this road: one, to walk according to what the world says is real, and the other, to walk in what God says is real.
John pointed out that practicing real love is living in God’s reality. This is the same guy who says a chapter later that when love is perfected there is no room left for fear. All that terrible self-talk is really about fear: fear we won’t be enough, fear our past mistakes define and defile us, fear of what we don’t understand, fear of others, fear that God’s reality is something we might talk about, but to walk in it is impossible! Not.
Maybe the things we criticize ourselves for are true, John says, but the past doesn’t get to define our future, and our future is living – really living – in God’s reality, walking in God’s reality which is unbroken, unsullied love. God knows all about what happened then, and he knows all about our worried hearts. He still practices real love and challenges us to follow in his footsteps.
SONG: Fear is a Liar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQTnREEtuNk
PRAYER: Oh God, the rest you offer has been robbed too often by fear. I want to live and walk in your parallel kingdom, unafraid, filled with love for you, others, and yes, even my own less-than-perfect self.
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
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