This thought came up in a comment recently from a friend out there in cyberspace, and the more I got to thinking about it, the more happy and excited I became in Him, and just wanted to share some of my thoughts on this topic, because I have struggled with sensing God's acceptance even when I have sinned, and have lived under a lot of unnecessary guilt and condemnation, thinking He was mad at me or only cared about my works. I thought His main agenda was for me to not sin, but He showed me His main agenda for me was to receive His love!! So here are some of my thoughts:
God's mind isn't thinking of our sin! Wow, how can that be, when we know God hates sin and loves righteousness, and we know that sometimes we as believers still mess up and do things wrong? Sometimes I have been filled with fear that God majored in my faults and was always thinking "why can't you do better" when He thought of me. I felt the main thing He wanted from me was for me to stop sinning and do better. And I kept failing, experiencing more and more failure the harder I tried to do rightly! It almost made me feel God must hate me or at least be really disappointed in me! Because I knew God hates sin, and I seemed to have so much of it in my life..But what is really on God's mind? Not our sin (Christ washed it away!) but Christ and His perfection and beauty, and us in Him, beautiful and perfect, too, in Him!
He has helped me understand a little better His nature! He is LOVE! Yes, He hates sin - sin, not people! He LOVES people, and He hates what sin does to people, for He hates to see them trapped by sin and deprived by sin of the union relationship with Him that He had in mind when He created people. (We were created for a love relationship with God, and sin robbed us of that by killing our spirits and thus cutting us off from being able to be united with God on that deep spirit to Spirit level, Him dwelling in us and us in Him.) He loved us so much and wanted to stop the destructive hold of sin so much that He sent Jesus to take away our sin and set us free in Christ from its power! So we as believers are set free from slavery to sin and now have a new nature that loves God and an alive spirit that is ONE with God's Spirit, His very Spirit dwelling inside us and fellowshipping with us 24/7, in fulfillment of God's very purpose in creating us! God knows that sin leads to nothing but trouble and wants to help us have the most fulfilling life, which is a life filled with the Holy Spirit Himself, with His wonderful presence giving us joy and love and hope and faith, so that we can be trusting Jesus to live a love-life through us, His very Spirit flowing through us like a river of living water, to bring love and hope to this world.
So when God looks at us, how could He help but see His new creation work? Satan's work in our life has been put down, for Jesus came and destroyed the works of the devil in our life and set us free! Do we still somtimes fail? Yes, but God knows that whole arena is who we were, not who we now are! For He has re-created us righteous in Christ, and that is on His mind!
Another way to say it is that we are more important to God than our failures, so when He looks at me He sees the child He loves over any mistakes. All the mistakes and sins have been taken away on the cross and He has promised to "remember our sins and iniquities no more" - ! So His mind is set on helping us enjoy the new life we have in Christ, that relationship with Him. The natural result of just being with Him and seeing His grace for us is that we trust Him more and Christ flows through us more to love others! Sin is naturally put down without our even trying, because it is all an effect of Jesus' life welling up in us by the Spirit! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! We live, yet not us, but Christ lives in us!
I think it is like a parent with a child - our main focus isn't on their behavior, but on having a good relationship with them and making sure they know we love them, and out of that as a bonus or by-product will come more trust in us and a willingness to accept our 'coaching' for life's situations, for they trust we want the best for them and know in wisdom what pathways would give them that happiness and fulfillment, pathways of love and honesty, for example. But the focus isn't on producing the 'prefectly well-behaved child', it's on loving our child and having a great family relationship. I know that even if my child messed up his/her life in some big way, it wouldn't change our relationship one bit. I would love that child just the same. I would still see my child as beautiful in my eyes. I wouldn't be thinking of their mistakes when I looked at them, but thinking, "This is my child that I love and accept always." That's the main point I was making here. God doesn't see sin when He looks at us, because Christ took it away at the cross and "by one offering perfected for all time" God's dear children,- us! When He looks at us, He sees the new creation child that He made in the image of His Son and re-birthed into His own family (He sees His true "blood relative", connected to Him by Jesus' blood!), and His heart is just overwhelmed with love and He sings over us with joy!
You and I are beautiful before God! When He looks at us, He is so in love with us, and He sees us as perfect in Christ and as His beautiful children, not as sinners or messed up people who "won't ever get it right". Lord, fill us with that knowledge of Your love and acceptance and may we just enjoy being in Your arms today and having You delight in us, and may Your Spirit push away any of the enemy's attacks as we just stay here with You! And may Christ live through us and the Spirit bear fruit and display His gifts through us, as we just worship! We love you and thank You that You are all about love and Jesus, and that You don't see any of our sin, for it was taken away, away, away on the cross and we are the righteousness of God in Christ! Thank You for Your love that is so amazing! Let us hear the song You sing over us today! We are in love with You, too, and want to sing Your praise! In Jesus' name, Amen!