Balance-“a counteracting weight or force.”

Counteract-“Act against something in order to reduce its force or neutralize it.”

I think about all of the “messages” we receive throughout our lifetime.  From the time we are born, until we enter the world of adulthood, we hear these “messages” from our families….from society….maybe even from ourselves.  When we hear certain words repeatedly, they start to sound like truth don’t they?  I feel like we all have a tendency to believe what we hear.

Regardless of where the “message” originates, it’s the negative ones that stick down deep in our soul.  Things like-We aren’t enough.  We aren’t good enough….thin enough…successful enough.  And so on.  No matter what we do, what we have, who we are, it’s pretty common to feel like we are lacking in some way.  Right?

So, my friends, this is where this balance, or “counteracting weight or force” enters in.  The Truth of God outweighs the other messages we have heard.  And not only does it outweigh our “truth,” it “reduces its force and neutralizes it,” becoming the voice we hear.  My hope and prayer is for those other voices to be altogether inaudible.

What God says about me goes.  What God says about you, dear reader, goes.  Because He’s God.  He created all and knows all.  He has authority over all.

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (italics mine)

Notice the word approved.  It’s used in the past tense….as in approval has already taken place.  Completed.  This reminds me of Jesus’ words on the cross, “It is finished.”

Approved by definition means, “accepted, acknowledged, affirmed, blessed, validated, sanctified, and enabled.”  God sees us as all of these things because He calls us “co-heirs with Christ” in His word.

Romans 8:15 MSG

“God’s Spirit touches our spirit and confirms who we really are.”

The cross brings weight to the Truth and comes against what we may have been told/what we have told ourselves.  We are told instead that we are “approved” with our Father God.

So my friends, may our hearts be opened to Truth.  May we hear and believe what God says about us.  Jesus took it all, and paid it all so that we would be called sons and daughters of God.  Heirs of the King.  Remember, God loves us NOT because of what we do, but because of who we are.  His kids.  His beloved.

“God’s Spirit touches our spirit and confirms who we really are.”