Heart Tracks - Come....Receive!

"Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25:34....."God doesn't expect perfection. He expects us to receive His redeeming grace." Mark Rutland....
"Jesus has done all He can do for you and me: the cross, the resurrection, the Spirit and the power of God residing within us." Charlotte Gambill

There is a great tragedy in the Church of Christ the King. That tragedy is that so many labor under the tyranny of perfection and performance, and live in a spirit of poverty. We tend to live seeking to prove we belong, that we're good enough to have a seat at His table, while at the same time held captive by the fear that there will never be enough. We are driven to perform and survive. It is a terrible bondage that far too many of us live in.

Jesus said that He has freely given us all things, and that we are to fully receive all things. Our great problem often is that we have never really received them. They have never become a part of us. We've never entered into the fullness of our inheritance in Christ. Having been made sons and daughters of the Father through saving faith in Jesus Christ, He has given us a place at His Kingdom table, but we are often unable to let go of our orphan mentality. The devil so easily speaks to and manipulates that mentality. His voice, speaking into it, seeks to convince us we've no place there, and if we are to have that place, we must first earn it. So we become slaves to perfection and performance. Worse, we tend to try and make others slaves to it as well. That's why what Rutland says is both beautiful and powerful. God has no expectations of us putting forth a perfect performance for Him. Not as pastors, missionaries, husbands, wives, parents, or anything else we may put our hands to for Him. We can't this side of eternity. But we can receive to the fullest, His grace and life, which empower us to become more and more, sons and daughters in the image of Jesus. An inheritance from Him is not earned. It was given us, as Jesus said, before the foundation of the world. We needn't beg Him for it. We need simply to receive it, partake of it. Receive it as ours because it is ours. Doing so breaks the chains of perfection and performance. We take hold of what He's already given. Where in our inheritance, in your inheritance, have you yet to take hold?

In the same way, the chains of the poverty spirit must also be broken. That spirit that tells us there will never be enough, and keeps us in fear about what will happen tomorrow. That poverty spirit goes far beyond just fear of not having enough money or material resources. It also includes the fear that there will not be enough of Him for the needs that we know will come. We may have peace today, but will we tomorrow? We may have strength for today, but will we have it next week? His grace may well be sufficient for us now, but we fear about its sufficiency for the days yet to come. We always fear that we'll not have enough, so we live in ignorance of the truth that He is more than enough. In all things, at all times, He is more than enough.

How strong are these chains in your life today? I know how strong they've been in mine. I know that He's broken those chains, and that I've entered into my inheritance in Him. I don't have to wait for eternity for that, because in Christ, eternity life begins now. Yet those chains will always seek to shackle me...and you, again. When they do, we need to hear His voice calling to us, "Come! Receive!" When we do that, we enter into that inheritance reserved for us before the foundation of the world. Have you? If not, all you need do is to come.....and receive.

Blessings,
Pastor O