God deserves our love given even with our lives and our perfect trust. What kind of trust and love do you have in God? Let's delve into the secrets to achieving perfect trust and love for God, the Lord, and the Holy Spirit.
You should cast off fleshly thoughts that are hostile toward God.
Romans 8:7 reads, "Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so." What does 'the mind set on the flesh' refer to?
'The mind set on the flesh' is untruth that comes out from the heart through the work of soul. It agitates lust in heart and hinders people from developing spiritual faith that pleases God. If one has this fleshly mindset, they pass judgment on everything according to their own standard and they think pursuing personal benefits. In this mindset, people criticize something that is right, mistakenly think of goodness as evil, and just live without knowing they are wrong.
Let's say you bumped into a person who you were fond of, but he didn't greet you back and made an odd face though you greeted him. You may think, 'Did I do something wrong to him? I thought he is nice, but he turns out to be rude!' You may change your thought in an instant. You didn't consider his situations at all and judged him based on your cunning and changing heart.
2 Samuel chapter 6 depicts King David who rejoiced over the ark of the LORD when it was carried back to Jerusalem. He joyfully danced and praised God. Seeing this, his wife, Michal, despised him and thought he behaved with no dignity. She judged him from her evil and arrogance though his deeds belonged to goodness in the sight of God.
In Luke 13, there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by an evil spirit. She was bent double and could not straighten up at all. Jesus laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.
But the synagogue official got indignant because Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath and began telling the crowd to get healed during weekdays, not on the Sabbath day. He did not care that the power of God had taken place and those living miserably had experienced the love of God. Because he had no love and no goodness, he passed judgment in his self-righteousness and framework and insisted what he said was the will of God.
If one has untruthful attributes such as hatred, jealousy, and greed or has self-righteousness and self-frameworks, fleshly thoughts are retrieved. They may think of something good as evil. Thus, we should root out the fleshly thoughts that are hostile toward God. If you see something good not as goodness, it is your evil. You should cast it away quickly and try to have spiritual thoughts in every matter. As 1 Corinthians 2:13 says, "Which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words." only when you have spiritual thoughts can you understand and trust God who is spirit.
You should understand God's good will by hearing what the Holy Spirit says and receiving His guidance
In Matthew 15, a Gentile woman asked Jesus to cast an unclean spirit out of her daughter. Then, He said, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." Rather than feeling hurt, she lowered herself and said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs."
Jesus praised this humble confession she made and answered her petition instantly. If she had insisted on her pride, she would have felt hurt, lost heart, and given it up. However, the woman had enough faith to receive the answer. That's why she could unchangingly hold onto Him with a confession of goodness.
Jesus knew her faith, so He gave her the opportunity to fulfill the measure of justice for the answer by making her show her faith until the end. He also meant to elicit her humble confession to show what true faith is like to those who easily lose heart, blame God, and change when the answer does not seem to come.
Those who discern everything in goodness trust Jesus' goodness and love, so they may ponder upon why Jesus did so. After you accept the Lord and receive the Holy Spirit, you will be able to be guided by the Spirit and thereby discern everything in goodness to the extent that you cast away more of evil and fleshly thoughts.
However, if you have evil thoughts, untruth, and attachment to the world, the Helper the Spirit cannot work. When you destroy fleshly thoughts, receive the help of the Holy Spirit and think in goodness, you will realize the profound will of God. As you realize more of it, your trust will be deepened.
Trust increases as love increases
Peter, a disciple of Jesus, trusted and loved Jesus during His public ministry, but after the crucifixion, his love came to be even deeper. His Rabbi, Jesus, whom he loved so much, the good and precious Son of God was crucified miserably in front of his eyes. However, he denied Him rather than protect Him, and even cursed at Him.
Nevertheless, Jesus quietly looked at him without any rebuke and took the suffering of the crucifixion. After he witnessed the suffering of Jesus who died for him, his love increased and deepened. As love increased, so did the level of his trust in Him.
He had been afraid even before a servant-girl, but after the Lord's resurrection he preached the gospel even when surrounded by those with murderous looks on their faces. Even when he was crucified upside down, his trust did not shake whatsoever. He could be martyred gloriously in fervent love and strong trust.
Let's become united in true trust and love on the earth and comfort and give love to God in New Jerusalem.
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