The Father's delight

I'm reading Neal Lozano again, this time the Unbound Ministry Guidebook. The entire book will not be as focused on this first chapter's theme as Abba's Heart is, but it has started out at this point, which is a nice reminder for me. I've been dealing with so much sleeplessness, and last night that came earlier than it has been, so I was able to read a bit in bed without disturbing my wife, who wasn't there yet.

I think that most people struggle with this idea that God takes delight in them individually. The general theological concept isn't so hard to apply to humanity as a whole, but to believe that God takes great joy in me is not so tenable for us. I have shared this idea with two people since last night: one called me crazy and the other ignored me.

It isn't so easy for me to believe, either, for that matter. I am not so in touch with God's love for me that it always overpowers my harsh self-judgment, and these responses add to my struggle by making me question: if it doesn't feel true for my beloved wife and dear friend, how could it possibly be true for me? Yet I believe that the reason that we are, respectively, spouses and friends is to help us know this truth in a way that leads us into the freedom which Christ has won for us.

The Five Keys of Unbound (faith and repentance, forgiveness, renunciation, authority, the Father's blessing), all required to fully unlock the spiritual freedom which Christ has won for us, are rooted this central idea: God takes great delight in us, and desires for us to know the joy of walking closely with Him. While we consider ourselves unworthy, our Father has revealed our true worth by giving his very Son to bring us back to Himself. This delight, likes His love, is unconditional. There is nothing we can do to keep God from rejoicing over us. Even when we sin, His anger is directed toward the thing that is separating us from Him, not toward His precious sons and daughters themselves. This is why St. Paul says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:12).

Particularly, there are lies and schemes of our adversary that we must renounce, which he nurtures within us specifically to keep us from knowing this truth, so that we don't trust God sufficiently to enter into His freedom and receive God's abundant blessing. Our enemy wants us convinced that God's love for us is conditional, and to believe that we are certainly not going to meet the conditions.

But this lie is a carefully crafted scheme, designed to keep us from knowing the Truth. God delights in you, and delights in me, and wants us to receive the gift of delighting in Him in return.