Resistance or Love

I am seeing something of a sandwich here in Romans twelve and thirteen. Throughout chapter twelve are many instructions of what to do and not do as a member of the body of Christ. Then in the first half of chapter thirteen Paul tackles the very difficult and touchy subject of relating to authorities, which are very often not easy to relate to at times. The main issue that I am seeing here is the problem of resistance and the unhappy consequences of resistance. Then in the last half of the chapter he gives the real motivation that we must have if all of this is ever going to become a reality in our lives.

So the last half of chapter twelve and the last half of chapter thirteen describe a lot of what love looks like, and that is contrasted with the opposites of love. Therefore, it must be concluded that resistance is on the opposite side of the spectrum from love. I guess I never thought of it that way.

But upon further reflection it does make sense. For resistance almost always involves some degree of selfishness and concern over our own welfare and often includes fear of pain. Typically resistance is a form of attempted self-protection. But in our relationship with God, to engage in self-protection by building resistance walls around our heart we also preclude God from doing that job for us. For God is ready to fulfill His promises for us if we are willing to step aside and allow Him to do things His way through His wisdom and in His timing if we do not interfere with our plans and our resistance. But this involves coming to know Him enough that we can trust Him implicitly with our lives and hearts instead of taking things into our own hands. This is what faith is all about.

What I am seeing in this passage is that real faith must involve real love for it to empower me to let go of resistance. While I can intellectually believe all these insights that I have been learning from my study of this passage and agree that this is the way I want to be, if I do not have my gut-level beliefs and my heart up to speed with the truths that I am learning with my head then I suspect all of this study will leave me quite vulnerable to collapse and my heart exposed and full of pain whenever I come under attack by the enemy of my soul, especially in confrontations with authority.

I am all too aware of this scenario and it keeps me feeling very apprehensive at times. But apprehension and fear are not real conducive to fostering love and affection for God, so I try to release them and turn them over to Jesus and ask that He somehow will fill my heart and soul with more genuine love and see His face more clearly so that my heart will grow up into more maturity. For much of my problem in this area and most of my fears are because I still have not matured emotionally as I should. Due to the damage caused in my heart over the years I still struggle to rest in love (what an oxymoron) and my heart still has to work to believe in assurance that God really loves me passionately.

I suppose that maybe part of the reason I still have such intense reactions to confrontations with authorities is the residual false concepts of God that have distorted my beliefs about Him all of my life. Because my heart naturally equates the authorities in my life with my beliefs about God it is easy to see why I have such a difficult time believing the real truth about God. After all, how many correct examples of authority can we even find anywhere in the world that even come close to demonstrating the true spirit of love that God has in His form of government? But somehow in this mixed up arrangement God says that He can get me through and save me even while living under counterfeit models of authority here on this earth.

I am starting to see that my perception of authority must be first a submission to the supreme authority of God in my life before trying to address any other situation. When I am living in total submission without any resistance to the authority of God's perfect sovereignty in my heart that is motivated by His perfect love, then I will be empowered to be able to live subject to less than ideal authorities and still be filled with the love that is not dependent on the way I am treated by them.

Real agape love is never dependent on the object of that love for it to function. That is easy to say but really quite impossible to produce in my life. The only hope I have of living in love while being humiliated and shamed by corrupt and unjust authorities in my life is to be free of all resistance in my relationship to God so that His supernatural love can flow through me without any internal obstructions. I am seeing here that resistance itself becomes an obstacle that prevents the love of God from flowing through me to the very ones who do not yet believe in a loving Father and who need it even more than I.

Father, I am beginning to see this with my mind and it all sounds very wonderful. But You know the real condition and the fears and apprehensiveness of my heart and the large vacancies that still exist that need to know true love. I can only look to You and beg You to keep growing me in Your plan for restoration. There is no way on earth I can do this or become the person described in these chapters myself. I am not about to follow the example of the Israelites at Mount Sinai and say, “all the the Lord has said we will do”. Instead, I have to be honest and say this sounds wonderful and at the same time is hopelessly impossible unless You move into my heart and live Your life and instill Your emotions and disposition in me. If this is ever to be a reality in my life it will have to be because You did it through Your amazing power of love and grace.

Have at it Lord. Fill me with Your truth and grace and love and peace today. Make me a full-blown experiment of Your grace. Capture my heart totally with Your fabulous beauty and Your captivating enchantments. Cleanse me of all resistance and transform me into a new creature in Your image. This is Your glory – to reproduce Your beauty in messed up lives like mine. Glorify Your name. I trust in Your faithfulness and goodness and power to perform what You have promised.

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