FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD
- Apr 14
- 7 min read
This is how we know we are in Him: The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked. 1 John 2:6
Relationships can be beautiful and messy things.
I have recently found myself navigating a new journey of love and it has been so amazing. There is nothing quite like sharing your little world with someone - getting to know another person's heart, sharing in their experiences, and allowing your own to adapt and change. For me, it has been a whirlwind of newness and I have discovered many new treasures along the way that have left me totally humbled and in awe of the goodness and grace of God.
Relationships are like looking in a mirror. It is uncomfortable, vulnerable, and honest. It reveals your good parts and your bad parts. It also shows you your present state; and it challenges you to look within. I've learned that oftentimes I want to rub off the blemish by touching the mirror, rather than dealing with the source. I suppose the heart is a fragile place - a wild garden where weeds can grow, soil can be hard, roots sensitive, and flowers seasonal. It is also the only place that God knows completely and totally. This has challenged me so much because it has brought me back to the beginning of remembering who I am.
Much like navigating worldly relationships, our relationship with our Father is also on a journey of its own. Our relationship with God is dependent on so many factors; mainly it being time spent alone with Him in His Word, of which we all want to have more of. I thank God often for His gift of the Holy Spirit because as much as we are busy in our lives, He is speaking, teaching, and with us all the time - there is no doubt about that. And that is the difference - God is most consistent, most present, He is the loudest, and always there. It is so comforting to know that! We get to be intimate with a perfect God who has given us everything we need to live a beautiful and purposeful life. Thank You Lord!
If I am honest, it can almost feel too easy walking in fellowship with God. Especially when everything is going smoothly and well. It is when the soul-searching, heart-shaping, side-pricking matters of this life bubble to the surface that we truly really come to know our Father. I am so grateful for this.
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
Real love is only found in God. God is love. And oftentimes in imperfect relationships and in community, we are quick to judge - pointing out the splinters in people's eyes, not realising we have a log in our own. Sin shows up subtely and in small ways - the compromise here, the dishonesty there - and it is a trap waiting to ensnare us. The world is a sinful place and for a child of God, it is difficult to walk in. However, thank God that we do not belong to this world, but we belong to the Kingdom of God!
He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
I am coming to realise that the greatest battle a Christian experiences in this world is the greatest victory by which we overcome it: our faith.
A believer only truly has faith by looking into the mirror of Christ, and this mirror is His Word.
Let's read 1 John 5:1-4:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him. This is how we know that we love God's children: when we love God and obey His commands. For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. And His commands are not a burden, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
It is almost like we can forget that we have arrived to this place of victory where sin has no power over us, death has no sting, and the enemy is defeated. Jesus Christ has done it all! Being born again is not just a testament but it is a living reality that our old self has died and we have been made new. We are children of God!
So instead of just saying and believing on these words, the life of a Christian is a daily walk where we can look into a mirror and see Christ. Wisdom here is to look at Jesus Christ as the End from the Beginning. What I mean here is that the entirety of the finished work of Jesus Christ begins and ends in Who God is - He is Love and His Kingdom is Light, and He has brought us into fellowship with Him through His finished work at the cross.
Looking in the mirror back at ourselves - the same as looking at our brothers and sisters - our wordly eyes see flaws, our hearts experience pain and hurt, and our lives can easily be shaped by our own doing and foolishness. But, as children of God, looking in the mirror shows us the beautiful reflection of Jesus Christ as we are in Him.
As He is in us: we can no longer practice sin, be enslaved in sin, or fellowshipping with darkness or the world, for He is in the light and is the righteousness of God. Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because His seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God (1 John 3:7).
As we are in Him: we walk in the light, as the righteousness of God; and we have fellowship with Him and with one another, by His grace accessed through our faith. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
Do you see it? As children of God, we get to have fellowship with our Father through His precious Son Jesus. We get to know Him by believing that God sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9). When we love, it is because we have been born of God and know God. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).
And so, what is the greatest test or marker of a child of God? It is not his/her own ability to walk in perfect lawfulness or deed. It is his/her life journey to love and remain in love.
God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in this world. 1 John 4:16-17
God is so gracious and kind, that He has given us His Spirit to confirm such amazing things and to seal us in His promise of eternal life. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life. (1 John 5:11-12).
So looking in the mirror has so much to do with Who Christ is than who we are.
It is a mirror where Love looks back at you:
Patient, kind, not jealous or boastful or proud or rude; it does not demand its own way; it is not irritable, and keeps no record of being wronged; it does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out; it never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance (1 Cor 13).
Looking in the mirror of Christ is not a standard we need to strive to keep or uphold. It is an image of the reality of who we are in Him, even as we are being shaped by grace today. Christ is the image we set our eyes upon as first place in our hearts and lives. Christ is the light by which we can see and of which our faith is built upon. Despite our shortcomings or failures, our trials and sufferings, He holds victory and wears the victors crown. And as it stands, and will continue to forever, we share in His victory and are adorned too with the crown of life.
So from this place, let us make every effort to love one another, not just in words, but in action and truth. For this is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16). This is how:
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:12-17
For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' Galatians 5:14
Abba, thank You for revealing to us - opening our eyes and hearts - Your love that is shown through Your one and only Son, Jesus. Thank You for defeating death, hell and the grave, and for saving us from the kingdom of darkness and translating us into Your Kingdom of light. Thank You for entering our lives with Your Spirit and for making Your home in our hearts where we may live from healing, freedom, and perfect love that casts out all fear. Father, we ask that as You love us, may we love our brothers and sisters and continue to remain in Your love for all the days of our lives. Father, I pray that we may know You through Your love in the ways of Christ, and may our reflection on earth be a shining light in the darkness. In Jesus Name, Amen.
I encourage you to read the book of 1 John - may it bless you as it has blessed me. Praise the Lord!
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