Let go…let God…and live.

(Listen to my song “Salvation” on YouTube by clicking HERE)

+++

Matthew 16:23

“You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

+++

We tend to base so much of our lives on our own ability to reason…and yet Jesus was quite clear in his response to Peter that our thinking can be far from God’s.

Who would not have sided with Peter when he rejected Jesus’ prediction that he would suffer greatly at the hands of the religious leaders and be killed?

Peter based his response on the faulty premise that Jesus was to be their new king who would lead them out of bondage and into power.

But that was not the mission of Jesus.

Jesus wanted to show that God was intimately with all people and all creation.

He wanted to show that God’s love was not just for some but everyone…especially the poor and disenfranchised.

Love was the purpose of everything.

This is what got him killed.

But how else would God show us what true unconditional love was?

How else but to be hated, persecuted, and crucified…so he could then respond to the most heinous injustice…with loving forgiveness!

This was not a payment to God or a punishment he suffered in place of us.

God is God…who can forgive without limits. Jesus told us to forgive an infinite number of times…so why wouldn’t God do the same?

What Jesus gave us was a model to follow…a model of living that will lead us to transformation and new life.

This is the way in which the kingdom of God truly comes!

Jesus is inviting us into a life-changing, life-transforming journey of letting go of the ego-generated false self…so the true self can emerge and God’s love can be manifested in this time and place.

As St. Paul says, “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:23-24).

+++

Listen to my song “Salvation” on the Live to Love album by clicking HERE.

Stream and/or purchase my songs on iTunes by clicking HERE.

Remember…God loves you!