Part B

A Child of God learns to trust in God and decides to imitate Christ

As a child of God, you are able to imitate God and "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). The Apostle Paul explains that once you have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior of your life, it’s a choice to “put on” love, to imitate the character traits of Christ (Ephesians 4:12-24). Here's a sampling of Bible scripture from the NLT Bible translation;

• Colossians 3:12-14 "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put-on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

• Colossians 3:15-17 "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

• Galatians 6:14-16 "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. 15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. 16 May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God."

 

When you acknowledge the free gift from God in Christ and show your appreciation for it through your words and deeds, you can actively rest in Christ peacefully, without boasting (Romans 3:26-28). It’s gratitude that initiates your Christian A, B, C’s so that God can empower your decisions with the strength you need to carry them out; D(A+B) = C .

 

Deciding to believe guarantees the Presence and power of God in you (step 1) and by obeying Godly principles because you trust Him (step 2), you gain peace and fulfillment (psycho) while showing unbelievers God (social). As a child of God who is willing to practice Christian Cognitive Consistency, you discipline yourself to be grounded in God and not tossed around by the impure and double-mindedness of yourself or others

and so you will achieve the psycho-social balance in this life (https://www.gotquestions.org/double-minded.html).

• Some, not all, biblical scriptures that make similar statements; Luke 11:13, Matthew 7:7-8, 24-27, Hebrew 11:24, Romans 6:6, 13-14, 17-18, 23, 25-26, Ephesians 1:13-14, Matthew 6:10-13, 5:13-15, James 4:7, Ephesians 5:21, Romans 1:5, Revelation 3:8, Psalm 119:165, Matthew 6:9, Ephesians 4:13-14, James 1:6.

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Trust the process

Asking God to intervene in your life is the signal to God that demonstrates, first, your acknowledgement of His supremacy and, second, your willingness to follow His ways which moves you away from the self-defeating desire for instant gratification so you can build your spiritual muscles to overcome short-term, fleshy desires (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Corinthians 9:27, Galatians 5:22-23, 2 Peter 1:3-10). Your agreement to follow Godly ways of gets you into His Kingdom (a function of the mind) but it’s your actions that show you trust God which proves you have conquered your spirit of fear by using/expressaing God's Spirit of love (Psalm 40:3, 118:6). While God wants everyone to be saved from eternal separation from Him because of sin, (1 Timothy 2:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 John 1:19) not everyone will be. God’s specific will for you is for you to choose to use your free will to do the right thing in His eyes with every decision you implement so you grow in holiness (Ephesians 4:13-15, Colossians 3:1-4 ). The verbiage used by Apostle Paul, “preserved blameless” means that while Christ has already made your spirit holy and eternal, you are responsible for choosing holiness in your daily interactions in this physical world (1 Thessalonians 5:23). This intertangling of the spirit, soul and body cause some people to respect God and others to ignore Him (Hebrews 11:6). As a child of God, it's not our job to judge the person's worthiness to receive Christ, but it is our responsibility to introduce others (by words and/or deeds), so others can see the hope and love that is in Christianity.

• God’s electric love is contagious. ShinE  God's love by imitating Christ's A,B,C's! See Appendix 2U.    ​

 

Imitating God’s love may feel uncomfortable in the beginning, but with practice and persistence, it will flow from your head to your heart and become incorporated into your demeanor and, with time and experience it will feel natural (authentic; the impact from Christian cognitive consistency. It's what the Bible calls your Holy conduct.) Your attitude towards God and His mercy softens your heart so love towards others can flow out from it. It’s this way of thinking (“the mind of Christ”) that enables you to turn away from unhealthy feelings and actions and motivates you to forgive others who have not yet learned the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16, Philippians 2:5-15, 4:7, 4:7, 2 Timothy 1:7). This mindset offsets the me-first thinking that propelled sinful desires. As a Christian, you are granted access to the Holy Spirit's power to love when your heart's intent is to try to mimic Christ-like behaviors (Revelation 4:5, 11, Zechariah 4:6, Galatians 5:22-24, Isaiah 11:2). The Holy Spirit has the supernatural ability to help you discern the right thing to do (Spirit of wisdom and understanding) and provides you with the strength to speak and act on the truth, in love, to others which reinforces your intentions builds your character integrity by being able to stand firm in your decision to serve the Lord (Psalm 100:2, Joshua 12:15, 22:5, Colossians 3:23-24, 1 Peter 2:9, Jeremiah 1:5).

 

Your acceptance of God’s love (including the universal forgiveness that you needed to have so you could be adopted into His family) helps you see that God loves you (singular), not just the world (plural). When you have made this decision to love, not just in words but in deeds (from a thought in your mind to a sincere action from the heart), the Holy Spirit will strengthen you to act in faith, consistent with the ways of God, based on your directed (free agency) intent (Ephesians 3:16, Philippians 2:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-23, Luke 10:27).“Being holy as He is holy” brings you peace with God from cognitive consistency and gives your neighbor a chance to see God at work through you (1 John 3:18, Psalm 34:8).

 

A new creation in Christ learns to love peacefully by practicing Christ-like actions (your free-will choice to do love for Love Himself-God; 1 Peter 1:15, 3:14-16).  Having this new identity, broadens your perspective and is the self-sustaining motivation that leads to implementing your behavior of Christian Cognitive Consistency on a regular basis (Ephesians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 3:12, Colossians 3:1, Romans 12:10, 12:2, Philippians 1:27). The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:15, 23-25, 29-32;

... speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ... renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, ... Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, ... Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. ... And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God ... Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

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A Child of God is saved by mercy, freed by grace and wants to live in the boundaries of a loving God (Ephesians 2:4-10, Titus 3:5, Galatians 2:16, Romans 10:1-4, 13, 1 Timothy 2:4, 1 John 5:4, James 2:24, John 14:15). To imitate Christ is to love God and, because of that priority, you will be able to love your neighbors by looking at them with mercy and then deciding to respond with grace (Galatians 6:1-5). Your feelings of gratitude and love packaged in a personality capped by humility (the honesty-humility factor in the HEXACO 6 factor model of personality; Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., & De Vries, R. E. (2014)) drives your responsible action on earth, identifiable by others who know God, or others who see what you have in Christ and want what you have it too (John 1:12-13, Ephesians 5:1, Romans 3:23-24, 8:13-17, Galatians 3:26, 1 John 3:2, Philippians 2:14-15, 1 Peter 2:7-9, Daniel 7:18, Ephesians 2:19-20). Upon entering the Kingdom of God (spiritually, while in this world), your eyes, as a child of God, have been enlightened to see opportunities to practice the ways of love and this begins your walk down a new sidewalk, actively resting in God’s electric love.

• Appendix 2R shows the connection between trusting God and loving actions towards others and Appendix 2U shows how the electric love of God is contagious. 

• Review Romans 12:16-21 and then read Romans 12:1-5 to see how love suffers long for the sake of harmony.  

• Listen to Who you say I Am .... a Child of God by Hillsong Worship.

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