"He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me." (Psalm 18:19)
For much of my Christian life I've stumbled over a faulty response to the fear of God. The kind that caused me to hide from Him when I fail instead of running to Him for healing. I lived with the subconscious belief that, even as a Christian, God rejected me in those moments when I was not living like I should. The result was a lonely, legalistic management of my own spirituality. The truth that is setting me free is that since God the Father initially ran to me I am able to run to Him when I fall short, rather than hide in fear and shame (Luke 15:20, Genesis 3:10, Romans 5:8).
I'm learning to rely on his perfection that covers my many imperfections (Genesis 3:21, Romans 5:17). And interestingly, this realization is not producing licentious living as I had feared, rather a true reverence and desire to please Him out of gratitude (Romans 6:1-4; 14-16). I'm realizing that since God has not asked me to clean myself up by my own efforts in the first place that He also does not expect me to keep myself clean by my own efforts alone thereafter. Instead, in all things He is calling for reliance on His provision of grace for the things he requires, be it payment for sin or power for holy living.
This enables me to not only have security of acceptance before the Father forever and at all times (2 Corinthians 5:21), but also enables me to truly labor in His strength (Colossians 1:29) and by His Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25; Romans 8:13) to be more like Him (Romans 8:29) and live a life pleasing to God and worthy of bearing His name (Colossians 1:10).
God is my spacious place of grace because He has not only provided for my acceptance through His Son, but also graciously given me His Spirit to transform me more and more into the person He created me to be. He has provided everything (Romans 8:1-4) and He uses everything (Romans 8:28-29). My truest and best labor is to run to Him and throw myself upon His gracious provisions (John 6:29, 2 Peter 1:3)...for this life and the next.
As Scripture so eloquently puts it, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)
This connection of deep reliance on God's gracious provision not only for eternal life, but also for the power to live a life that is pleasing to Him has revolutionized not only my internal world, but also my external one. "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him (Colossians 2:6)."
The indescribable, unconditional love of God has become my spacious place where I am free from fear (Romans 8:15, 1 John 4:18) and therefore free to paint (Colossians 3:23), to garden, to design, to write, but most importantly to love (I John 4:12,19, Ephesians 5:2), to obey (I John 5:2-3, Romans 12:1-2, Romans 6), and to serve (Galatians 5:13).