Orphan vs. Child of God

As I was reading a section from the Gospel Centered Life this question popped up that hit me in a spot that is all too familiar - and I was wondering how it would hit you as well...

As God thinks of you RIGHT NOW, what is the look on His face?

What did you come up with?  For me, I immediately went to a disappointed look.  Was yours an angry look?  Does his face say, "Get your act together?" or (this would be true for me) "If only you do a little more, try a little harder..."

"If you imagined God as anything but overjoyed with you, you have fallen into a performance mindset.  Because the gospel truth is: in Christ, God is deeply satisfied with you.  You are united with Jesus!"

When I read that sentence it still was a little like - yes, I know that those are the words that the Bible says... but.  And even in my "But," I know that I am not being true to the truth.  So why doesn't the truth penetrate my heart completely?

The article talks about the difference between having an orphan (or slave) mindset and a son/daughter mindset.  Here's an exercise they offer (I won't list everything).  Which of the areas would you like to grow in during the next year?

Orphan ----- struggles to trust things to God, lacks confidence, solution to failure: try harder, has to fix your problems, needs to be in control of situations and others, is defensive when accused of error or weakness, lives on a success/fail basis, needs to be right,feels as if no one cares about you, strong-willed with ideas, agendas, and opinions.

Son/Daughter ------- feels freed from worry because of God's love for you, able to take risks-even to fail, doesn't always have to be right, is able to freely confess your faults to others, content with what Christ has provided, open to criticism because you rest on Christ's perfection, freedom from making a name for yourself, prayer is a first resort, Jesus is more and more the subject of conversation, experiences more and more victory over the flesh, aware of inability to fix life, people and problems.

When we act out of the orphan/slave mentality we are actually minimizing the gospel, minimizing God's holiness.  As the article puts it - "If we really understood the infinite majesty of God's holiness, there's no way we'd ever think we could live up to his standards! The face that we try to gain God's approval by 'right living' shows that we've reduced his standards far beyond what they actually are.  Rather than being awed by the infinite measure of his holy perfection, we have convinced ourselves that if we just try hard enough, we can merit God's love and approval."

These are the things that my mind and heart are chewing on today.  I hope they cause you to ponder as well.