Some of you may look at this title and say, what in the world does that mean? I’ve been a believer now for about 17 years. I’ve realized though in more recent years I have moved from striving to become a good Christian (religion) to choosing to become who I already am in Christ (relationship). There is a huge shift when this becomes a reality.
Growing up in Indian culture, the idea of “karma” was sort of ingrained in me. For those of you who don’t know what it means, here is the definition:
Karma (car-ma) is a word meaning the result of a person’s actions as well as the actions themselves. It is a term about the cycle of cause and effect. According to the theory of Karma, what happens to a person, happens because they caused it with their actions.
Although I left hinduism a long time ago, I realized how much I still had some roots of wrong belief in the way I was thinking. I believed when things went wrong it was because I deserved it because of sin in my life. When things went right, I believed I earned it. My religious lifestyle of checking a box of quiet times or doing good things led to a pretty stressful life. I was depending on my own strength instead of accepting that I was loved unconditionally no matter what I did. This is one of the most basic, foundational beliefs of biblical Christianity that many still struggle with today. I was trying to please my heavenly Father by things that I did instead of simply believing that He loved me no matter what.
The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:8-12
Well isn’t this quite the contradiction to karma? I’m quite undone by this psalm. If we glance over this without being moved, our heart might be in harder place than it ought. When we are desensitized to the profound word of God and we read it like a book instead of treating it as our daily life-giving bread, we have to ask God to take us back our first love and break off any religiosity we might have.
When I first got sick with Lyme, I treated God like a genie in the bottle instead of a loving Father. When I wasn’t seeing “results” I had all kinds of ill-thinking towards Him and I realized how much my thinking did not align with His word. My thought patterns were so unhealthy, that they made my sickness worse. I believed I opened a door to a spirit of infirmity when I fed fear in my heart and my mind. Add religious acts of shouting scriptures, nothing changed, and neither did my hard heart. I came to a realization I hadn’t been transformed because I did not re-new my mind (Rom. 12:2). When I started to surrender and have relationship with my King once again, the healing followed. It wasn’t out of anything I did, but believing what He already did at the cross for me. I was laying in bed one day pretty sick, and I saw the scripture of becoming a new creation black and white on the wall I was facing in huge letters. God began to download the meaning of this verse to me.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Cor. 5:17)
Why had I been a Christian for well over a decade and not seen any change? Because I was living in my old patterns of childhood striving to please my Father instead of resting in the truth that I am a daughter of a King.
So what is resting in God? It’s quite simple, it’s believing that He loves you no matter what. It is settling once and for all, that no matter what trials come, He still loves you and has a plan for your life. It’s staring in the face of adversity and not being moved because you believe who you are in Him. Friend, you don’t have to do anything to earn God’s approval over your life. You’re His child no matter what (if you said yes to Him).
As a parent, it helps to understand unconditional love a little more. In the most rebellious state of either Elijah or Priya, Timothy and I couldn’t love them any less. They could listen to us perfectly, behave 24/7 and do everything right, but we would not love them any more than we already do. They have our inheritance simply because of their last name and were born from our seed. We have the Father’s inheritance because we are His children from His seed, it’s just a matter of believing it and walking it out. 
Is Priya striving or stressed? No. Is she trying to earn her last name, Bulsiewicz? Of course not, she already is part of our family and nothing she does will ever change that. There could be storms all around, but if we rest in our Father’s arms and who are in in Christ, and not get distracted by the waves and wind, we will remain safe and unharmed. When I went through Lyme, the storm was there and it was loud, but in the midst of it, I had to focus on God, who is the author of peace. It was the hardest season of my life, but He had the victory, the key to overcoming is never losing our focus. We also never strive, we just become and believe who we are and victory becomes a promise:
Psalm 91
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
Surely he will save you
from the fowler’s snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”