I have only posted once since starting this blog... I am slow. I have considered myself to be in a spiritual shadow... A dark place... A quiet place... In the shadow of my Creator's wings. What is ironic about being under the wings of my Lord is that, it may seem dark on the outside, but on the inside there is a fire is being fueled... Silence is about to burst... Love is tearing the seams... God is rebuilding me and strengthening me. I don't have to prove it, I just feel it.
Time with my Lord has to be more adundant in my life, this I know... But my devotion and dedication to His heart will never cease.
Pray for me that I make more time for God to rebuild my life... I need this as I have felt torn down, devestated even since my divorce. I always need more of God no matter what... But let me share a secret, when a spouse doesn't want you anymore there is one other "spouse" that never gives up on us... Bride to the church, "Jesus"... He will never give up.
I love you all.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The faith to Love... The love for faith.
Often a time do I sit and ponder my imperfections and how good God is. Rarely do I sit and try and put two and two together about why people may think, act or be a certain way (unless of course something painful happens). I just cannot figure it out… And I shouldn’t. It causes unnecessary insanity. God has it all in His sovereignty and no person should go through that.
Just yesterday I was watching the first lesson of “The Truth Project” by Focus on the Family and God was revealing to me the truth about faith. It is common that we as humans compare things or metaphorically visualize things and situations to understand or fathom something that may seem unfathomable. That is what I sure did yesterday; I saw and compared how faith and love correspond and work together. I learned about faith and was reminded through its characteristics how much alike it is to love.
One thing I always see is how love is not easy to explain. It is so deep, enigmatic and definitely Godly. The same can be said about faith. In every characteristic I could list about faith I could almost certainly list about love. These were my notes and findings:
Faith:
· It is a choice.
· It requires action and exercise.
· You sometimes don’t feel like doing it.
· You continue to stay rooted in it even when everything seems to point elsewhere.
· It requires dedication.
· It is not a feeling.
· It OVERCOMES our feelings.
· It requires much patience.
Love:
· It is a choice.
· It is an action and requires exercise.
· You sometimes don’t feel like doing it.
· You continue to stay rooted in it even when everything seems to point elsewhere.
· It requires dedication.
· It is not a feeling.
· It OVERCOMES our feelings.
· It requires much patience.
Wow! It dawned on me that faith and love are like a mother and baby: they require each other for nurturing, they bring joy and happiness, they grow together, and without one the other ceases to exist. But still, faith and love are different… Not in a characteristic sense, but in an existing sense (mother and baby are different beings, but are from the same blood). So true is this.
Upon reflection in God’s word I found these scriptures understanding how these two enigmas coexist.
(WOW!!! Oh my… Just as I was going to biblegateway.com, the scripture of the day popped up and it shocked me… I will share it with you after).
1 Corinthians 13:1 1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Corinthians13:2 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Corinthians 13:13 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(God states that love is number one, well after all… God is love. You can have faith in God but without love it ceases to exist).
2Corinthians 2:8 5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
(Now that takes faith!)
All of these scriptures use the word “love” a lot, but it is faith that is required to have love to act upon God’s pressing. As I was going to biblegateway.com to lookup those scriptures this is what I discovered: Verse of the Day: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”- 1Corinthians13:6-7. To always protect requires strength which requires faith to get the strength. To always trust, you need faith and strength. To always persevere you need strength and you need faith… And for all of those you need LOVE.
Just the other day did I read that scripture and it encouraged me to love more… But now I understand that I need to exercise my faith and show my love more to allow God to shine His glory all over.
Sit, be still and pray. Know this, without love you have no faith. Without faith you have no love. I hope you are challenged as am I to always remember to exercise love and faith together so that God can work more openly in our hearts.
I think we should all reflect on our faith when we get so annoyed by someone and become bitter, or when someone does something to us that may be unfair or not nice and we react with hardness... Let God supply you strength to grow in faith and learn to love more and more.
Praise be to God and let His glory shine.
Just yesterday I was watching the first lesson of “The Truth Project” by Focus on the Family and God was revealing to me the truth about faith. It is common that we as humans compare things or metaphorically visualize things and situations to understand or fathom something that may seem unfathomable. That is what I sure did yesterday; I saw and compared how faith and love correspond and work together. I learned about faith and was reminded through its characteristics how much alike it is to love.
One thing I always see is how love is not easy to explain. It is so deep, enigmatic and definitely Godly. The same can be said about faith. In every characteristic I could list about faith I could almost certainly list about love. These were my notes and findings:
Faith:
· It is a choice.
· It requires action and exercise.
· You sometimes don’t feel like doing it.
· You continue to stay rooted in it even when everything seems to point elsewhere.
· It requires dedication.
· It is not a feeling.
· It OVERCOMES our feelings.
· It requires much patience.
Love:
· It is a choice.
· It is an action and requires exercise.
· You sometimes don’t feel like doing it.
· You continue to stay rooted in it even when everything seems to point elsewhere.
· It requires dedication.
· It is not a feeling.
· It OVERCOMES our feelings.
· It requires much patience.
Wow! It dawned on me that faith and love are like a mother and baby: they require each other for nurturing, they bring joy and happiness, they grow together, and without one the other ceases to exist. But still, faith and love are different… Not in a characteristic sense, but in an existing sense (mother and baby are different beings, but are from the same blood). So true is this.
Upon reflection in God’s word I found these scriptures understanding how these two enigmas coexist.
(WOW!!! Oh my… Just as I was going to biblegateway.com, the scripture of the day popped up and it shocked me… I will share it with you after).
1 Corinthians 13:1 1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Corinthians13:2 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
1Corinthians 13:13 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
(God states that love is number one, well after all… God is love. You can have faith in God but without love it ceases to exist).
2Corinthians 2:8 5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. 9The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
(Now that takes faith!)
All of these scriptures use the word “love” a lot, but it is faith that is required to have love to act upon God’s pressing. As I was going to biblegateway.com to lookup those scriptures this is what I discovered: Verse of the Day: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”- 1Corinthians13:6-7. To always protect requires strength which requires faith to get the strength. To always trust, you need faith and strength. To always persevere you need strength and you need faith… And for all of those you need LOVE.
Just the other day did I read that scripture and it encouraged me to love more… But now I understand that I need to exercise my faith and show my love more to allow God to shine His glory all over.
Sit, be still and pray. Know this, without love you have no faith. Without faith you have no love. I hope you are challenged as am I to always remember to exercise love and faith together so that God can work more openly in our hearts.
I think we should all reflect on our faith when we get so annoyed by someone and become bitter, or when someone does something to us that may be unfair or not nice and we react with hardness... Let God supply you strength to grow in faith and learn to love more and more.
Praise be to God and let His glory shine.
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