What do you think of when you think of One heart, One mind, and One love? It makes me think of how much we have in common as human beings and don’t even realize it. I believe we all are running after the same thing more than anything. What is it we want more than anything? What is it we chase after in life? What is it that is going to bring us contentment and peace above all else?
From my perspective, it is love. Like you, I want a love that comes from a place of sincerity and truth. I want love from a heart that accepts me. I want it from a heart that honors me. I want love from one who knows the True love. (more…)
It wasn’t anything I did. It was not from my strength or my effort at all. I had no control over what was happening to my life and me anymore. This time I would not win the battle of being in control over myself. I had chosen before not to be involved in certain activities I believed were bad for me, but mostly because I didn’t want to be out of control of my life. I had a long history of making sure I made decisions ensuring I would be in control of my life.
My part of this was over. I would no longer be the one making the decisions for my life. It looked awful, I left everything I had and the one man I thought loved me more than life itself. I had no idea what was happening and it was very scary. I traveled more than ten thousand miles alone, hoping to get where I was going in safety, knowing that I was deeply suffering a takeover in my life. In retrospect, four years later, I see that I was brought to my knees. I was being hotly pursued by God, who would not take no for an answer. He was drawing me to Him and the closer I got, even though I did not understand, the more I wanted to be closer!
I will never forget that day and the freedom that washed over me. I had lived the past with so much guilt and shame and such a deep sense of unworthiness that when I received this amazing gift of freedom, I knew that it had to be something greater than myself. It was like every weight that had held me back was lifted off of me. I did not have the stress and anxiety from all the circumstances surrounding my life. It really was like a miracle to me. I was going through one of the hardest times in my life and I had this sense of peace I cannot describe in words.
I became so thirsty too. You know the commercials they used to run for Bounty® paper towels? They would pour two pools of water on the counter and use Bounty® paper towels and another leading brand to show how much more absorbent bounty towels were. It was like I was a Bounty® paper towel on speed! I was so thirsty to learn about God. I spent hours, months, years buried in the Bible, seeking to know Him on a deeper level.
I wanted to be around other people who had gone through the same experience that I did and I prayed that God would bring those people into my life. He blessed my life immensely by bringing people into my life that had received this same gift. We all began to study together, sing together, praise and show love toward God together. The more I read God’s Word, the more I knew me. Knowing more about myself helped me to understand why I had gone through the circumstances that I had and even more so, why God had chosen to rescue me from the life that brought me such pain. Through learning about Him, I learned my life’s purpose.
Though I grew up attending church a minimum of three days a week, had the privilege of going to a Christian school and college and I married those who professed to be Christians, I never knew what the true meaning of being a Christian was until God rescued me from myself. Really, to me that is what it is all about. He is the One who created us, He knows everything about us, our needs, our thoughts, our desires; but we think we know better, so guess what? Because God offers free will, He allows us to walk this path of destruction until one day we are at such a low point and in such a state of desperation that we fall on our knees and say, okay Lord . . . Enough, I’m yours, take me, I can’t do this anymore, I surrender, I’m sorry, please just help me!
Our life continues, but this part of the journey is now with God at the helm as we choose to follow His lead. The gift of freedom from the life of our past is great, and we are amazed by it, but we soon realize that what we did against God was so hurtful to Him and we go through a metamorphic sense of remorse turning us from all the things we used to do out of a heart of love for Him! This time we have this super strength that we did not have before because we are depending on Christ for our strength, not ourselves.
As God’s children, the promises to us are many. The biggest part of those promises being fulfilled is believing God! Many believe in Him, but those who believe Him for who He is, what He can do, who we are in Him, that He is our strength, and His words truly become alive and active in us, will see God’s faithfulness to His promises.
Through reading His word, we become wiser and are able to share the love He gives us with a confidence that is once again indescribable. It is not an arrogance; it is actually a confidence with humility! We are able to determine a better and more fulfilling way to live and our eyes are opened to a new perspective that only God can provide to us.
The most amazing and faith-building part of it is that everything we have done that was opposed to Him is taken and used for good so others may see how Almighty, Magnificent and Glorious He is. He does it all in such a beautiful way that the finger points to Him through our lives! That is how He then uses us as tools for Him!
Salvation is freedom. Salvation is assurance that we will live in communion with God forever. Salvation is knowing that God loves us without reservation and there is nothing we can do to earn that love. It is a free gift! We learn to accept His gifts and His love. From that love, He heals our wounds, the wounds of those in our families, our neighbors and those who are in our circle of influence. We begin to have a passion to know His heart and desire only to be filled with His desires, not our own. He has brought us home and we receive what is a glimpse of the promise of remaining with him eternally, knowing we are always a work in progress. We know that all things in our lives are perfectly orchestrated by the Creator of this world. We know that with Him we can overcome. We know that there is nothing that can stop us if God is for us and we have a confidence, a peace, and a wisdom that others desire deeply. This is the salvation I have received.
I work now for God each day in all I do. It is the most amazing life I have ever had and I look forward to the day when I can ask why I had to go through almost 40 years of stubbornness, arrogance and self-righteousness before I would let Him take control of my life.
The experiences I had in my past life are now turned around working for God. I offer a support group for women going through relationship brokenness that stems from abuse and addiction. I write and speak to share the truth about Jesus Christ and I am a Certified Christian Life Coach. I do all this out of a heart of love, knowing that there are others out there just like me, who need someone to keep them focused while holding them accountable. In this way many others will know Him deeper and grow to be all that God created them to be!
Our God is great, He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and I am a living, walking, breathing example of one of His true miracles!
I can recall the precise moment when I realized how much God loves me. It was the most fulfilling day of my life and the beginning of many more. I recall feeling so empty and alone before I knew His love. My defining moments were at the beginning of a new year and the end of another life.
It was New Year’s Day and I was taking down the Christmas tree ornaments one by one from the tree, singing along with worship music as I was working. I love to sing and though that is not one of my better talents, I was singing out from my heart. I was alone in the house and I had climbed up a ladder to remove some of the ornaments out of my reach. Once I reached the third step of the ladder, something happened inside of me and a flood of emotions and tears began to spill from my heart and eyes. I climbed down the ladder as quickly as possible and sat in a chair. In that very moment, I began desperately calling out to God to help me and save me from my empty heart that was so heavy and broken to pieces. I told Him I couldn’t do this “life thing” alone anymore and that I needed Him to walk with me, to show me how to live and lead me in my life.
I had realized how my life before was so opposed to Him, and how much He must have been hurting as He watched over me all those years, longing for me to come to Him. I am certain He would have said to me how much better my life could be with Him. Not easier, but better and fuller with more meaning and purpose. I had reached a point of realization and recognition of my sinful life; and that no matter what I tried, doing things on my own was no longer working. My life was a complete mess and it was due to me continuously choosing the wrong path without being aware of it. Going through a divorce at the same time confirmed even more that I had not made wise choices for my life. I wasn’t a bad person; at least I didn’t think so.
What I recognized that day was that I did not have the human capacity to choose the right ways or do the best things, no matter how intelligent or analytical I was. I learned that without letting go of the control, and letting God have my life completely, that I would remain in that current state of emptiness. What I realized and had revelation of was that I was God’s child and even more so, that He loved me no matter what I had done. He had sacrificed His own Son’s life so that I could be forgiven. I remember feeling such sorrow for the way I had hurt Him. How could I have done things so opposed to all He represents?
That wasn’t all, I realized through reading His Word that He literally raised His Son, Jesus Christ, from the dead! He brought him back to life and He ascended to heaven after three days to reign at the right hand of God at the throne in heaven! When I looked at my own life, I then realized that He was offering me the same opportunity. I was being offered a chance to put my old life behind me with my sins forgiven and remembered no longer, and to begin to learn about Him and His truth, His love and His justice. Believing this and putting my trust in Him would start a transformation in me that would change everything. I had no clue what was next. There were trials and hardships to overcome, but I knew, that because I was His child, I was an over comer, therefore I sought above all else to press on to know Him deeper. As I grew to know Him deeper I became more like Him, not perfect, no one except Him is perfect, but my life began to change. My perspective changed, my heart began to soften, to heal and to allow Him to fill me up. I began to reach out to be there for other people in need, to put them first, to spend my time on things that were worthy of His honor, not things that were opposed to Him and would wither and die. I am telling you, this God that we have hears us when we call out to Him and He will answer us. It may not be exactly what we want to hear, it may be a no or a wait; but He will answer and He will do what is precisely the very best for us in the exact timing it needs to be done. He knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves. Him doing everything in His timing causes us to learn to depend on Him more and more, deeper and deeper, until that is all we know, a work always in process. Dependency upon Him and time with Him creates a new life from a life that was once dead, but is now raised in Christ as a new creation.
An intimate and personal relationship with Jesus Christ is unlike any other relationship. No matter where you go wrong, no matter what ails you, no matter how much you hurt, He will be there to guide you when you earnestly call out to Him. That is called unconditional love. There is not one human on this earth that can offer that to another in his own strength. Sure we can come close, but we don’t meet the mark because we are human. Why do you think we call the dog man’s best friend? Could it be because a dog cannot talk back or tell us how bad or disappointing we are to them?
God meets us where we are, loves us where we are and begins a work in us from a heart of love that was there at our creation. He is the Truth and He tells it in such a way of grace that we keep running back to Him for more. Why do we keep going back to Him? He designed us to need Him. He is our Creator and He buried deep inside of us an innate desire to know Him and His love. He loved us first! He gave His own Son’s life for us! When we open our hearts to believe that truth, submit our lives to Him and invite Him to be our every thing, we will begin to see what it means to truly be loved and how to love well. It is through His love that loving ourselves and others well happens. I am a living-breathing testament to this truth. I hope you too can be.
I had someone say to me recently, “You are nice to everyone, how do you do that? How can you be nice to the people who have been so hurtful toward you in the past? How do you put the bitterness and anger in its place?” My response was that,” If I continue to hold bitterness and anger in my heart toward others, it only hurts me. It causes me sickness, worry, and heartache. It causes my heart to be hard and empty. I said that I had lived more than half of my life that way and I choose not to live that way anymore. I am free from that now, I will not go back and live in the past.” That was a long way to say, which I should have said in that moment, “How can I be unforgiving to someone and not extend grace to him or her, when I know so deeply the grace which God has freely imparted to me. I desire to live in that grace every moment and I would never choose to go back. God takes care of every injustice, that is His place, not ours.” God is love; when we love others through the filter of our experiences and knowing His truth, we will reflect the love of Him into others hearts!
Through His truth He has promised to protect us, guide us and provide our needs, as well as promising the assurance of reigning with Him eternally in His Kingdom. Do you have that assurance today? Are you in need of a Savior that will love you no matter what you have done? You have one with His hands extended to you right now, inviting you to know Him. When we invite Jesus into our hearts for the strength to be all He wants us to be, we will recognize our wrong ways and turn away from them and as we follow His lead He will make a way!. He will not fail us. He is the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is unchanging. He is truth, love and grace. He is the great I AM!
If you have read this far, perhaps this has touched your heart. God may be pursuing you vehemently. I am praying for you that you will open your heart and let Him in. If you are willing to let go of the control and open your heart to Him, ask Him to take hold of your head, your heart, your eyes and ears, your hands and feet and lead you into all He has for you, to show you the truth and to enable you, by the power of the gift of the Holy Spirit, to persevere, stand firm and become all He desires you to be. Read His Word in the Bible, connect with others who truly love Jesus and share His amazing grace together bringing glory and honor to His name!
I wish you a Happy New Year! I pray that your year is filled with the peace, joy and love, available to us, only through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
I have been weary lately. I have begun to feel the hardship of the circumstances around me, yet I know deep in my heart that there is One in me that will not fail me. Even knowing this I begin to lose the stillness that my soul so thirsts for and I start to see things from a different perspective. I lose the sense of thankfulness that was so prevalent in my heart, soul and mind as I begin to whine about my circumstances. I lose touch with what is truly important, not only for my own life but those around me. I begin to think that I have lost the battle and I start floundering as a fish does when out of water. I lose the precious sense of peace that it was once there and I am left wondering how it has been possible that I have lost what was the cornerstone of my life.
I stop, I let things go, I release whatever is not working in my life to God and allow Him to take control. Slowly I begin to feel a sense of inner peace and I suddenly have more time to dedicate to the things that are genuinely important in this life. I get back into my quiet time, I am in prayer with the Almighty One and instantly I begin to see Him in my life again. It was never He who left me; it was me that left Him. I begin to realize how no matter what the circumstances are around my life, He has so strategically planned and designed them all. Nothing is by coincidence. Everything is in place to prune me, to eliminate the things that no longer are a source of true life and will hinder me from intimately knowing His love. I begin to see prayers being answered again, I see how people in my life are supposed to be there and I realize without any doubt that each one is placed here for a purpose. Though I am not God and cannot be one-hundred percent certain of the path I am on, I have great confidence and hope that He is leading me because of seeing His promises and faithfulness come alive in my life and the lives of those I love. I can see my life is different and it is better than it has ever been.
I begin to pray in the back of my mind softly, like a whisper that is ever-present. It is the Spirit of God that lives in me and gives me life. I am so thankful for each of the circumstances. Though I have walked this earth for more than 50 years, it took me half a century to realize that God loves me infinitely, He has plans for my life and no matter what tries to thwart His plan, He will not allow it. He will consistently bring me back to where He wants me to be! Yes, it is my choice to surrender all I have and am to Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of my life, but if I do not choose Him, over time He will allow things in my life to cause me to turn to Him. This is clear in the way He vengefully pursued me. I lost everything that was important to me and I was left with nothing but God to turn to for comfort and rescue. He brought people into my life each step of the journey before and after He revealed Himself to me. He opens doors and closes doors along the way for me to realize that He is in control of all things. Why shouldn’t He be? He created them all and also each of us.
My prayer today is one of immense gratitude and thankfulness that each and every circumstance in my life has been and is an opportunity for me to love another. In professing to be so in love with Jesus Christ, I too have a responsibility to Him out of that deep love to love others in the same way I am loved by Him. He is a merciful, forgiving, loving and just God and He wants nothing more than for us to love Him and one another the same.
How many times have your eyes been drawn to someone because of their outward attractiveness? How many times have you chosen people to be on your team, to be a friend, or to be a spouse based on outward appearance? Have you ever been in a relationship because someone chose you exclusively because of your appearance?
My experience has been both. I have chosen and I have been chosen, based on outward attractiveness and appearance before taking the very necessary time to be known or to know. What about you?
Many of the devastating events that happen in our lives can be at the hand of someone we chose to be a part of our lives. Oftentimes, I have wondered why I skipped the step of taking the time to really know people. I concluded, it was a lack of instruction and knowledge given to me. What I mean to say is that it seemed perfectly normal for me to fall into relationships quickly, with the most handsome man and without taking the time to really know him. I don’t think anyone ever taught me to do this differently, but if they did maybe I already had so many holes in me that I missed it!
In 1 Samuel 16, God gave Samuel the responsibility to choose a new king for Israel-a king to rule over all the people. What a huge responsibility, not only for Samuel, but also for the one chosen to sit on the throne! In God’s instructions to Samuel, He was very clear with him about not selecting a person based on appearance. Saul, a very tall and attractive man, was the king that God was replacing. Since Saul had become consumed more with what people thought of him than his relationship with God, he no longer made a great leader and king, so God had him removed from the throne (I Samuel 15).
Have you ever chosen to be in a relationship exclusively based on appearance and beauty? Has anyone ever chosen you based on those outward masks?
God’s words to Samuel were, “I do not look at the things man looks at, I look at the heart.” Why don’t we look at the hearts of people? Could it be because we are conditioned by our culture? If you have spent any time thumbing through magazines or watching television, you can easily see that our culture encourages and motivates people to believe that outward appearance is more important than anything. It is a market that drives us to think only of ourselves and how much we can accumulate. When we do this all the things constantly distract us, and as a result, we don’t stop to look inside ourselves to explore why we are doing what we do!
If God is looking at our hearts, maybe we should take the time necessary to heal. We could start with asking for forgiveness, receiving forgiveness and moving forward in His “FREE” love. It seems like it makes more sense for us to stop trying so hard to hide all of our imperfections by adding more “stuff”, and understand that God loves us just like we are! His love is free and so is His forgiveness.
I wonder what it would look like if we decided to change our way of thinking and to look at others straight into their hearts before we decide we know someone well enough to become involved in relationships. When we ignore this vital step in choosing people to be a part of our lives, we may lose an opportunity to have a full and healthy relationship. We should strive to be a person of character and not worry about all the other “stuff”. God’s love creates character. Conforming to society’s standard creates more stuff around us!
I am not saying that character is missing in all those with lovely outward appearances and beauty; what I am saying is that it’s crucial to take the time to discover your own heart and the heart of others. Then you will know if “the stuff” is just stuff or a cover-up.
What are you doing to free your heart of all the debris so when others see you they will see a true heart of love? Do you know that a free heart will attract a free heart?
There truly is nothing on this earth more beautiful, more alive and more alluring than a person who loves from a heart that is free to love!
