God Repurposes Our Experiences

 

God Doesn't Waste Anything

 

God does not waste the hard things that have happened to you. Pasts are repurposed. He heals you and then reveals how you can use your experiences to help someone struggling in a similar area.

That’s the way it works, and it is a good thing. The end of a tragedy is often the beginning of a new phase. You may discover a new purpose and a cause to advance after a loss or heartbreak.

Comfort comes in knowing you can be an encouragement to someone else, though the hard times you experienced were not easy. Others benefit from your insights, grace, and acceptance.

Think of all the organizations formed by those who saw a need and knew they were a good fit: Their personal experiences stream-lined with opportunities to minister to others and meet people’s needs.

Those in a crisis mode look for people who understand and empathize. They have a great need to talk and talk, to get it out, and to let the emotion run its course. Their need splashes on others.

What people need is not so much the advice as it is the listening and understanding. Overcomers listen well to hurting individuals. They relate as they offer hope where none existed on the outset.

Care and concern repurpose the bad for the good.  Thank you for caring.


*Photo by Nathan Dumlao, Unsplash

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU'RE LOVE CHALLENGED

WHEN YOU ARE  LOVE CHALLENGED

There’s an art to loving well.

But loving like that doesn't grow on trees. It doesn't magically happen. 

Can a person learn to love who wasn’t loved in childhood? I was loved as a child as were my siblings so any answer I produce in response to the question is not from my own personal experience other than a problematic marriage.

I’ve read a lot of books from a variety of perspectives and experiences that touch on this subject. Love is tricky. You can’t make yourself love just because you want to, and I don’t mean 'making love.'

You can’t fake it till you make it. 

Love comes from within. Love originates inside intrinsically, and from outside, like in parent--child bonding. Trust and distrust are learned relational behaviors.

An infant, toddler, preschooler, gradeschooler, and teenager are all sensitive to their environment. Gaps form from constant neglect, abuse, emotional injury and deprivation. You can’t give what you don’t have.

Back to the original question, can you learn to love when you weren’t loved? Here’s my take. I believe it is possible. It depends on several factors falling into place, which includes doing the hard work.

How so? 

You have to want to love.  You have to chase it by dealing with your past, sorting it out, letting God help you, and learning all you can that is helpful, non addictive, healthy and healing.

At best, learning to love is a slow journey. Having God in your life is the best thing you have going for you. God is love. His love is transformative. He heals in watershed moments, in layers of healing that transpire in segments over time. You were damaged in layers, you heal in layers.

I’ve known and know of people who now love well but weren’t loved in their pasts. They’ve traveled a journey to change it up. It wasn't easy. They had to give up self-protective behaviors and addictions, manipulative and self-serving relationships.

Their stunted lives blossomed. 

They’ve had deep healing. Their empathy for others on the journey is remarkable. Their demons no longer haunt them. Most are in a community that understands, loves, and is supportive.

Learning to love well is worth pursuing, however long it takes.
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Photo by Tim Mossholder, Unsplash

The End Result

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1

Embrace your metamorphosis. What happens as you deal with pain and suffering is much like the butterfly’s life cycle. While in its cocoon, during its time of wait, a transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is taking place. The butterfly will never emerge if this process is interrupted. It takes time and a season of change, though not observable since its metamorphosis is hidden from view by the fiber walls of its chrysalis. When the time is right and the metamorphosis is complete, the butterfly must be left alone as it makes its exit from its hidden place to re-enter its environment, then to dry it wings before taking its virgin flight. To interfere will bring harm to the butterfly, preventing it from becoming the beauty it was meant to be.

We, as well, must endure a time of being closeted within a private cocoon of God’s design. The transformation of our hidden life through the tempering of troubles and difficulties mixed with trust and spiritual refreshment is a process we must personally experience—alone—uninterrupted by human well-meaning detractors. To deny ourselves this effort will abort our destiny’s end. When one emerges from the dark places to reenter the light, it becomes possible to see the true nature of the miracle of God’s grace in our transformed lives. When our metamorphosis is complete, we will have become what we were meant to be—a divine created soul with exquisite beauty and gentle graces of great worth and value to God and to fellow human-beings.

Do not resent the troubles or hard times, they are the means to bring you into close fellowship with your Father God in intimacy of relationship. It is where spiritual needs are met and faith is developed. Praise him!

Dear Father God, so much I love Thee. You are the potter and I am the clay. Mold me into the shape you wish me to be that I may be used of Thee.

Relationship with God: Intervention no. 8

Christian Life is about Relationship

Finding God in the Daily

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; 

and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matthew 6:33  KJV

Christians have something special that no one can take away from them. They have a living relationship with God.

THE MORE WE LOVE GOD, the more we are able and free to share His love. Spiritual truth enlivens and equips the Christian for what life throws at them as the focus moves from rules, regulations, and scripted spirituality to a life of faith, trust, and fullness in God. Healing of damaged emotions from past painful experiences dovetail with a life embedded in a living relationship tempered and held fast by God.

Spiritual life like this is not established without challenge and hard work but at the same time it is anchored with meaning and strength. In this way, a true seeker of God comes to the knowledge of God in the context of a living relationship with Him. The result is to know and experience an ever-deepening awareness and inner awakening that stirs the soul to radiant life.

A relationship with God is one of strength and enjoyment, hope and help, love and goodness. This is a reciprocal friendship. The believer goes from duty-bound to love-bound as the relationship becomes genuine, closer, and intimate. Obedience and service spring forth from this relationship, out of the believer's love for God and also as an outworking of His love in them. The Christian's spiritual life continues to grow as they desire and receive pleasure in pleasing their Father God. 

Before this turned toward the better good, there was spiritual purpose without spiritual process, like an end without the means. What was missing in their spirituality was an emphasis on developing a spiritual-personal relationship with God as in a life totally integrated with the touch of God. 

What does this kind of relationship look like? 
    - It is about relationship with Father God, Christ Jesus, 
            and the Holy Spirit. 
         - It is about embracing Christ and staying there until He 
                begins to change you. 
              - It is a process of adding love to love to love to love.
                   - It is about changing what needs changing
                       and being fine with it.

Once God becomes real to the individual, then life as a Christ-follower is established on a foundation that does not crumble when life gets hard or disappointing.

Relationship is relationship. Like in a healthy relationship, when we love someone and they love us, we will want to please them. We draw upon this friend during the hard times. They are honest with us, speak the truth with us. We can depend on this friend when we are not at our best. 

This is this way is is with God. God is our all in all, our Deliverer, our Sustainer, our Lover, and our Redeemer. God makes all things new in His time.

Dear Father in Heaven, Thank you for Your love, faithfulness, and kindness. Amen

To God be the Glory

A Message of Life
Inspiration 46

Spiritual Life--Inspiration 8

Spiritual Life Speaks Life to the Soul

 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and Thou shalt be saved. --Acts 16:31 KJV

 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. --Romans 10:10 NIV

SPIRITUAL LIFE is a gift. God offers spiritual life to anyone who by faith believes in Christ's offer of salvation. However, this faith is sincere in its belief. Christians are Christ Followers. They have trusted in Christ, received forgiveness for their sins, and have eternal life. Spiritual life has lasting value according to John 3:16, which says "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." That which is eternal is in them. It is amazing how this comes to pass. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the three persons of God. Each has their own function and all three are active. In the rebirth of a soul, as the soul comes spiritually alive, it goes from spiritually dead to spiritually alive. As children of God, these baby Christians have a new identity. They are now in Christ. We could say their identity is changed from lost sinners to that of kingdom saints. Life in Christ is of the heart, mind, and soul as the spirit awakens to the truth found in the salvation of their soul. True belief is of heart, mind, and soul and is not an isolated process of intellectual apprehending of belief nor is it mumbling the right words without it involving their heart. Faith that is real believes in the unseen God and knows that without a doubt He lives. God is active in calling, redeeming, setting free, and restoring. Rich are those who are recipients of such a miraculous gift. All are welcome to enter into this blessedness.

 Dear Father God, we are astounded with Your grace. You have given us supernatural life where before we had emptiness and death. Thank you for this great gift. Amen.

To God be the Glory

He's Alive --Inspiration 3

Jesus Made It Possible to Live Again

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  --John 3:16

JESUS is the Name above all names. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus is the Christ, the holy Son of God. When I was a child I was taught the New Testament stories with Jesus as its main character. I learned of His miracles as Jesus turned water into wine, healed the sick, made the dead come back to life, cast out demons, and multiplied a boy's lunch to feed five thousand people. My teachers told me about Jesus' last supper in the upper room, Jesus praying "Not My will but Thine be done" in the Garden of Gethsemane while His disciples slumbered. Then we heard about the trial with trumped up charges, Pilot washing his hands of the unjust affair, Jesus being whipped, crowned with thorns, taking up His cross, being scorned, mocked, blasphemed, and then crucified. With relief, we came to Christ's glorious resurrection, the empty tomb, Mary worshiping her risen Lord, and the men talking with Jesus as they walked to Emmaeus. It was a good story, but as a child I had not realized its significance nor its lasting impact on humanity from that time forward. Life for the soul was purchased by Jesus' obedient surrender and pure, sinless submission to His father's will, His death, burial, and resurrection that changed everything for humankind. Humanity is eternally indebted to Christ and I am forever grateful for the cross.

Father, Son, and Spirit, the Three in One God, we behold You, appreciate You, and love You. Amen.

To God be the Glory