WE ALL NEED GOD'S LOVE

God's Love Is What We Need

Love is where peace is found. Love is the greatest equalizer. Love demonstrates peace when it is lived in its purest state. Love's peace is something anyone can experience.

Love is tested and tried. Love does the right thing in the right way. Christ is our best example of this. Christ shares His love with us. His helps us love others with pure, tender love. Rigid religion is not what Christ offers His children. He is gentle and kind.

God's love embraces all people. God's love is life-giving. His love touches people from every walk of life. Those who fully respond to God's love are dramatically changed. Love enters one's soul as the Spirit of God reveals godly truth. The more you seek God, the more your spirit enlivens.

God's love shows. A true believer will demonstrate God's love to others. It is seen in their acts of mercy, love, kindness, justice, honesty, and fairness. The heart is changed. It springs to life. It opens up to the sunshine of godly love.

A loving heart acts in love. Loving well is seen in this biblical admonition: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32) Love desires right relationship and gives from out of its self. 

Love is kind, good, and caring. Here is one place where Jesus taught this concept:

 An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” (Luke 10)

We are God's children. Father God cares for His children. We, in turn, love Him back.

As Joseph Girzone says it, "[God] created us to become His children. He placed us in the midst of a magnificent creation and asks only that we love Him and love and respect other human creatures, and treat all His creatures with respect and gratitude.” 

God's love is supernatural. It is beyond our human ability to manufacture godly love. God is the giver of supernatural, godly love. Christians should be known by their love. God gives them His love. When Christians are not loving and known by their love, there's something not quite right in their spirituality. Those who give God their life experience God transforming them in almost every aspect of their being. 

But we do struggle at times. That is why we call our Christian life a spiritual journey. Every step we take is an opportunity to get closer to God. It is also a process of yielding our stuff to Him. We stumble when we come to areas that trip us up or set us back. This is a frequent occurrence. Instead of pretending everything is okay, this is when we learn to trust in God to carry us through, which He does when we step out of the way and yield our will to His will.

Today is the day. Let God transform the inner you. Let Christ's love enter and make you anew. Embrace God's love with your whole heart. God will forgive, change, and heal you. You are precious to God. I know, it's not that easy, but it's worth it.

Give every circumstance to God. I suggest you pray over every decision you make. I suggest you quit trying so hard and let God do the leading and providing. You show up and move forward. There's relief in this. I'm still learning how to do this. God's love carries me through.

I see God everywhere.

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Photo by Johua Hoehne , Unsplash

 

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

ARISE FROM THE ASHES

YES, YOU CAN ARISE

because God can

IN DEEP WOUNDS, whether of betrayal or loss, Father God reaches us and asks of us, “Will you give it to me? Will you stop burying it? Will you let me have it?” 

When we give him our sorrow, our anger, our unforgiveness, and our deepest secrets, he is able to begin a soft and slow restoring of peace to our inward self—our soul. In the safety of God’s love, his care, we face the ugliest of demons that reside behind a closed heart. The power of the ugly stuff, with its subtle but real influence over us, is then weakened. 

Essentially, God says to us: My child, I love you. Be free. Come to me. Don’t blame me. There are things you do not understand. This world is cursed—it is doomed—but I have life and I offer life to you. My love can transform the darkest soul. I, alone, can redeem the pain, the loss, and make you anew. I paint a new picture dispelling the darkness of your soul with light and shades of color in beautiful layers of joy. 

Thank you, dear God. Father God, I love you. Amen.

THE MEETING PLACE: Moments with God at Lookout Point  -N.L. Brumbaugh

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For more, visit my author site at nlbrumbaugh.com.
Have a blessed day.

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.

God Makes a New You

A New You

But be transformed by the renewal of your mind. 

Romans 12:2

God is in the life changing business. The life he wants to change is your life.

RENEWAL is a byproduct of change that comes after an action has been undertaken. Spiritual renewal is something to seek with one’s whole heart. Scripture instructs us to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and our neighbor as ourselves. This is a tall order. Self-focused thoughts do not lend themselves to loving others or God.

When we
-do not love well,
     -do not love in sincerity,
          -when we hold back,
                 -hide behind our issues,
                         -harbor anger toward God or others,
we impede a work of God.

The “love” is not producing in kind because it is not absolute love, it is more like a facsimile of love. Change is needed. What to do?

Love God. That is what it will take. Renewal of the mind is based in love for God. What if we don’t love God or feel His love? What can we do to change its lack of liveliness and woeful emptiness? The mind and the heart must bind together for love to be released in fullness.

No magical formula can fabricate love out of nothing. However, the more we know, grow, bond, and develop in relationship with God, the more we can know and experience His great love for us. God loves His dearly beloved children with a deep, eternal love that conquers sin and death. His love reaches and changes each person willing and open to His ministrations.

A reciprocal action is initiated when we open ourselves to God. He transfuses His character in our character. God’s presence will renew our mind, desires, and purposes, whereby He creates new life.

Ask for God’s love. Claim His promises.

Try this. It is radical. Offer yourself to God with no holds barred. As a result, a new work in you unfolds. The mind thinks in a way that exhibits the Source of its considerations.

Dear Father God, You are all I want. I give to you my mind that you may renew it, my heart that you may grow it, my soul that you may transform it.

All Who Labor are Invited to Come: Intervention no. 15

 God Knows What We are Up Against

 Finding God in the Daily

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.

Matthew 11:28

Life has a way of throwing curve balls at us that we can't quite square with reality. We chug on, doing our best with what we've been given.

LABOR

 Labor seeks us where we live.

SPIRITUAL SEPARATION, where despair or pain causes distance from God, is common to humanity. The separation is temporary. Like when giving birth, the labor is intense, painful, absorbing but purposed. We accept the labor (for the most part) because we know the end result makes it worth the struggle.

Most labor is difficult, hard, sometimes punishing, sometimes lonely, sometimes more that we think we can bear, and often demanding of us a lot. Usually we don’t have much say or choice in the matter. 

Labor requires effort. This is true in the spiritual realm. It is laborious and time consuming to work through our areas of struggle, pain, and past experiences.

Labor is the daily struggle of life.

Labor is burden, self-effort, redundancy. The first thing I think of as it relates to labor is being tired, when we're tired of striving, weary of life, and the endless circumstances of life. At times, the labor defines its burden, hopelessness, discouragement.

This can be the result of pain and injustice. We know its unfairness, we may sense a lack of acknowledgement of our worth by those in our lives — family, co-workers, even those in our own church families, the ones who are abrupt, critical, disapproving, or angry with us.

There is a weariness with life. It is an empty feeling with a sense of running in place but getting nowhere, a sense of stagnation and loss. These are the threads that continually weave throughout our lives. There's always something.

God is a very present help in times of trouble.

God invites us to come to Him in our weariness. He is the Giver of rest, He is the Sustainer of life. He is our Hope and our Meet for all that bombards us and knocks us off kilter.

Dear Father in Heaven, You are the way, the truth, and the life, which means You are our way, truth, and life. Thank You for showing us the way and leading us to the truth of You. Amen

To God be the Glory

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A Message of Life

Inspiration 53 

Come to Me, God says: Intervention no. 14

 A Soul-Changing Intervention

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28 

God calls to us, but it is up to us to come. Coming to Him is the best thing we will ever do.

LET’S BEGIN—

COME: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.  

This is a direct request in response to our human need.

GOD ASKS US TO COME. The first thing to note in this scripture is that Come unto me denotes a requiring of action from us. Action is common to change if we truly want help. It takes effort on our part, from our self, to begin a seeking of Him. Personal initiative is the beginning, the crucial first step.

God wants this from every one of us. This is well documented in story after story in the biblical narrative of Jesus as he helped people. He would ask the person to take a step of faith before He responded to their need. The Old Testament also has stories where God required an act of faith by the person before the response of God would take place.

God is the object. Come unto Me, which is God. This is key, to find God in it all, in every circumstance of life. Come to Him even in the hurts and disappointments.

The question is, how do we come?

The coming is dependent on openness, surrender, and willingness to say what we mean and mean what we say in total and complete awareness and honesty. We come with no pretending or hiding behind superficial, spiritual, do-gooder masks. It is like looking in a mirror without your face make-up on or clothing on for that matter.

We are naked before Jesus as we remove our self-protected ways of doing things, to become ready and willing to receive the real truth as it is revealed to us. Do we dictate to God? How much do we let self, even hurt, dictate its agenda? Come requires trust—not reasons, explanations, excuses, justifications or self-vindication.

It says, here I am. I’m ready. Okay, God, let’s get to work. Show me my hurt, my selfishness, my past.

Dear Father in Heaven, we all need You, desperately need You. I pray that we will quit being stubborn to be willing and open to Your spirit. Amen

*More tomorrow

To God be the Glory

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A Message of Life

Inspiration 52 

Where to Start: Intervention no. 9

How to Become Healthy and Whole

Finding God in the Daily

 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

Psalm 23:1-3  ESV

The only way a person can be authentic in their Christian walk is to be close to the Source of spiritual life. This is an on-going process that frees, heals, and rejuvenates the soul-side of living.

A HOLY SOUL-CHANGING INTERVENTION begins when we get alone with God, take spiritual inventory of everything in our past and present, and ask God what to do about it. Similar to a computer scan that  exposes viruses to get rid of them, the Holy Spirit reveals those areas that are damaging our inner selves that we might be free of their negative influences.

First, the mask must come off. People put their best foot forward. They strive to  project wholeness and capability. Christians may believe they have to act like they have it together spiritually. Troublesome areas may be hidden from view. Masks do well at masking the true nature of how it really is inside. This acts as a sort of charade or pretending that hides the true condition of their reality. Believers want to be accepted and respected so the pretense continues to play its empty tune.

When we fail to recognize the internal state of affairs, a falseness enters. There can be a lot of garbage that needs taking out. Uncovering secret sins, hurts, resentments, and then dealing with them in a spiritual manner, is a process that takes time, effort, and God's grace. But it is worth it in every way.

A pattern of healthy spiritual living is then established through spiritually motivated disciplines that take us further still and make us more like Christ.

God transforms as He renews the mind, reveals transgressions, and teaches us to yield to Him. This takes an honest look with no excuses, blame, or self-righteous attitudes. It is in the raw moment of truthfulness that the seed of a soul-changing intervention is sown that will unlock this inner cell where the real self is hidden. Thus begins a life of surrender to God and living life His way. God refreshes, heals, restores, as a transparent identity with God is established.

Whoever pursues a close relationship with God will seek change and change will come. God uses friends, family, and a host of circumstances to bring His children to a place of open talk with Him. This is always good. They, we, become Father with child and child with Father in a close, intimate, loving, connected relationship that brings much joy and inner peace.

Father God, How we need Thee. We need Thee every hour of every day. Amen

To God be the Glory

A Message of Life
Inspiration 47

From Here to There: Intervention, no. 3 -- Inspiration 42

From Here to There: Spiritual Transformation

Finding God in the Daily

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. 

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

John 6:63

Pain, disappointments, and wounds get buried. To allow them in the conversation might seem at odds with spiritual belief. The truth is, coverups don't work in spiritual life. Issues need to be addressed with God to live freely in the spirit. 

Active engagement with God affects spiritual perceptions. Reorganization in the interior self initiates an altering of viewpoint. Impact in the hidden place, which long functioned as a repository for hurts, wounds, and struggle, is inevitable. Hiding the wounded self is natural in believing Christians for many reasons. This is problematic. Hiding behind belief creates a false front. Internalized pain erects a barrier that disrupts the flow between experience and belief.

For spiritual life to thrive, the barriers need to come down. After the shake-up happens, when the spiritual awakens and enlivens the soul, those formerly empty clichés no longer ring a false note. Experience and belief blend into one solid, health-building unit. Gone are pretense and disillusionment. The means to get there takes a process and some doing.

Once the deeper understanding is apprehended and becomes part of daily experience, spiritual life is anchored in such a way that the person becomes secure, content, confident and able to function well while in the best and worst of times. Because spiritual life is centered and secure, the personal flows hand-in-hand with the spiritual. No longer does a breach separate belief from experience. The two operate on the same page and act in tandem with each other.

The effects of this are wonderful. Newness in outlook and refreshment in the spirit have internal liveliness and quiet authority. Others can't help but notice the change. What is this? they ponder. A thing of beauty, transformational and real, is happening right before their eyes. From the inside to out, the Christ-life is transformational, and it shows. This amazes onlookers.

In the context of a soul-changing intervention, what transpires throughout the process is utterly life-changing and is evident once the intervention has culminated. It is like how you know you are free once you experience freedom. God heals, engages the heart, mind, and soul, sets free, and opens a new path.

A soul-changing intervention enacts several steps that enable a living relationship with God. God, plus the individual, are in this for the long haul. They cannot act independent of each other for this is a joint venture. To be frank, a soul-changing intervention is an active time of serious soul searching combined with intentional seeking of God for answers and truth.

Dear Father, Thank you. You meet us where we're at and it doesn't phase You. Amen

To God be the Glory

 

 *More in my next post.

HEALING OF PAINS FROM THE PAST

No matter how long ago it happened, you have to yield yourself to God's way in order to heal a trauma. A year after my husband left me and the family, I decided to ask God for healing. This was my own idea. No one encouraged me to go there. I was broken inside but alive in God. I was open to healing if that was something I needed. I didn't know what to expect but I trusted God to do what only he could do.

Teacher picture in those days.

God took me at my word. A few days later memories began to surface, usually after an intense time in the word and in prayer. I only prayed the prayer once, but I guess that's all God was waiting for me to do. I was seeking intimacy in my relationship with God. I had been pursuing God with no holds barred. My life was changing as a result of my new found openness with God. God helped me heal and returned peace to my soul.

Here is a segment written in my first journal from during that time of upheaval and renewal.

JOURNAL 1 -- 2003 

Most days I walk in the orchard for exercise and as a time of renewal. This morning, while in the orchard I talked with God about the spiritual desire I have to walk through the pains of the past, to give them to Him, to let go of them, to have them change from a wound to a scar. 

I cannot do this on my own. I don’t even know how to allow Him to lift and free me from their power, to release them.  I asked for His help in doing this. 

To begin this process of walking through the pains of the past and remembering their hurt and then offering them to God; I went back to the beginning. I began to remember those first few weeks of marriage when I realized that my husband and I were not going to have the close marriage fellowship I had envisioned, how I had felt the lack of bonding together--and the aloneness I felt.  

I remembered how at the time I realized that my marriage was probably a big mistake, and how I regretted my choice.  I also remembered my determination to put my marriage in God’s hands.  For 21 years that was the way it had been.

I allowed myself to feel, to remember that terrible day, when my first born was a baby, when my husband told me he was leaving because it just wasn’t working out, how he didn’t love me or have feelings for me, how he had not really wanted to marry me, the doubts he had before we wed.   

The pain of these memories was so intense that I wept so hard my heart just hurt.  I asked God to release me from their pain.  I felt exhausted, depleted of all energy.  After the tears subsided the beauty of the trees and creation spoke to me.  As I stood there the memory of the biblical character Job--and his intense suffering and faithfulness--touched me.   

I want to listen for His communion when I finish this."

By giving my hurts to God, I was able to access his healing grace. The sorrow and suffering left my inner being and never returned. A redemptive touch of God met my need and healed me. My wounds became a trophy of God's tender touch making me anew.

Life is tremendously different ever since that day. God set me free and began to shape me. I am grateful. 

My full story can be found here in two audio segments of pain and healing. May God minister to your heart through them. 

Please share my testimony with someone God puts on your heart.

Blessings, my friend. 

I welcome any comments.