HEART OF THE MATTER

Tag: love

  • THE BETTER ONE

    THE BETTER ONE

    I prayed to God one morning, something I had committed myself to doing since I resigned from my job. ] My only vehicle was totaled, and I was crying out God about some financial hardships that I was facing. I emptied the contents of my heart to the only one who would help me. As I lay in bed, my face was wet from tears. I asked God to hear my cry for a job. In that moment, He spoke to me. He reminded me of the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42.His presence is never bizarre and always pleasurable.

     The story is about one sister named Martha. She was distracted and worried about preparing dinner for her guest. She was also worried about many other things. The other sister, Mary, quietly sat at Jesus’s feet, taking in the peace of his presence.  Martha asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her with everything she had to do. Jesus replied, “There is only one thing to be concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

    God said to me, “You have chosen the better one, and it will not be taken away.” Spending time with God should be a priority in the life of a believer. He reminds us so often to pray without ceasing. Our Father in heaven knows all things and will supply our needs. We become distracted by the many things that go on in this world. God is often placed on the back-burner or omitted altogether. We can find many things to do, but time with God is rarely on the list. We become weighed down with the cares and worries of this world. This often leads us away from the Father. It leaves us farther from Him.

    God desires for us to spend time with Him. He wants us to get to know Him. He also wants us to come into an understanding of who we are in Him. God is a good Father who deeply cares for his children. After the revelation, God gave me an image of a child that had been missing for a long time. The parents’ yearning and longing for that child’s return are unbearable. But when that child finally returns home, the parent is ecstatic. They don’t want the child out of their sight. They want to be with with the child always. They want to spend as much time with the child as they can, maybe every waking moment.

    This is how God sees us. We have been apart from him for so long. He just wants to be with us. He wants to spend time with us when we return. We, as His children, have a special place in God’s heart, we are in the center of it. God has been growing me and showing me what it means to be a follower of Christ. I have learned that believers of Jesus Christ must condition themselves to the submission of the Word. They do not give in to the flesh of the world.

    Spending time with God helps us make the right decisions, helps us be peaceful, and remove stress. God is in charge and loves us. He works everything for the good of those that loves him who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) When we know him, it helps you rest better. We can rest in the peace that God provides( John 14:27) God got this! Many things cause us to become distracted, and wander off from God. Let’s be mindful to choose the better one.

     

  • IN THE NAME OF LOVE

    IN THE NAME OF LOVE

    Love is a powerful emotion that causes people to do crazy things. We indulge in a feeling that brings us acceptance, value, and the warmth that we feel inside. We become addicted to the feeling rather than the person. We say we love so and so, but we are actually attracted to the feelings that come from being loved. When those feelings no longer give us what we want, the relationship is over. We’re off to our next quick fix. I know because I’ve been there. Love and loyalty lie in the same bed together. Many of us play silly games all in the name of love. We commit crimes for love. Some have even killed because of it. True love lets you live. I used to think that love was my boyfriend acting out in rage because of his jealousy. I often heard friends say, “Girl, he loves you.” Why not just say something is wrong with him, and it’s not love? Many of us stay in abusive relationships, facing physical and verbal harm. We say it’s because I love them. But search a little deeper and discover the void you’re trying to avoid. We must understand what love is. If we don’t, we will imitate the behaviors of those who have settled for mistreatment. I watched and walked that same path because it was all I knew. I have grown to understand that love without Christ is sadistic and twisted. Love hurts. And many people no longer want any part of it. God will not take away the very being of your existence. God is love. “The greatest commandment, love the Lord with all thy heart, soul, and mind. And the second equally important, love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-38). Since I found Christ, I learned something new, and I want to share it with you.

    Jesus Christ showed me what real love is, and love lets you live. God gave his only son to die on the cross because he loved us. God created us out of love (John 3:16) and is in love with us (Genesis 1:27). That’s why his patience is so long with our wrongs. “It is not his desire that his little ones shall perish but that they will all come to repentance.”(2nd Peter 3:9) God loves us.  Jesus Christ came to give us life, a real love life. I meditated on what love is. I drew on God’s Word and my interest in 1st Corinthians 13:4-8. This convinced and convicted me to change my understanding and actions. Love is not receiving; it is serving.

    “Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”(1st Corinthians 13:4-8). And I love God’s way better. With his way, I don’t have to be afraid of love.

    Love is powerful. Falling first in love with others rather than God will cause you a life of resentment. Love was intended to be the glue that holds us together to be better. It is not a feeling, it’s a focus. When we began to love the way the Lord intended us to, we began to see the value in ourselves. We also began to see the value in others. We are capable of loving without limits because there are no restrictions on love. And God’s love isn’t limited when it comes to loving us. LOVE. Give to others what you need more of.

  • WHERE ARE YOU?

    WHERE ARE YOU?

                   When God created the world, everything was good. Adam was given dominion over the land. He was to rule over the animals, birds of the air, and fish of the sea. God created a helper for him, and Eve was born. But they sinned by disobeying God by eating from the tree of good and evil, which they had been forbidden to eat from. Sin entered into the earth by Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience, and separation from God was created. God walked among them before sin entered. God was looking for Adam one day and asked, “Where are you?’ Physically, he could see him, and God knew that he was hiding, but spiritually, he had wandered from God because of the sinful nature that he wore. His eyes opened to his nakedness, and he sewed fig leaves together to cover his bareness, but it wasn’t enough to clothe his sin. God, having love and compassion for them, provided much better clothing for Adam and Eve. But still, he punished them for their disobedience. They were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, and Adam had to toil the ground to produce food, Eve had to bear painful childbirth, and the snake had to crawl on his belly for his part in the deception.

    Jesus Christ paid for our sins to bring us back into a relationship with God. He was sacrificed for our sins. We can now go before God because Christ, who was without sin (disobedience) on the cross, paid for our sins. (Colossians 2 :13-14). There is no more separation when you accept the gift of salvation for your damnation. You can walk in the freedom that Christ provides and approach the throne of God through his mercy and grace. Yayy!!!

    Many of us have wandered from God because of our sins. We have found ourselves covering up with makeup and other beliefs that don’t offer relief, but somehow, we believe it does. Many of us have sat in our hiding places while God is calling us each by name_____, “Where are you? But because we have traveled so far from him, it is harder to hear his calls. And just like Adam, physically, he knows where we are, but spiritually, we are distanced. So, we sit in our pride until we decide to come out of hiding and head home. Sin will always cause separation between us and a holy God. And because he was Holy, we can also be holy. (1st Peter 15-17). The deception is real back then, and it still is because the enemy will always make us think that we are missing something or that God is keeping something from us. And where we lack trust in God, we eat dust just like the snake (Satan) who we choose to follow. Jesus said, “I came that you may have life and life more abundantly, and the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10).

     “Adam, where are you is a call that God rings out every day to his creation, that he loves so much that he gave his only son. (John 3:16).  His heart longs for the return of the lost souls wandering in the earth. His love for people is something that I can’t fathom. I asked God, why are you mindful of man and he said because I made them in my image. To be made in someone’s image is to connect to them in a way that the human eyes cannot see. ‘How long will you wait while God is calling out to you before you respond and say, “Lord, here I am.

  • FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS

    FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS

                When asking the question, who was your first love? Many are quick to recite a name of a man or woman, present or past. And at the remembrance of that name come the smiles or the pain. But we never forget that amazing feeling that comes along with the opportunity to freely love. The beautiful beginnings that set our souls on fire: the early morning texts, the late night conversations and the small love messages throughout the day. We have even given them special ring tones that when we hear it instantly we began to smile. Our hearts grow and glow as we pour ourselves deeper into the emotion. We make Facebook posts about love and in our eyes others can see hearts. And I must admit that it is simply amazing and often breath-taking. Our hearts become overwhelmed with a flood of tender passionate affection that we can’t contain. And all is good, even when things are not going well because our focus isn’t on what isn’t but what is. We’ve embraced a place that we don’t want to erase, and we prepare to stay there. Love never fails and all is well.

                God is a God of order and there is a reason he has designed and defined love specifically and significantly. Love is far greater than any emotion or emoji we seem to tamper with. Love comes with a cost that many of us never counted. We flirt with the feeling and we base life decisions off of it. Jesus going to the cross was a cost for humanity and he did so all in the name of love. (John 3:16) Agape love is the highest form of love, the type of love that God has for his children.  Our first love is actually supposed to be God. God wanted us to feel that tender passionate affection with him and for him. Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord with all thy heart, soul, and mind.”  In the beginning, Adam loved God. He didn’t long for a mate. God was his mate and they had a relationship. It was God that saw that Adam needed a mate and created Eve to help him. Genesis 2:18, “The Lord said, “it is not suitable for man to be alone, I will make a helper suitable for him.” Adam never asked for a mate because his heart belonged to the Lord. Adam loved God and felt he had all he needed. 1st Corinthians 13: 4-8, The Apostle Paul gives us the specifics of love. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Paul ends this chapter with, “three things will last forever-faith, hope, and love- and the greatest of these is love.

                Love is powerful and it can take you on an emotional ride when God is not properly place. God intended for all to fall in love with him first. Love is not a feeling, it is a focus; a God loving focus that we are to do to the glory of God. Everything that God did was out of love. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28). God is love and the only way to rightly love is through him.