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All we really need is to know is how deeply loved we are by God.
If we really experienced being profoundly loved by God, think of all the issues in life that would become unimportant.
1. I would no longer have to try and find my significance in other things. I would be significant already.
2. The meaning of my life might still be a question, but it would not carry very much power to it because I would have nothing to prove.
3. I would be able to love others out of security and not insecurity.
4. Th center of who I am would be a place of peace and not storms.
5. Fears and worries would no longer have a foothold because I would know that God will take care of me.
6. Sin in my life might discourage, but no longer devastate.
7. In fact, much of the reason I sin - to find comfort & self-protection - would already be met and sin would not have such power over me.
8. I would be free to be who I really am because rejection by others, while painful, would no longer threaten the core of who I am.
9. I would be able to take more and greater risks, because the outcome would not threaten my sense of acceptance by God.
10. I could love God and others without the selfish motive of needing to be loved. My love would be pure.
11. I would be able to live out of my real identity as a son/daughter of the Father.
Monday, December 28, 2009
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now.... how to experience that 24/7? & intersect of that spirit place with the world we move around in...
ReplyDeleteI don't know that the answer to this is a "one size fits all" kind of deal. We each have our own relationship with the Lord and I don't know that we should expect those relationships to be very much alike. That said, I have found that I have been brought closer and closer to this reality of the Father's love for me in two ways.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I have had many times of intensely experiencing the love of the Father where it has even caused me to drop to the floor. This has mostly occured in worship or while being prayed for. When those experiences have happened, I think they have made significant changes in me even though they were unrecognized at the time.
Second, I have tried during my days (even busy ones) to let part of my attention dwell on the Lord and to quietly give my love for Him to Him. That has opened the way for me to sense His love for me as well.
Between these two ongoing activities, I have sensed my ability to live out of the idea that the Father deeply loves me get stronger and stronger.
That was exactly the question I was going to ask: How do I apprehend the love of God for me? I know I've been going to counterfeit gods to try to ease the pain of living in a fallen body and world. All that does is further ensnare me and once again prove I am unworthy and unlovable. There's got to be more to it than just reading John 3:16 or Romans 12. I'm going to take your words to heart, but I would appreciate it so much if you would delve a little deeper into this subject. I can't believe I'm the only one who feels God is personally disappointed and disinterested.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Potentially long response coming.
ReplyDeleteI have spent a lot of time feeling like God has rejected me, doesn’t care about me and has no inclination to do anything for me. I used to feel like the only reason I was even saved was that Jesus died for everyone, so God had to grudgingly include me. There was no John 3:16 part 2 that read “except Kevin” – although I certainly felt that there should have been.
Breaking out of that shell was especially difficult because what I desperately needed was God’s love to heal my great rejection, but all my rejection issues kept me from experiencing the love of the Father.
I can’t point to a specific thing that I did to break free. It is very hard to connect the dots between action and result. But here are some of the things I did:
1. I got really hungry for God. Desperate. I fasted. A lot. I prayed. A lot. Granted a lot of it was me trying to perform for God's approval, but He took me where I was and used it anyway. Certainly, anything good that came of it all was more an act of His grace than my work.
2. I found people who claimed to really know that God loved them and I began hanging around with them. I read the books they read. A lot of books.
3. I got people to pray for me every chance I could.
4. I threw out much of my theology and asked God to rebuild properly. I gave up the evangelical phobia of actually having a spiritual experience.
5. I went to every conference or event I could find where there was even a rumor of the presence of God. I spent money. A lot.
6. I decided that grabbing a hold of Jesus was all that mattered and everything else was useless in life compared to this.
7. I made the choice to agree with what the Bible said even though I didn’t believe it.
8. I recognized that part of the cost of seeking the presence of God was being offended. Read John 6 and you will see how Jesus offended everyone around Him by declaring His new religion to be cannibalistic. I decided that He could offend me all He wanted and I was not going to let go.
9. I cried.
10. I felt absolutely miserable, depressed beyond measure. But I pressed in.
11. I gave up condemning myself since God didn’t anymore (Rom 8:1).
12. I began to read scripture looking for the love in it, not the guilt, shame and rebuke.
13. I discovered that my quiet times were not a form of discipline but religious attempts to gain favor with God. So I stopped doing them.
14. I rejected my whole framework of making God’s loving me conditional on my good behavior and decided to just let Him love me as I was if that’s what He wanted to do.
15. I got my heart healed up from all the rejection I had experienced in life that I could actually begin to give love to God.
16. I learned to really worship Him.
17. I discovered the difference between a servant and a son. A servant’s focus is on himself. Whether the Master approves or not is based on the servant’s performance. A son, on the other hand, is loved just because he is a son. The focus is on the love of the Father. I’ve decided to be a son, not an orphan.
What happened?
Over time, I experienced the presence of God more and more. I also began to allow Him to love me more and more. That love, whether in dramatic experiences (which I have had – I’ve been to Toronto several times) or in experiences like a soft blanket, has changed me. I like myself. I love God and I regularly sense His presence and His deep love for me. It has been a 10 year journey now and it is still very hard at times, but now in the struggles, I know the Father loves me and that makes a world of difference.
OK. There may be more, but there's a start.
Wow! You've given us a lot to chew on. I'm so glad I found your blog. Like I said, I'm going to definitely take to heart what you've said, try to follow some of those same steps. It would be more than wonderful to have a "soft blanket" experience with God. (I loved that sentence.)
ReplyDeleteThanks!
One day after teaching "Experiencing God" and telling people that we can be legalistic about anything, even prayer, the Lord lost my prayer journal. I had used a prayer journal to talk to God since I was 14. I begged and pleaded with Him to help me find it. Prayer was impossible without it. Finally, in tears, hurt and frusration I yelled at God, "How am I supposed to talk to You?" He quietly whispered into my spirit, "Just have a cup of coffee with me, please." That made no sense at all to me. But I got up . . . made some coffee . . . went out into the sunroom. . . and for the first time in my life just sat with God."
ReplyDelete