Created Desire #1: LOVE Part Two

Feeling Unloved is Painful
At some point in our lives, many of us have experienced the pain of opening our hearts up to another person, only to find our vulnerability met with apathy or rejection. Ouch, this is real pain, it hurts to feel rejected by someone. Rejection has caused many bruises on our hearts and it often prevents us from experiencing the love that God has for us. It's often starts in early childhood. I can remember a time when I was in grade five and I told a friend a secret just to have her blab it to the entire class. That hurt, I had trusted her!

Our bruised hearts become calloused and over time, callouses build up and our hearts harden. We vow that we won’t ever let ourselves get hurt like that again. It hurts to feel unloved and unwanted. The enemy loves to play on our vulnerabilities and works hard to sell us the lie that God doesn’t really care about us, that we don’t really matter, that we aren’t worth loving.

Your Value is Determined by the “ONE” who Loves You

If I’m selling something on Steinbach online and no one wants it, I must lower the price in order to make the sale, but if I’m selling something on Steinbach online and a hundred people all want it then I could up the price or maybe even there would be a bidding war, eBay was built upon this principle. What makes something valuable? – The fact that someone wants it! Value is determined by desirability, wouldn’t you agree, makes sense right! And who desires you? You have great value because you are desired by God. Luke 15 speaks of this desirability using three parables:
• The lost sheep – the shepherd goes out and searches for the lost sheep
• The lost coin – the women goes to great lengths to find her lost coin
• The prodigal son – (the lost son), the Father runs out to meet his lost child

These parables are all pictures of God’s heart towards you, the length that He goes to be with you, they show His love for you. He loves you, He really loves you, even in your weakness and failure and rebellion, He loves you. Yes, God hates sin and can never look with pleasure upon iniquity, but where you seek to do God’s will He responds in genuine affection. We must get a deeper understanding of His love because a person who feels the love of God is empowered by that love to overcome sin and pursue holiness. We can’t conquer the sin in our lives without a deep understanding of the love God has for us. We are defined by the “One” who loves us, who wants us, who desires us. His Love meets this deepest need in our hearts, the universal need to be loved.
Isaiah 62:5b And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. (NKJV)
We are not made merely for human love, but to receive the love of God and to love Him back! Only the infinite love of God can fully satisfy this desire in the human heart

How to Grow in Experiencing and Feeling God’s Love:
• Pray for it, tell Him you want to feel more of His love for you, in tangible ways
• Meditate on scriptures about the love of God, ask God to imprint them on your heart
• Soak in worship songs that focus on the love of God
• Practice listening in prayer, ask the Lord to show you how He feels about you by giving you a word, thought or picture about it, then wait for Him to speak to you
• Join a church small group that is balanced and seeking the Lord wholeheartedly
• Remove the barriers that are in the way of experiencing His love by attending an Encounter God Retreat, going to After Service Prayer or booking a Personal Ministry session – all available at Southland Church www.mysouthland.com

Created Desire #1: LOVE Part One

God has placed desires into our hearts. The purpose of these desires is to draw us to Him. The enemy counterfeits them and sells us cheap imitations. These imitations cannot satisfy, although many of us have settled for them. These next few posts are going to show us some of these desires. Once we learn what they are we can learn to pursue them in godly ways. I welcome you to join me on this journey, it’s a lifelong pursuit that has the potential to change your life. The big secret is that these desires are God’s desires too.

Babies need love in order to thrive. Scientific evidence shows that love in the first year of a child’s life has a direct and measurable impact on a child’s physical, mental and emotional growth. Neurologists agree that love actually causes children’s brains to grow. We all need love, we need to receive love from others and we need to give love to others. Love is a basic need of all humanity. Psychologists have spent years studying the basic needs of all humans and they have found that love and is one of the critical needs that all humans need to have met in order to function normally in society. Because love is a universal human need, young girls and women will search for it, often without realizing what they are doing, and unfortunately many do unhealthy things in order to find what they think is love.

The Bible teaches:
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)
Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (NASB)
Psalm 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever.
1 John 4:8 …God is love. (NIV)

God and love are synonymous, love is not an attribute of God, it is God. Why do we have a desire to be loved and to love others? Because God is love and we are created in His image.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (ESV)

The desire to love and be loved is rooted in our DNA, God put it there so that we could choose to love Him and choose to receive His love. Most of us know in our head that God loves us, we know that He died on the cross to save us from our sins, yet we don’t know or feel that He loves us deeply. The Father’s heart is one of deep love for His children. The cool secret is that God also has this desire, He wants to be loved and to love.

Coming Up: Love Part Two - how feeling unloved is painful and how our worth is determined by the "One" who loves us...stay tuned...

God's Love for YOU!

If our lives are like gardens then we need a few things in order to grow into a healthy tree with good fruit:

• We need to pull out all the weeds - confess the sin in our lives regularly
• We need to prune the plants so they produce maximum fruit – remove the excess things that distract us
• We need sunshine – community with other believers
• We need rain (the tough times) – stay focused on Jesus, forgive others
• We need nutrients in the soul – a right view of God

http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-564897564

We are all created in God’s image. But, do you know what that means – it means that God has feelings, emotions, He loves, He enjoys, He has desires, He thinks and He has a will. Most Christians know these things in their head but it doesn’t affect their hearts. They actually don’t know God’s feelings, emotions, how He feels about them or what He enjoys about them never mind how He feels about His Church and the lost. A lot of people go to church each week with cold, empty and dry hearts. God gave us emotions because He has them. He wants us to feel things towards Him. Often people turn off their emotions because they have gotten hurt. A friend betrays us, our husband betrays us – so we vow never to trust again, never to love again. But we can’t live in relationship with God with a closed heart. We must work through our junk so that we can love God more deeply, trust Him more deeply and grow in our relationship with Him.

Eph. 3:18-19 (NKJV) That you…may be able to comprehend…what is the width, and length and depth and height – to know (experience) the love (affections or emotions) of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We must be anchored in the love of God; it is the soil in which our roots must be. It is only then that we are equipped to resist sin (pull the weeds), get rid of excess (pruning), overcome the storms/rain (forgive) and enjoy the sunshine (be in healthy community with other believers).

In Eph. 3, Paul writes that God’s love passes knowledge. In other words, we can’t comprehend it without the help of the Holy Spirit. We cannot comprehend it in our own natural ability. The genuine experience of God’s love towards us makes us hungry for more of Him; it motivates us to go hard after holiness. The ultimate statement about our worth and value is that Jesus has the same measure of love for us (for you) as the Father has towards Him.

John 15:9 (NKJV) As the Father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in my love

When God begins to reveal to you how much He loves you, this removes all fear of rejection, fear of being judged, fear of what people may think about you or say about you…

1 John 4:19 (NKJV) We love Him because He first loved us.

KEY STATEMENT: Your love for God (and others) will only be as deep as how much you feel God loves you.

Reflection Questions:
1. What are some of the things that have happened in your life that tempt you to close off your heart towards others or God? A betrayal from a friend, maybe your husband?
2. What are some of the weeds/sin in your life? Take a moment to confess these things to God, asking Him to forgive you.
3. If you are going through a hard time right now, ask the Lord to show you some of the ways that He is growing you through it.
4. Ask the Lord to increase your ability to feel His love today. Tell Him that you want to love Him more and that you want to know His emotions towards you.

Why Keep a Journal of your Prayer Time?

For some people, writing in a journal or some sort of diary is very natural. For others, it is quite foreign. Today we are going to look at some of the great reasons why you should consider keeping a written record of your prayer time in a journal. God told the Israelites to write down His Words (Ex. 24:27, Num. 33:2, Deut. 31:9). He knows our short memory and wants us to remember what He says.

1) To help you remember what God is showing you
To remember His promises, discipline, what He’s teaching you. You can read back over these things and reflect. Often you can see patterns in your life, reoccurring themes. When you go through past journals you can see where you’ve come from and where you are, what He’s been doing in your life and how your view of God has changed.

2) To help you test what you’re hearing
Write down the things you get in listening prayer and then over time you can see whether or not you have been hearing Him clearly. God often confirms things through other people so then we can look back and test what we have been hearing.

3) To help you learn to wait on the Lord
When you write things down in a journal it gives you more patience to wait for His promises to come true. You learn to wait on the Lord as He shows you piece of a larger picture that you may have missed. It helps you learn to submit to His will and plans and deal with your own junk. It grows you in learning to trust His timing.

4) It helps you express your emotions to God
Much of the Psalms is David’s journal – he wrote down all the junk that was going on in his life and how he felt about it. If you’re just starting out journaling, it’s a good place to begin. The important thing is to ask God what He wants to say about it so that you can get His perspective on it. Bringing your troubles to God instead of running to friends helps you receive His peace (you can still get your friends to pray with you, it’s about taking it to God first).

5) It leaves a legacy of your walk with God
A Journal is not a diary of daily events but rather it is a place to meditate on the Lord and write down what He’s teaching you, areas of sin you need to work on and prayers you are praying. There is something concrete, thoughtful, and meditative about writing down your thoughts. If all you ever did was speak prayers (and you still can do that throughout the day), you’d miss out on this legacy in your walk with God.

How to Read-Listen-Pray the Scriptures

Many people have a desire to get closer to God but can at times find it tough to get anything out of their Bible readings. One way to get more out of your Bible reading time is to Read-Listen-Pray the Scriptures. It's a simple way to focus your devotion time.

READ:
• Start by reading a chapter or two of scripture
• As you are reading it, write out in your journal any any verses that pop out at you or speak to you in a particular way

LISTEN:
• Ask Jesus to reveal to you in a deeper way the truths from the passages of scripture that you wrote in your journal
• Ask Jesus if there is anything in the passage of scripture that you read today that He wants you to obey
• Ask Jesus if there is anything in the passage of scripture that you read today that He wants you to believe (something that you may know in your head is true but isn’t in your heart)
• Ask Him if there is anything that He wants to reveal to you about His character, through the passage of scripture
• Ask Him if there is anything that He wants to teach you from the passage of scripture, something that you can apply to your life right now
• Ask Him if there are any actions that you need to avoid or actions that you need to start doing from the passage of scripture


PRAY:
• Thank Jesus for what He showed you in the Word today
• Confess any sin that He revealed to you today
• Pray the truths of the scripture
• Pray that you will follow through on what He showed you today
• Pray for your family, friends, the church, ministries, etc.


As you pray and spend time meditating on the truths in His Word, the Holy Spirit will begin to tenderize your heart. Be persistent in asking Him to open the eyes of your heart. The Holy Spirit will gradually cause your insight to increase.

Make sure you record your thoughts in your journal as you read-listen-pray through the Bible. Write down the ideas that come to you, prayers and commitments.

Writing your Personal Psalm of Remembrance

The Book of Psalms is full of "Psalms of Remembrance" (examples: Psalm 68, 78, 105, 106, 107, 135, 136) where the Psalmists outline a portion of Israel's history for very specific theological purposes.  In these Psalms there is a remembrance of God’s help and deliverance, they recall God’s greatness and His enduring mercy.  This causes the reader to praise God and to be strengthened and encouraged.  As we strive to deepen our relationship with God and grow in prayer, we can gain the same strength and encouragement as we look back and remember all that God has done for us.  

This is a great exercise for all Christians to do.  We can sometimes feel overwhelmed by our lack of spiritual growth or by the big issues in our lives.  When we take a step back and look at all that God has done for us then we begin to have more faith and trust in the One who has been there for us in the past.  This encourages us to press on and keep pursuing God in prayer.  

Questions to Ask Yourself:

• In what ways has God helped you in the past?
• How has God brought joy into your life?
• What things in your life (past or present) remind you of His strength?
• What has God been teaching you?  What lessons have you learned? (past or present)
• How has God shown His love to you? (past or present)
• How has He shown you your imperfections and your human need for Him?
• How has God been faithful to you?
• What are some of the ways that God has answered your prayers?
• How has God provided for you