Love
Good morning Dear Friends!
I wanted to hop on this morning and post an impromptu blog.
First off, I hoped you enjoyed the summer series on people living out the Word of God. Praying that God used it to encourage, challenge and strengthen you.
We will be shifting in September to a six-week series on love.
Interestingly, last night Tim and I met with several mature believers as we came along side a dear saint to offer prayer and counsel. As our dear friend wrestles through a very difficult season, a question emerged. Do you love yourself? The question stemmed from a works-based mentality versus rest-based mentality. Am I loveable if I’m not performing, achieving, producing? All of the patron saints present could give the correct answer. But that’s not what he was asking. He wasn’t asking for a mental assent to the truth, he was asking do we know it such a way we live it. Revelational knowledge. The kind of truth that when it drops into your spirit, you will never be the same.
The answers varied because in reality we all know it to varying degrees.
But when it came time for me to answer, just like a bull in a china shop, I said: I know my Father loves me. And because I know my Father loves me, I am able to love myself.
Although that may sound arrogant, it came at an extremely high cost. In many ways, I would never wish on anyone the path necessary for me to come to this revelation. But as Max Lucado has said…the journey was not easy but the arrival has been worthwhile.
Somewhere along the way, I naïvely lifted up a few dangerous prayers. I prayed: Lord, let me see what you see, love what you love and do what you do. And the second possibly even more dangerous prayer was… I want to know Christ–yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his suffering, becoming like him in his death. I should have stopped the prayer at the power of his resurrection.
The Lord opened my eyes. I saw truths I had previously been blind too. And then I became intimately (emotionally) acquainted with the cross. I refer you to the entire passage of Isiah 53 but I want to high-light one mere verse.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised,
and we held him in low esteem.
I have experienced heart-shattering rejection. Almost every gruesome verse in Isaiah 53 resonated with the deepest part of my soul and spirit. Hebrew 12 :2 reminds us (Jesus)…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. And like Jesus, I tried to endure the cross but I despised it’s shame.
But then...
God never ends with shame and rejection. After he has suffered he will see the light of life and be satisfied…. (Is. 53:11) After scorning the shame of the cross, he sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrew 12:2)
So yes I have been crushed. Through waves of rejection and shame, I learned to sit at His feet. I poured out my shame and rejection to the Lord through journaling. And then He answered me. He told me the greatest love story I have ever heard. He reminded me of His Word. I AM your Defender. I AM the lifter your head. I AM your Strong Tower. I AM the one who never leaves or forsakes you. Though a mother may forget the baby nursing at her breast, I WILL never forget you. I AM the one who left the 99 for you. I AM the one who left heaven so I could be with you. I AM jealous for you. Although you rejected me, I did not reject you. You were faithless, but I AM Faithful.
So, yes I believe I know my Father loves me. But the path to a deeper revelation of His love came through the cross. I only know love, because I have experienced rejection.
I hope as we dig into love over the next six-weeks God will equip me to share with you what He has taught me.
Praying God prepares your heart to recieve His love.
