Walls? Yeah, I'm a good builder too...
Why do we feel defensive? Rejected? Insecure? Alone? These are normal human emotions that bubble up when the Spirit of God is not reigning in our hearts. There is an easy solution. I say easy, but we make it so hard. If we could just let go of trying desperately to be accepted, like an orphan does, and instead live like the child of God THAT WE ARE, we would be calm! I watched my sweet adopted nephew try to be loved and in the process push away love...wounded and confused by what he thought was love, and gently folded into to a family of true love. This true love was healing and his true self, the one God calls out of us, is becoming healthy and filled with the love of God. We do the same thing. And it takes time...God gives us time. We push, we pull, we run toward, then away, we hold on tight, and often we completely build a wall. But God tears down walls! Amen?!
We are all orphans without God. But He "sets the lonely in homes" Psalm 68:6, and He has called us to be His child. By the way, pray for this sweet one, I have no idea what has become of her. But this is why Sparrow Missions exists. They minister to the fatherless, they have built a Children's HOME. We can be the hands and feet of Jesus like this when we accept who we really are, L.O.V.E.D. See how you can get involved by clicking on the Sparrow Missions link below. Our daughter Kristen is serving with many others with Sparrow this summer. Send. them. out.
God wants us to know that we are truly loved, and He wants that to seep into to our bones like a hot bath for those achy joints. Or the honey on the soar throat, or the breeze in the midst of oppressive heat. God breathes life into us and gave His life to bring us to life. Ezekiel 37:5-10 is a beautiful picture of this:
"This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army."
Let us simply let of who we are, loosen the fingers and let it all fall away. We have a gift! We can acknowledge safely before the God of the universe all our weaknesses and fears. He meets us beautifully in that place,
"For this is what the high and exalted One says-- he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15
We have to get the place where we can say "who cares?" We have to be so full of God's love that we love without expectation, that we live without trying to please, that
"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." Luke 10:27
We can not muster up this kind of love. It so easy, and yet so hard. When we really start believing we are truly loved by God, and that He is the one we answer to and serve, then our attempts to please others dissipate. Our tendency to avoid rejection dissolves.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, ... We love, because He first loved us.…" 1 John 4:18-19
We can truly pray, "Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner and help me to love as You love me." This kind of praying shifts the heart. He has given us a heart of flesh to replace a heart of stone. Ezekiel 36:25-27 says,
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.…" This ties in beautifully with Romans 8:5-6 says,
"Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace."
This post is choppy, my thoughts are always choppy! When I pray and seek God with my thoughts, He pulls up verses He's hidden in my heart. I get so much peace when He flows like that and I can't resist sharing. That's me, an orphan, saved and adopted by the grace of God. I write chopped up thoughts, but His Word is all that matters. Cling to Him, to His Word and let the layers of self protection fall away.
You. are. safe. with. God! That changes how we mix with people. One last verse, one of my favorites! This lifts the weight of every action:
"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’" Acts 17:27-28
Come Alive, Lauren Daigle
Sparrow Missions
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