So often we feel like there isn’t anyone listening. Those times where it feels we are crying into a deep vortex of loud noise without our voice being heard. I want to encourage you today there is just a person who believes in you, hears you and knows that you are growing in steps while he walks along with you. He’s been there all along…He’s not giving up on you. He’s running after you…everywhere you have been He’s been there with you. He’s a dad that will never give up on you and have hopes, dreams, and a future full of joy, love and peace.He will never give up on you!
Knowing what it is like to feel unwanted has created in me a desire to make sure others know they are wanted-Oprah
When I heard Oprah say this statement while giving her story of how she overcame her past and has grown into who she is, rang a bell inside my heart. I have a deep care for those who have been “tossed away” by society, families and life in general. This care has really taken over in my life regarding pets. Oh my, I believe I could take in every unwanted animal and help rescue every abused animal out there. Anyone or thing being mistreated or tossed to the side breaks my heart and I have deep compassion.
As a child my father passed away at the age of 5 years old. My mother ran off around the age of 4 years old. You can tell by these 2 sentences what really affected me, the loss of my father first, then abandonment of my mother. This created a deep wound inside my heart, along with insecurities and fear. You don’t really know how deep a traumatic event effects a child until they develop as they age. I grew into someone who wanted to please and be everything to everyone at the cost of myself. I developed a fear of being left, unloved and would break off relationships (create rejection) before I would let others reject me. How unhealthy is it to have that in your heart? VERY!
I grew up where you didn’t talk about this kind of stuff, it just was what it was. I never understood why my dad died, I actually for a while thought he died on purpose, because something was wrong with me. I never knew why my mother ran off, or how to navigate through life having such a deep wound in my heart as a child. I always felt there was something wrong with me. I never really felt it was others, more from a place where I wasn’t good enough for others. I never believed I could make it, that I could make a difference or amount to anything. I felt unwanted, not loved and like I was just simply in the way. This kind of loss and rejection as a child, will set you on a course to a life of destruction if God has not been made the director of your life. Oh, did I make so many bad decisions. I am so thankful that God has redeemed me and used everything for His Glory and to help others!
Once I cried out to the Lord and He changed my life, I began to see how valuable I am and the value in others. God says, we are wonderfully made, we are made in His image and He has a future we have hoped for. The Lord says, that he came for those who need a savior (hello that us you and me), those who have been given up on, who’s lives are a mess. He is our deliverer. He came to heal the broken hearted. He is the Father to the fatherless. We are adopted into Christ. I can go on and on. Isn’t that good news? The Lord wants to make sure they know they are wanted and He created them to have a full and great life. Oprah didn’t come up with that, Jesus did.
What the devil meant for bad God turned to good in my life. I have gone from knowing I wasn’t wanted by my mother and feeling abandoned by both parents; to knowing I have a Father who has set me free from my past. I have been adopted into the family of the Lord, I have a HUGE family now that fellowships around the love of God. I have gone from being rejected to accepted. From feeling unloved to loved. From letting my past decide my future, to letting what Jesus did determine my future.
Growing up with this in my heart has given me a compassion and heart for the really wounded. To help those who do not know they are even seen. To use what had my heart broken, into helping others walk through healing in their hearts through the power of God’s word. Knowing what it is like to feel unwanted has created in me a desire to make sure others know they are wanted and loved. God wants us to know our past doesn’t determine our future, but our future can help others determine theirs. If you have a wounded heart make the decision today to call out to God, and ask Him to fill you with His love. If you have already walked through the healing power of Jesus, reach out to someone who is broken and share of His power in your life. Today could be THE day for you!
The Kingdom of God is likened to someone scattering seed on the ground and waiting to see what happens. This person sleeps and wakes and time passes and the “earth produces of itself”, we are told, first the stalk and then the head and then the mature grain. This reminds me of how anything is grown in life. It’s a principle in every area of our life; work, school, birth, food and animals. We all start with a seed. The seed of hope of a business venture, or the seed of hope of a new baby. Life’s sustained by seed-time and harvest.
This principle also flows with what’s planted in our hearts. Often times the garden we are growing in our hearts, are based off of thoughts, opinions and things from our past that we have kept hidden. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:14&15, “see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” The word defile means spoil, this tells me that there can be roots in our hearts that are not of God and can cause us great trouble in our life and walk with the Lord.
How do we get to the point of having a root of bitterness? Often times, actually every time it starts with the seed of offense. Offense is a tool of the enemy to keep our hearts and minds wrapped up in what is usually a circumstance or situation from our past. An offense could be the way someone said something or that they didn’t do what you would have preferred them to do. Or, it could be something that is a very deep wound that really you had no way of causing, but nonetheless it’s still an offense. The Bible says in Proverbs 17:9 that, “whoever would foster love covers over an offense,but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.”
Think about this, when you are offended what happens? To start off you play it over and over in your mind, which grows the root deeper and deeper into your heart. Then you go and share with 1 person and build a side, then you tell another and before you know it you have a group sided with you, furthering the deepness of the root. If you take a look at the scripture it says that love covers an offense but whoever repeats a matter separates close friends. Not only is the offense causing a root to grow in our hearts but it also divides friends and even families.
The seed of offense develops into a weed with a root of bitterness. When you look at a weed, you can’t just pull it up from the top of the ground. No, you have to go down and dig deep to get all the root. This is what Jesus does to our hearts with the Love of God. We are supposed to make every effort to live at peace with everyone. If love covers and we make every effort to live in peace, then that tells me we are to give no place to offense. We have too much to do and to many people to reach to let our lives be destroyed by the seed of offense and the weed of bitterness. Let’s choose today to let the love of God dwell in our hearts and let Him remove the weeds.
I find so many today, do not know the Lord will use them and desires to work through them. Do you know you have purpose? Did you know God planned a specific call on your life? It’s true that God has a divine purpose and destiny for each and every one of us. This took me years to step into, but knowing that God works everything for good and that every event, decision and situation in my life trained me for the call of God on my life today. It’s a great thing to know you can learn from every situation in your life to help someone else. God doesn’t keep you in your past, He delivers you and uses it for good. He’s the only one I know who does that for us. Often times those in our lives want to hold us to our past, but not Jesus!
When I decided to receive Him and let Him work in my life, I began to serve Him will all my heart and connect right to Him. The word conjunction means the act of connecting or conjoining. The word junction means, the act or process of joining or the condition of being joined. I am fully conjoined and junctioned to the Father. Knowing this has now set me on a destiny and life in Him, full of hope and a great future of sharing what He has done in me and transforming my life.
This passion and zeal comes from an unction of the Holy Spirit;meaning excessive, earnestness or fervor for the Lord. When we know that God has taken up residence in our heart we have an unction for Him and all His word says about and for us. When we step out and begin to walk according to what He says, then we will see with each step He begins to use us. We have opportunities to share with those at our jobs, friends, family and those we bump into in our everyday lives. We can start with just being an encouragement, building up someone in the Love of God. As we begin to step out in faith, our call and purpose will become more clear as we seek Him.
The Kingdom of God isn’t made up of just a bunch of Pastors/Preachers, but of everyday folks with a call of God to help advance His Kingdom. Philippians 1:5-6 says that because of our partnership(conjunction/junction) in the gospel, we can be confident of this, that He who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. That sounds like a promise to me. Start today and begin the work and call He has for you.
As I chatted with my brother today about the Lord and our relationship with Him, we discussed how when in a crunch, need or desperation, many people cry out to the Lord. However, when things turn around they turn away. Yoda would say it this way “This does not a relationship make.”
This kind of thinking reminds me of an ATM. We put our money in the bank and make withdrawals when we have a need. My girls always say, “mom if you are out of money just go to the ATM.” Of course we all know if you don’t have the extra funds you can’t make the withdrawal. Often times we may pick up another job, sell things on the side and so on to put more finances in the bank. However, at the end of the day if your funds have run out you can’t withdrawal from the ATM.
So many look at God this way. We see so many who need healed, finances or a miracle and they call everyone they know to pray and they call out to God. Think about this, if you have to have these series of circumstances to call out to God, perhaps you have to stay in that state because He wants relationship with you. Interesting, huh? God isn’t there to only meet your immediate need, that isn’t relationship. How would a marriage or friendship work if that were how you looked at it? There would be zero sustainability or growth in the relationship. The ATM view of God isn’t His desire towards us as all. He desires relationship, not to make withdrawals from Him when we have a need.
Of course Jesus will meet all our needs but just as Jesus paid a price so do we. We are to surrender our lives to Him and let Him transform us. This will require us to seek Him, serve Him, surrender to His will and give Him our hearts 100%. Wouldn’t you like a full relationship with a friend or spouse? God desires that kind of relationship from us, not just pop in and make a withdrawal, when we are in a pickle.
Today, I just want to encourage you to spend some time to thank Him for all He has done in your life and just think on His goodness. Pick up your Bible and read some of His promises or even better the sacrifice Jesus made for each of us. Open your heart and make a daily withdrawal from Heaven and a deposit in your Spirit.
I lost one of my favorite earrings today and went on a relentless search. I knew the earring was somewhere close but I could not see it nor find it anywhere. I felt a bit sad over having lost something that had been with me for some time and I wear several times a week. After all, it is the perfect simple earring to wear with anything. You know, one of the most important, earth shattering things in life; not so much.
While in a hurry I made the decision to look for it at a later time and get ready for church. I just knew this earring was gone and I would not find it. As I went about my business and continued to get ready, I looked down and saw something shiny in the floor. I couldn’t believe it, there lay my earring. I was so excited after finding my earring, and made sure to place it where I would not lose it again. You know, where it should have been in the first place, in the earring holder.
Throughout the day I thought about this and how Jesus is with His sheep. The Bible says that He will leave the 99 to go and find the 1. That means like my earring, He will pursue finding the one lost because that one is so valuable to Him. Jesus is relentless in His pursuit of us, and will be in search of the 1 until the 1 is united with the 99.
Like my deciding to go about my business and not give any more thought to the earring, because it wasn’t important at the moment. We seem to allow our relationship with Jesus to end up in the same state. We begin to go on with our lives and let THE most valuable thing (Jesus) in our life take a step to the side until we are in need. I really didn’t need the earrings at the moment, but when in a crunch or in my hurry mode, they are my go to earring. What was lost I really needed to be found.
Jesus is always patient and continues to look for the one that is lost. Even if the sheep that is lost, has left to go off on their own, Jesus will be relentless in His pursuit to place you where you first belonged, in a safe place where you will never be lost again.
relentlesspreacherswife 