Yesterday Mike and I celebrated our 21 wedding anniversary.
Because all of you know how challenging a spiritual mismatch can be, I just marvel at all God has brought about in me, my husband, our children and all through our marriage covenant.
Miracles abounding around here. May I just say, "Honey, I love you and I'm looking forward to the next 21 years."
I've been thinking a lot about honor and marriage. I've been pondering the qualities of my husband that are honorable. And today, just for fun, I want to share a hilarious video that points to an amazing quality my man possesses.
My guy can find the perfect anniversary, birthday and any-kind-of-card-day for me.
Mike Donovan IS the guy in the video who seeks the perfect card for his wife. He spends an hour at Hallmark. I spend 10 minutes at Wal-Mart. Sheesh! He is SO much better at this than me.
Thank you Mike, you are so amazing and able to find the perfect card.
Okay enjoy. And today think about one area in your spouse that is honorable. Is he a good father? A good provider? When you type his honorable qualities in the comments it becomes a written record for the Kingdom. So today, honor your spouse and then watch as God honors you. Hugs, Lynn
My precious friends, today I want to introduce you to Susanne (Suzie) Eller. She's been a great support to the SUM ministry and now we get to share her with you! Suzie's message of forgiveness in her book, The Unburdened Heart is desperately needed today and by so many. I hope you find answers and comfort in her words below.
Feel free to leave comments and pray for each other. This is a tough topic. And we'll do a random drawing from the comments for a book winner, who will receive a copy of her book.
Love you all dearly and know you are in my heart and prayers! Hugs! Dineen
Suzanne (Suzie) Eller is a Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker and author. She’s written six books, hundreds of articles, and writes devos with Encouragement for Today that reaches over 500,000 women. Suzie is a radio co-host with Luann Prater at Encouragement Cafe Joy FM. She encourages women through two Facebook communities reaching over 20,000 five days a week. She’s been featured on TV and radio such as Focus on the Family, Aspiring Women, 100 Huntley Street, KLOVE, MidDay Connection, The Harvest Show, and many others. Most importantly, she is a wife, mom, and “Gaga” to four beautiful grandbabies. Connect with Suzie at www.tsuzanneeller.com.
Suzie, you’ve been listening to many stories from women who struggle to forgive. How many women struggle with forgiveness in their marriages?
Nearly 50% of the women who share their stories on my blog, or in person, say that their biggest struggle to forgive is in their marriage.
For many, it’s when a spouse is continually unkind, or says words that diminish her.
In this instance, many women bear their soul and are told either to get out, to seek counsel, or to submit.
The first leaves a woman who desires to stay and work things out because she loves her husband and wants her marriage to succeed, with a heavier burden.
In the second, seeking counsel is wise advice, as long as it’s counsel that is skilled in helping a couple, with God’s help, find new ground in their marriage. Many times “counsel” can be someone who do not have those skills.
The third, to submit, is often shared without proper context. The word “submit” is thrown out without the beautiful framework of instructing husbands to love their wives as “Christ loved the church”. This is why wise counsel is key. Submission is respect, it’s great love, it’s working through the harder spots.
So, how do you begin to forgive in this instance?
It’s a blend of truth, grace, and confidence.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean that abuse is allowed to continue. However, he’s not yours to fix, and that’s where we often spend our energies.
What can you do then? You can speak the truth. Truth is shared, perhaps in the setting of a counselor’s office, or perhaps in a moment where it’s not heated, after prayer and with love, and with the intent of working toward a healthier relationship. Truth is coated with grace, knowing that we all fall short. It’s shared with wisdom and without accusation. And in some instances, it’s shared with healthy boundaries, not to punish, but to work toward the healthiest relationship possible. (A great book on boundaries that is both healthy and filled with wisdom is Boundaries in Marriage by Cloud and Townsend.)
What about unfaithfulness?
A percentage of that 50% wrote in that they struggled to forgive because of unfaithfulness. I shared Carlie’s story, a woman whose husband left her after 29 years of marriage. In this case, the word forgive meant that God moved into the broken and raw places of His daughter. He knew her. He knew her heart. She intentionally walked into a relationship with God during that painful time so that He could fill up her “temple”, residing in Her, healing her, moving in her in those moments when she wanted nothing more than to take revenge, or lash out. In Carlie’s case, her husband went on with his new life, but she also had new life that filled her up in the harder months ahead. She was redefined in so many ways – single mom, single woman. But her role as God’s daughter was made that much more clear and concrete.
For those whose spouse asked for forgiveness and who desired to change, forgiving is key as you rebuild trust. But give yourself permission to be honest with your heavenly father, with the understanding that there is nothing in scripture that condones unfaithfulness. It’s not in God’s plan or His character. If He grieves over the fallen sparrow (Matt. 10:29), then He grieves over your marriage. He is big enough to handle your honesty while leading you to a new level of spiritual intimacy with Him and even tender vulnerability in your relationship with Him as you work through this harder aspect of forgiving. At this moment, it may seem impossible to forgive on your own, but are you willing? That’s the only question that you need to answer. God is a Healer, and my prayer is that your marriage goes to a new place, but also that you sense God’s hand over you as you work through this difficult place, and that one day you look back and see His tender touch over you and your marriage.
I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle—victorious. — Vince Lombardi
My friends, today I want to speak to those of you who are in the thick of battle and are tired. I've received several emails to this effect and I'm carrying each of you close to my heart right now, like a friend cheering you on from the sidelines.
You're tired—tired of the battle, the fight—tired of praying and seeing nothing change. Are you in this place, my precious friend?
What if I told you the battle is always fiercest right before the end? What if I told you your victory is just around that last corner that you can't quite see yet?
Would you keep fighting? Would you keep praying? Would you stand firm?
This weekend I took a walk with my husband and at one point, I broke into a light jog to cross a wide street. I don't normally jog but I've always wanted to, imagining how free I'd feel. Past attempts have left me too winded or with a hurt foot or knee, but I've been walking much more than I have in the past and as I reached the other side of the street, I didn't want to stop. I wanted to keep going because I caught a glimpse of what I'd imagined. My husband, who was born athletic, joined me and encouraged me to keep going. He pointed out a stop sign at the end of the street and told me to make that my goal.
So I did. I kept my eye on that red sign. My knees started to protest so I adjusted my stance. My hips began to “whine” ever so slightly and reminded me that the word on that sign was stop. I kept pushing through the burn because I wanted the victory. I knew if I stopped before that marker I would wonder if I could have made it had I pushed just a little farther, hung on just a little longer.
I prayed for strength. Just a few more steps and I was there! Victory was mine! I don't know if this means I’m now a jogger but in this one moment, I was. Even though my body felt tired, I felt strengthened in my heart and spirit.
We've talked about many of the enemy's tactics, but there's one that hardest to see at times. He's a master plotter and knows when all else fails, he still has one area that he can attack.
That, my friends, is at the end of the battle when the fight is fiercest and our prayers take more strength than we think we have. Evil makes its assault when we are on the verge of a breakthrough or on the precipice of taking new territory.
The enemy turns up the heat just enough to make us think we are losing when we are about to have our victory. When you reach that point when you think you can't win, that's the enemy whispering defeat into your heart. When you think your spouse, your loved one, your life, even your very self is a lost cause, that is the enemy's panicked attempt to make you back off because he's about to lose.
Sometimes I imagine Jesus and the heavenly realms cheering us to that finish line only to watch us stop a mere few feet away, because we think we've lost. We buy into what we see and not what we know to be true.
Our victories come in moments that reveal a change not only in the person or situation we are praying over but also in ourselves. We too are changed as we step into new freedom and territory, stronger that just a few steps before and closer to God. Each and every step is a victory!
But it's not easy. The question is, will we struggle, fight, stand and persevere through those last few steps when the enemy is bent on convincing us to give up?
Victory never looks like what we expect and seems to always exceed our expectations when it does come. Sometimes it arrives through times of staying put right where we are or in the moments when God says let go so He can take complete control. What we may perceive to be failure may simply be the final set-up for a breakthrough.
My friends, please understand I am not tell you what to do. I'm telling you to do what God has told you to do. What did He speak to your heart when the battle began? What are the promises He gave you along the way? What is He telling you right now?
As I wrote this post, God put it upon my heart to share a battle I’m in right now. It may seem trivial, but even the smallest battles have a purpose, a desired result to add to the big picture of God’s Kingdom.
For the last year or so our financial picture has become more and more difficult. In January when I prayed for my husband, God gave me the word, “Prosperity.” I confess I struggled with it, wondering how God could prosper us when my husband is still walking his own path. Before I could even speak this doubt to God, He spoke so clearly, “I bless him through you.”
This week we will have to sell my car—my 2010 Honda CRV. I waited at least fifteen years to own one of these. I love my car, but it’s just a car. The enemy, however, wants to make me resentful, which I could easily indulge in because I’m bearing the brunt of the situation at the moment, and he’s trying to make me doubt what I heard from God. But I wrote it in my journal. I reread it anytime the enemy tries his tactics, because I KNOW what my God said and I BELIEVE HIM!
I know it seems strange that selling my car would be part of God’s plan of prosperity for us, but I trust God and I know Him well enough by now to understand two things: One, I know whatever happens with this will be part of what brings my husband to faith. Every part of our lives can be opportunities to have Kingdom impact on a life and my guy’s soul is more important than a car.
And two, my limited thinking of what all this means only succeeds in putting God in a box. Just because selling my car seems counter to what God has spoken doesn’t mean it is. Remember, His ways are not ours. He sees the big picture, I don’t. Therefore I trust God for the outcome, because I know it will be better than what I would have if I held onto that car.
Whatever God calls us to do, we are guaranteed the victory. Wherever God leads us, we will succeed, overcome, or accomplish whatever that is. Our victory is guaranteed because we are in Christ and we belong to God. That is what we can hold onto and will never have to let go of or give up. The enemy can’t take it away from us either.
Trust God. Believe Him. This is our greatest form of worship.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. — 1 John 5:4
Praying for earthshaking, life-changing faith for each of you!
Dineen
***Before we get to what God has for us today, I just want you to know
intensely special this week has been for me. I cherish the opportunity to serve
this ministry in this way every year. I know the power and might of the God we serve
for myself and it is my greatest passion that others know it too. My heart has
cried out as I completed today's post because I KNOW how hard it is to keep
going. I KNOW how hard it is to trust God and to really truly take Him at His
word when everything and everyone - including my own self - says to just let go
and walk away. I have seen God start keeping promises this week that I have
been praying for ten years. I have seen His faithfulness start to manifest in
such a way that burdens that have brought me to my knees up until very recently
have been lifted. I have been challenged with you to give more of myself and to
receive more of my LORD. Please know that this year's fast has been intensely
personal for me and that I carry you in my hearts and sisters (and brothers),
warriors, and friends. I love you. Ro***
Acts 2:38-39 Peter said to them,
“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins; and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise
is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord
our God will call to Himself.”
This is the last post of our fast, gang! I have wrestled with this one all
week, because I wasn't sure what the Lord would have me share. And in all
honesty, I struggled to pick just ONE verse from Acts 2 because the whole thing
is just so poignant. But the part that in red, that's the part that has rested
with me since Sunday.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
When I read the chapter, I thought of all the signs and wonders and of God
pouring His Spirit out on all flesh, but then I kept reading and low and
behold, as I read, another word came to mind: BELIEVE.
That's really what it's all about. You can fast, you can pray, you can give
away all your possessions, you can even be privy to some amazing miraculous
displays. But if you don't believe, if you don't allow your heart to open up
and welcome the gift of the Holy Spirit - if you refuse to accept the greatness
and the grandeur of the God who loves you enough to save your soul, then how
will you ever really know the depths of His love for you?
The day of Pentecost came and people began speaking in tongues. But at the end
of the day, even after such a display of power and greatness, some called them
drunkards. Peter preached a sermon, explaining what was happening, inviting
them into relationship - not only salvation, but sanctification. And he even
gave them a promise at the end, for their children and themselves and all those
who God plans to call to Himself! (Which, by the way, is also His promise to
you and to me!)
I daresay that some of them STILL were willing to write it all off as just a
little too much wine.
That makes me sad. It grieves me in my spirit to think that after all the work,
all the buildup, all the display, we could be those who refuse to just believe.
The Lord spoke to me once a few years ago, when the fire was the hottest and I
was at my weakest point: 'You have obeyed Me. Now I want you to believe Me.'
I am asking you now, having given of yourself and given up your own wants -
having obeyed scripture to fast and pray, would you throw it all away by not
believing the One who holds the power of life and death in His hands?
Tonight at 7pm, your sacrifice will be made complete. Don't let your week be
wasted, don't let your sacrifice be in vain. Today's prayer is very simple:
Romans 6:4-5 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so
that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
too might walk in newness of life. 5 For
if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we
shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
When we accepted salvation, we accepted the call to die. The
kind of death that would allow God to live in and shine through us. The kind of
death that would give us new life. REAL life. We accepted death understanding
that through our death to ourselves, we would also find a re-birth as glorious
as the one Christ experienced when he was resurrected.
I know it's daunting, this thing of dying, but really ya'll.
Membership has its privileges. The cost is great, but the destination is worth
the journey.
Father God,
I come before Your throne and I humble myself at Your feet. I
bow my spirit before You and I surrender all that I am and all that I have to
you. Master, I come to you lowering myself in total submission to Your
Lordship, Your Headship, Your Authority in my life. My life is not my own, but
Yours to do with as You desire. I die to myself right now, today, that I might
find resurrection life in You.
In Jesus' Name.
Amen.
Ro
(Please share with us how you fast is going and what the Lord is revealing to you, Hugs, Rosheeda, Lynn and Dineen.)
2 Samuel 5:1-2 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said,
“Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. 2 Previously,
when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and in. And the
Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a
ruler over Israel.’”
There is so much here... God called David to leadership, and
had him walking in that call even before the throne was free for him to be
seated. He was leading those God called him to shepherd even before Saul was
dethroned. The Lord spoke to David even before it came to pass, 'You will
shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.'
God asked David to accept the call even before the people that
he was called to lead were free to accept it. David took all that he had
learned from shepherding and intimacy with God and led a people whose following
of him was not necessarily an intentional thing in the beginning, but more an
instinct. And in the end, when they were free of Saul's rule, they came to
David willingly - because they trusted his leadership and his heart for them -
and declared themselves one with the new king.
Israel gave to David what David gave to God.
As believers, our initial following of God is more instinct
and convenience than anything. Over time and as He proves Himself, that
instinct becomes an intentional act of submission and love, borne of great
trust and confidence in who the Lord is to us personally. We align ourselves
with our King. We become one with Him because we can trust His vision.
We accept His call, just as King David did. David led because
God asked Him to, not because that was the position that someone had given him.
He understood and was humble enough to simply say 'Yes Lord' and to do the job
set before him, trusting God for the outcome.
Adonai,
I come to you and I simply say 'yes Lord'. I will accept Your
call. I will take all that I have learned, all that I am learning even now, and
I will do the job You have set before me. I will trust You for the outcome.
Help me to align myself with You, help me to allow myself to
become one with You as I learn to embrace Your vision. May I be a leader worthy
of the call.
In Your Son's Name, Amen.
Ro
(Please share with us how you fast is going and what the Lord is revealing to you, Hugs, Rosheeda, Lynn and Dineen.)
2 Corinthians 3:6 ...who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
When I read it here's how my heart interpreted it: God you have done a new thing and You have made me someone you call worthy to be part of it. It's not about keeping the rules, it's about knowing Your heart; the rules rob us of truth, but the heart gives us life because it gives us real intimacy with You.
So much power and such a confidence booster! Ya'll, God doesn't want us to be rule-followers. He wants us to be Abba-Seekers, lovers of Him.
He picked us! He made us worthy to go the distance with Him. There need be no fear, no worry. Not if we will just choose Him. Not if we would just be willing to grow in intimacy.
It's really all about knowing the One who makes the rules.
Father, I don't want to be a rule-keeper. I want to be a heart-seeker. I want to know you. I give up my rules Lord. I give up my ideas of the way I THINK You should work and I ask You to show me how to really embrace the truth of the work that You choose to do in, through, for, and around me.
I will trust You to show Me how to honor your statutes in the way that truly honors You.
You chose me. You called me worthy. I want life, so Father I surrender my worship of the letter [of the law] and I will wait expectantly as I learn to be led by Your Spirit.
All things in Christ's name.
Amen.
Ro
(Please share with us how you fast is going and what the Lord is revealing to you, Hugs, Rosheeda, Lynn and Dineen.)
Psalms 119:5 Oh that
my ways may be established to keep Your statutes!
So much in such a short verse. I read it and was so stunned
at how directly it spoke to my heart and what I believe is the Father's heart
for us ultimately in this journey.
In my mind, I translate it this way: I want the way that I
live my life to reflect true obedience to Your Word.
That really is the prayer of my heart, for myself and for
you.
This surrender is the first step in being prepared for what
lies ahead. Begin today to give up your will for the greater will of the One
who loves you endlessly. It will open your heart to accept what He wants to
reveal to you.
Oh Abba,
How we worship You. We adore You, Holy One. We love You. Oh
Father, please forgive us for neglecting You. Please forgive us for not keeping
Your statutes. Give us a heart this day, this week, this year and beyond to
dwell in and experience real intimacy - true intimacy with You. You are holy.
We need You. We love You. We seek Your face, Lord. Not only Your hand, but Your
face more than anything.
You say in Your Word that if we love You, we will keep Your
commands. Lord, teach us to love You. Teach us to keep Your commands so that
our lives are a reflection of the Psalm that cries out that our ways might be
established to keep Your statutes.
Reveal to us the places where we have become our own god.
Reveal to us the areas in our hearts, mind, and lives that we have kept from
You because of fear, doubt, pride or shame. Free us of the sin that so easily
entangles us and move us to a place of such deep surrender that we want You far more than our own way.
Oh Father, let the way that we live our lives reflect true
obedience to Your Word.
We ask it all and we will seek it diligently. We will wait
expectantly on You to reveal the hidden things. We are Yours to do with as You
will.
All in Christ's Holy Name. Amen.
Ro
(Please share with us how you fast is going and what the Lord is revealing to you, Hugs, Rosheeda, Lynn and Dineen.)
I want to say a couple of things before we move forward in
this series. Reading the comments left after the last two posts, it’s obvious
to me that God was right (like always). There many of us who He is revealing
His desire to move our love relationship into a deeper intimacy.
I think the past couple of posts have brought us to a
reality we didn’t understand. It’s our ability to call our Lord, Daddy, and to
accept all of the implications that come with naming our God, with that name of
complete intimacy.
Now to those of you who don’t struggle with this Daddy
issue, please be patient with the rest of us. And I also want to assure you
that I’m not trying to overly feminize God. Because I KNOW without doubt that
our God is a warrior and fighter a brilliant commander of millions upon
millions of warring angels. We will talk more about that side of our Triune God
in January. But in order to grasp the warrior side of God we need to become intimately
familiar with the love of God. Because out of that love, everything else flows.
Well, let me explain how this Daddy thing began. While I was
at Bethel, the woman Maria, who I’ve written about before, gave me a list of
books to read and a few movies to watch. One movie in particular is, Father of
Lights. This movie profiles several amazing believers and one man in
particular. I won’t give away much about this movie because ALL OF YOU need to
rent it, buy it, or borrow it and then watch it. I will tell you this….. The end…..
It’s a mind blow and a total “God” set up. If you watch it, email me and let me
know your thoughts.
Anyhoo, one of the men profiled literally “hears” the
audible voice of his “Daddy,” our Daddy and Lord. As I watched this movie, I
was filled with a desire to KNOW God in this way. So, the next morning is when
the Holy Spirit said to me, “Call me Daddy.”
For me, and likely for many of you, this is the last (at
least I hope it’s the last) blockade in our love relationship. When I’m able to
name my Lord, “Daddy” it changes everything. This is where miracles happen
because it’s where utter blind trust lives and thrives. It’s where the Holy
Spirit can ask anything and I will do it because there are people who need
healing and I’m the one He will work through. This intimate place is where fear
is decimated and left impotent. It’s where wild courage is born to share with
my spouse, my kids, my family, anyone and everyone the truth. It’s with my
Daddy that I will be awakened in the night to receive my assignment for the
next day, to witness my God’s love and His purposes unfold before my very eyes.
It is with my Daddy that I will be so cocooned in his love that the devil and
all of his minions can’t touch me and in fact they are scared out of their
minds because I know and love my Daddy and I live in His favor and authority.
This is what it looks like this promise of God’s, Perfect
love casts out fear. (1 john 4:18)
So today, cry out just as Teresa T. did on Monday in the
comments: Abba! Father. It does sound so personal that we don't think it as
reverent. So I did some research and found this.
Romans 8:15
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “ Abba,
Father!”
Our Great King speaks to us with such a love that I cannot
fully understand it, but He says to me and to you, “Cry out, Abba, Father!”
So right now I’m going to share a snippet form my prayer
journal where I first prayed, “Good morning, Daddy.”
Sit with your Daddy and allow Him to make you the object of
His affection today.
On Monday we will take our Daddy love and watch how that
turns into self-love and the power it brings into our lives. Choosing love and
thrilling in the power it brings to mortal man. Hugs, Lynn
PS. On Sunday I woke from an afternoon nap. And as I came
awake, there were two words that were on my lips and I was whispering softly. I
kid you not, they were, “Abba, Father.” O, how He loves me. O, how He loves
you. O, how He loves you and me.
Okay, I’m totally ripping off Lynn and some tacky song thing, right? But it’s what popped into my head and those are usually my best lines. (wink)
With that said, I’m going to share a few tidbits of my past that, well, I really didn’t plan or want to but God’s giving me the nudge to be even more authentic with you. And I blame Lynn. LOL!
Just like Lynn shared about her “daddy” issues, I’ve had the same challenge as well. My mother and birth father divorced when I was two. I did see my birth father periodically, but it wasn’t an easy situation because he was mentally ill (later diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic).
I don’t remember a whole lot, but I know my mother had it rough keeping food on our table and remarried when I was around four or five, mostly for security. Didn’t work out for very long (it was clear to Mom and I both he wasn’t too keen on having a kid around).
The man I called “Dad” up until two and half years ago when he passed away from cancer was actually my step-dad. He and my mother married when I was eleven. I’m so grateful for this man. Though his own father walked out on him when he was a young boy, he did a good job filling the gap of father in my life, especially without having a good role model. It wasn’t easy for him though. He was always dad, and I was always his daughter, and my girls’ Papa. No "steps" about it.
Whew! Done with the backstory. And please don’t think I share this for attention or pity. I admit in my past I had times of sharing this for that reason but not anymore. I share it because it’s important to the rest of this story.
Fast forward to 2002. I’m at a Women of Faith conference, having a blast with my two best friends from church. We’re singing and worshiping and bam! It’s like my life zips right in front of my eyes. All the rejection I’d experienced as a child and teenager flashed across my mind's eye like a depressing movie from the ‘70s (Am I the only one who hates movies from that time period? So depressing. Blech!)
Anyway, it’s not the past I thought would have “scrolled” through the dank dungeon of my past—you know, all the school yard junk and issues with school and not fitting in, etc.) Nope, it was to do with the three men who’d played the roll of father in my life.
Needless to say it wasn’t pleasant. Thank goodness it happened fast! As it reached the end, Jesus (my first encounter with Him, though I was saved and had recommitted my life to Him almost 10 years prior) spoke to my heart these words:
“I will never reject you.”
Like the story I shared of what happened to me at Bethel, this ripped something out of me that God didn’t want festering there anymore. But more importantly, He knew I needed to hear this/know this/believe this because otherwise I would never be able to trust Him.
My friend, this was the beginning of God working things in my life so that I could one, learn to trust Him, and two, begin to grasp how deeply I am loved by Him. I’m still grasping it.
I know many of you out there reading this have similar stories. That’s the sad part, so many of us do. When we have a broken image of our father here on earth, it’s hard to grasp that our heavenly Father is nothing at all like an earthly father.
I will even go as far as to say this (and feel free to correct me if you think I’m too far “out there): We know the enemy of our soul targets marriage in huge ways, namely because it is something God designed to reflect our relationship with Him. What if the enemy is doing the same thing with our relationships with our fathers? With our children’s relationship with their father?
We see a growing trend in our culture today of absentee fathers. Of men struggling to stay in the church, to be in the church, to be the spiritual leaders of our families. I believe the enemy is attacking this area too because this father image is something else God uses in the Bible to reflect our relationship with Him.
Think about it? The biggest symbols used in the Bible—marriage and fatherhood—that show God’s love for us are the two areas most at risk. And the recovery from this takes time, as Lynn and I have shared. God has had to work in us to undo the lies and replace it with His love and His truth.
So this is what we want you to know, more than anything, right now, right here. God loves you. He made you. He can’t make things He doesn’t love and He doesn’t do shoddy work either. Nor does His love rest upon our performance because if it did then we wouldn’t need grace and Jesus suffered and died on a cross for no reason at all.
Know in your heart of hearts that you were fashioned by His hand out of a love that is all encompassing, unimaginably perfect and so incredibly powerful and passionate that we won’t fully understand it until we are with Him in Heaven. Nor can we be separated from it.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:38-39
God wants you to grasp this now. Right now. Because until we do, we will use everything and anything to fill this gap to find fulfillment. Our husband, our children, our friendships, our work, the opinions of others—I know this because I’ve lived it.
Our Lord and Savior wants us to walk in freedom and victory (It is for freedom that He came to set us free. Gal. 5:1). Not when all our problems are solved. Not when our prebelievers finally accept Jesus into their heart. And certainly not when we think we’ve got it all together.
He wants this for us right now, right in the middle of all our imperfections and all our trials and challenges. And we can do that with Him through His love.
My prayers started with asking God to heal me and make me whole. I prayed to understand His grace better. I prayed for Him to help me love Him more, to free me from my fears, and to make me a bold and confident person, because I was so tired of my insecurities. I want more of God than anything else in my life. Not an easy prayer but I promise you it is one He will honor and love to hear come from your heart.
So my friends, I will leave this too long post right here with what I hope will encourage you to pursue God like never before. It starts with prayer and if you’re not sure what to pray for first, ask the Holy Spirit to show you. Pray and then believe He’s doing this in you. It won’t be something you can do on your own, make a plan to conquer, or figure out the missing key and, viola!, it’s fixed. (Trust me, I tried!)
No, the healing, deliverance, and change will come when you least expect it because it will be totally and completely God doing it. Rest in Him. Trust Him. Let Him do it.
And He will love you all the way to freedom and beyond. Because really and truly, He is our Father, our Abba, our Daddy.
