You were created to love.
It is your nature, and your purpose.
Your fears and desires get in the way:
your self-centeredness, your desire for control,
your fear of loss or diminishment,
your weakness and your wounds,
your attachment to things
that subvert love and drain life from you,
all prevent you from loving perfectly.
But their power is an illusion.
We flung them all at Jesus—
even death, and the wort suffering.
And they did not stop him;
they could not stop love.
God has defeated them,
buried them in the grave with him,
and he has come to us now without them.
He has risen, and has overcome them all.
You are free to love.
When you love you die to that world of fear,
and you are raised to a new life.
When you love you enter into God,
into what is divine and infinite and eternal.
When you love, even at great cost,
and even if you fail,
even if you have no effect at all,
you have won the victory.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light www.unfoldinglight.net
used with permission
How do you feel about commitment? I used not to think about it very much, and then my whole life changed and I had to make some of the toughest decisions I could ever have to make in this world. Did my faith really matter? Did my commitment level really make a difference? You bet it did!
I just finished the book, Not a Fan, by Kyle Idleman http://www.notafan.com/ it is one of the best books I have ever read on this subject. Are you a fan or a follower? Do you understand commitment? Do you understand intimacy? Do you understand the price of being free? Do you know your value? Are you committed? To Christ? To any of your relationships?
When my whole life exploded (about 15 years ago now) and I plunged into poverty, loss, homelessness, chaos…for year after year. When I thought I had nothing left to lose and then I lost more and even more – I had a choice to make: Was I committed? What did I really want? I didn’t understand exactly that I was committing. I remember in 1990, praying, I want to be happy…and AS LONG AS I am moving in that direction…I will continue to follow God’s path. Ha Well, it certainly hasn’t been the path I expected, but I have become so in love and so consumed and so full of love, joy and peace – not because of me, but because of the Spirit of God, I have found it is my all-consuming passion to die to myself and to attempt to move out-of-the-way so I can live and love in God’s way that is sooo much more than I can ever explain!
There have been several moments when it could have gone either way for me, I stood on the edge of the decision, day after day, and made the very tough choice toward faith. It didn’t make sense to many people, there were many times when it certainly didn’t make sense to me, and during those times I would cling to the promises. I would read Psalm 37, James 1, Matthew 5-7, and daily words of encouragement, many times over and over. I would listen to music, I would walk in nature. Each time I struggled and each time I found peace, hope, grace to continue my journey with Jesus.
I have to tell you, many times God seemed silent, Jesus was just a shadowy figure who didn’t seem real or relevant, and I had to look back at the path behind me, the miracles of the past years to keep my faith alive. Many times I sat for a while and just couldn’t move any further, a few times I made desperate decisions and ended up having to deal with those decisions for many years, but every day I have continued to ask, seek and knock. My faith and my passion have grown and I want nothing else in this world than to know my creator more. To understand love so that I can share that same love with others.
Yes, it’s true, life truly begins when we decide to take personal responsibility for our lives. That decision changes everything! Doesn’t make life easy – in many ways it makes it harder – but the benefits are so wonderful, profound, even extraordinary you will never want to allow anyone else to control your life again.
As with all of life, this is s process, but it all starts with a choice. Your choice! That choice must be followed through with awareness and determination!
Good stuff will follow! Not saying it will all be easy…just saying it will bring you to a place of peace and joy which is the best way to live life!
Almost 22 years ago I asked God! I had no idea if God was real at that point. I sure didn’t see God in any of the people around me. Religion sure had no answers, and so I started on the path with a very heavy scepticism. I really had no idea of anything. I truly emptied myself, of all I had been taught all my life, and worked to challenge my thought process. I challenged and thought about everything that came into my life.
I determined only to follow what brought me peace and led me towards happiness. I knew I would make mistakes – because I had no idea what I was doing, but I determinied I would do my best to face what I did and not make those same mistakes again! I determined to take personal responsibility for my life and my actions and I started off on my experiment to find life. I was challenged to TRY to live as close to the principles I found in the words of Jesus in Matthew 5-7, The Sermon on the Mount.
It is interesting to me that over those years, when I struggled through this challenge that is humanly impossible, I struggled to feel the humanness of Jesus. I really had no idea if what I was doing was doing anything but leading me into brokenness and pain. I had to hold onto two things. The promises and hope of God, and the fact that I felt the personal, gut peace which no one else had access to. There was something bigger than what I could possible do happening! I was witnessing and aware of this. It was growing and so was my belief – no one could take away what I had seen, felt, tasted, experienced. Those miracles that came to me are more than evidence – they are my life-blood!
I now know Jesus intimately – after all I have been trying my best to live his words for the past 22 years! I KNOW HIM! I know his beautiful heart. I have lived his truth – it is my truth! LOVE!!! FREEDOM!!! RESPECT!!!! SERVE!!!
Yesterday I heard a sermon on Jesus as the Bread of life. As the crowd rejected ‘eating his flesh’ (knowing him intimately) his disciples were left alone with him. He asked them if they would leave also and Peter said, “Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life”. Yes, I echo that today. I have no where else to go – my experiment has turned out to be so much more than I ever expected. I am in love with Jesus! and it makes me glad!
I still know very little as far as the mysteries of God – I am so glad that I am not arrogant enough to think I can figure out the creator of this amazing world! I don’t worry about a lot – I am too busy falling in love, knowing the heart of love, figuring out how I can share that love with others who need it so badly!!!
Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
So many of us believe who we have been created to be just isn’t good enough. I know the feeling, I understand it fully. I have had it most of my life – I still struggle with it in some areas of my living, which is why I am always aware! I want to be the BEST I can be. I want to reach my highest potential for happiness. I want to be who God created me to be and do what I was created to accomplish!
Someone recently told me that they ‘liked my confidence’. That it gave them ‘hope.’ Somehow it kinda hit me weird, I immediately heard the old voices telling me I was ‘talking too much’, ‘I just wanted attention’, that I was ‘vain’ – I felt like maybe I was being ‘too much’ and I felt myself pull back and not speak as much as I wanted to.
So, of course, I have thought it over for the past few weeks and processed the comment, why I felt that way and, I gotta tell you, the more I ’roll around’ in her comment – the more I am really liking it! Ha! I want people to have hope, I want to be the instrument of hope and peace! My confidence comes from the faithfulness, healing and miracles, which I have experienced over a difficult and broken life! It is not about self confidence – it is Christ-confidence!
I know this is much, much bigger than me! I have confidence because I have discovered the truth of the unconditional love of God! I am beloved, you are beloved! Every soul on earth has this vast value and this beloved status!!!!! Wooo hoooo! Now that’s something important to share!!!!!!!
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Maryann Williamson – Used by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural Speech
life: acoustic & amplified 