Tag: <span>loved by god</span>


“I have loved you with an everlasting love…”  Jeremiah 31:3

Valentine’s Day, as celebrated in many Western countries, is supposed to be a day filled with gifts (usually candy and flowers), lovingly worded greeting cards, and special acts of kindness. Yet for many people—young and old—it is a day marked by an aching heart. The single mother weighed down by burdens of responsibilities almost too heavy to bear. A widowed man sitting quietly in his rocker with only tears of memory as his companion. The young single woman wonders why she alone, among so many of her friends, is without a fiance or husband. The married couple who merely co-exist without a spark of passion. The candy is consumed, the flowers fade and many of the special acts are unfortunately replaced with less loving gestures.

What happens on February 15th? Is there a love that helps us bear our burdens, wipes our tears, satisfies our longings? Madeleine L ’Engle writes:

One of our children when he was two or three years old used to rush at me when he had been naughty, and beat against me, and what he wanted by this monstrous behavior was an affirmation of love. And I would put my arms around him and hold him very tight until the dragon was gone and the loving small boy had returned. So God does with me. I strike out at Him in pain and fear and He holds me under the shadow of His wings. Sometimes He appears to me to be so unreasonable that I think I cannot live with Him, but I know that I cannot live without Him.”

Thank you, Father, that your love doesn’t depend on my worth or my reactions, that you loved me from before the beginning of time, that your love can fill all the empty spaces of my heart.

By Marilyn Ehle
Used by Permission

We Welcome your comments.

Enter Email
reCAPTCHA

FURTHER READING

What’s Love Got to do with It? by Norm Miller

Two Keys to a Happy Marriage by Kevin Miller

Adhesive Qualities in a Marriage – Glue only comes in one flavor

SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL: FOLLOW THIS LINK


thoughts by Marilyn Ehle Thoughts by Women

Hear God’s Word for you in 2 Corinthians 4:7. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

Your Father wants you to be completely whole in belonging and worth, in identity and legitimacy.

Be blessed to know without question what a treasure you are to Him. Be blessed to live as the special treasure you are. As you know who you are, you will understand the “why” of what you do. Be blessed with knowing your purpose and the specific blessings that God has stored up for you.

Be blessed in the name of the One who is all-surpassing power. Be blessed with knowing experientially that Jesus is the “how” of everything you are and do. Paul asked the rhetorical question, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). And the answer is nothing. God is your competence (2 Corinthians 3:5). Know that it is “not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,says the LORD Almighty (Zechariah 4:6). You can be confident, knowing that apart from Him you can do nothing (John 15:5), but in Him you can do everything (Philippians 4:13).

You can be confident in the core of your being in following God’s will, not your own; in speaking His words, not your own; in doing His work, as He does His work of intimately revealing Himself. Thank God for your God-given competence, but don’t allow your competence to become your identity. Be blessed with healing in your deepest doubts and your deepest wounds of identity, so that you do not have to strive to prove that you are worthy, legitimate, significant, and deserving of honor.

God designed you for unique good works in Christ (Ephesians 2:10). There are some things He placed you in the world to do that you can do better than anybody else, because of who He designed you to be. Be blessed in everything He designed you to be to fulfill His purpose on the earth. As you align yourself with who God designed you to be, you will be fulfilled, and the world will be blessed.

Be blessed in the name of the One who is your all-surpassing power (2 Corinthians 4:7).

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

We Welcome your comments.

Enter Email
reCAPTCHA

From: You Are Blessed In The Names Of God (page 31)


Further Reading

•  Making a Difference

•  Poems

•  Salvation Explained


Thoughts by All thoughts by Sylvia Gunter Thoughts by Women