Tag Archives: unconditional love

I’m Dreaming Again… of Unconditional Love!

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“This is my command: Love each other.” ~Jesus Christ (John 15:17)

Have you ever felt so incapacitated when it comes to love, especially the ability to truly love others? …without expecting anything in return?  Have you ever felt sick and tired of being sick and tired? …being stuck in a vicious cycle?  Well if your answer is Yes, then know that I feel you! I can certainly understand what it feels like to feel incapacitated and to be sick and tired of allowing that to rob me of pursing my God-given dreams. One of the dreams I had before I even entered into a relationship with Jesus was to be able to experience true unconditional love and then to express that love to others.  Interestingly enough the two greatest commandments are to first love God and second love others.  Tonight God gave me a bit of a reality check in the sense that I’ve realized that I can be a selfish person at times.  Most of the time I’m consumed with “me”.   Consumed with what’s going on in my life, what going to go on in my future, what I look like, how I’m feeling, how I’m growing and maturing in my faith, how I can keep myself busy so that God-forbid I don’t risk being/feeling alone, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me…  I’m not saying that it’s wrong to think or reflect on oneself but even in that it should be done do the glory of God.  I’m realizing that I’m way to consumed with myself.  Please excuse me if I come off as being hard on myself it’s just that I’m writing from that place of “sick and tired”.  I want change, I need change.  I want to stop caring so much about myself and what others think of me and start thinking more and caring more about others.  The good news is that I’m at a place in my life now where I can finally be free to live out my dream.  Not only have I been introduced to true unconditional love, but now as a grateful believer in Jesus Christ I have God’s Holy Spirit living on the inside of me which empowers me to not only love God, but to love others as well.  God has loved me so much that he sent Jesus to die for me and now through the awareness of that love, I’m willing to die to my selfish ways so that I could love God first and then others for His glory.  It is His love in me that enables me to express it to others, it is not of my own power or ability.   I’m excited to step outside of myself and allow God to use me to share His love with others and to share the reason for my hope.  I’ve already started looking at volunteer opportunities in my area.  I’d love to actually go on a missions trip at some point in the future when the timing is right, but for now I want to start right here where God has placed me, serving in my everyday life.

If you have a desire to love and help others, but you just haven’t reached out yet, maybe out of fear or insecurities or even selfishness then I encourage you to take the focus off of yourself and to place it on God.  Look upward and not inward.  Step outside of yourself and ask the God of the universe to show you His love and then to show you how to love like He’s loved you.  Don’t sell yourself short of the life that God has planned for you and don’t give up on your dreams.

 

My prayer tonight is taken from the song lyrics of Hosanna:

Dear Lord, I come before you and confess my selfishness and pray for your forgiveness and mercy.  I thank you in faith and ask that You would change me Lord for your glory.  I pray that you would show me where and how I can love and serve others and that Your will be done.  I also ask the following prayer in the name of Jesus:

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks yours

Everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause

As I walk from earth into eternity

Amen ❤

I’ve included an awesome remix to Hosanna! Hope you enjoy…

Only God’s Unconditional Love Can Satisfy the Deepest Craving of my Heart

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“As long as I keep running about asking: “Do you love me? Do you really love me?” I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with “ifs.”  The world says:  “Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy.  I love you if you have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.” There are endless “ifs” hidden in the world’s love.  These “ifs” enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them.  The world’s love is and always will be conditional.  As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain “hooked” to the world – trying, failing, and trying again.  It’s a world that fosters addictions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart.” ~Henri Nouwen~

I am so thankful for having come across this quote tonight. It both whispered gently and firmly shouted truth into my soul.  This was me for so long – addicted to trying and failing and trying again to satisfy my deepest craving through the world and myself.  I was “hooked”!  I just feel led to pray right now and if this quote speaks truth to your soul then I invite you to join me…

Father,

In the name of Jesus and through the power of Your Holy Spirit I humbly approach your throne of grace and mercy tonight and confess that I have been hooked and addicted to seeking satisfaction for my deepest craving for unconditional love and acceptance from the world and myself which offers merely a false substitute of what only You alone can provide.  I ask for your forgiveness and receive it in faith knowing that Your Word says that You will forgive my sins if I repent and confess.  Lord, I ask that you free me from this bondage as I surrender myself to You.  I ask that You take Your rightful place and be seated in the throne of my heart so that You will forever be my King and that I will worship no other.  I acknowledge that I am completely loved and accepted unconditionally by You and that Your love is more than enough.  Lord, please help me live out this truth daily resting in the assurance that I am completely safe to be the person you created me to be and that  I am free to live a life that isn’t driven by fear but by the power of Your love.  You are awesome God and I thank you for the freedom that You have provided for me through Your Son Jesus.  My heart longs to fall deeply in love with You, to trust You and follow You wholeheartedly all the days of my life and forevermore.

Love Always,

Your precious daughter

Amen ❤

Isaiah 61 reads:

The Year of the Lord‘s Favor

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord‘s favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
They shall build up the ancient ruins;
    they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
    the devastations of many generations.

Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
    foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
 but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
    they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
    and in their glory you shall boast.
 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
    instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
    they shall have everlasting joy.

 For I the Lord love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
    and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
    and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
    that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.

 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
    my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
    he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
    and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
    to sprout up before all the nations.”