In an effort to try & have one blog as opposed to 2, I'm combining my blog entries, so sticking my favourite ones onto here so I can shut my other account down. If you haven't read these ones before, enjoy! :)
This one's from 28th June 2007:
As a few/lot (not really sure to be honest) of you know, the past 18 months or so has been a journey into the heart of God for me, really grasping His love, His Father heart, His grace (oh, His sweet, sweet grace. Such a powerful thing)...
I'm not really inclined to get off this journey anytime soon, actually. It's so easy to leap from one thing to the next and to miss the depth and fulness of God. That's my experience anyway.
But this journey of love...well, that's the rest of my life. And that gets me pretty excited. Actually, that is the one thing that will have me pinging off the walls.
I'm beginning to grasp some of His love, now. Paul talks about the height and depth and width and length of that love and I'm blown away by how boundless it is. But how do we go from receiving to giving? What stands in the way of it all?
It's so easy to complicate this whole life thing. Jesus came for us to have life and life to the FULL and yet we crowd out that fulness, His fulness, with a whole bunch of other stuff.
But life is just about loving - we love because He first loved us. And so we receive His love and pass it on. Simple as that. Simple and yet so hard.
I notice so much fear in me when it comes to loving others - fear of rejection, plain old fear of man. It's one of those situations where i can recite all the Bible verses that talk about things like perfect love driving out fear, about us not having a spirit of fear, but of sonship, of power, love and a sound mind, about the fear of man being a snare, but those who trust in the Lord being kept safe....but what does it look like to LIVE those things?
In many ways these questions are hypothetical and are just part of the journey for me, you know? They show me how desperately I need a deeper revelation. a deeper understanding of the love of God. They show me that there are areas of my heart that haven't received that love, no matter how much I want to argue the matter.
I was having a chat with someone recently, though, who pointed out something that brought so much encouragement to me and yet so much challenge too.
I was talking about the challenges of loving, of stepping out and the risk involved in loving. My friend came out with this: God risks His heart everyday and has His heart broken everyday. Everyday He faces rejection. In creation, in His crucifixion, as He waits for His Bride to be made spotless...He constantly, daily risks His heart and loves and loves and loves, willing to risk the heartache if only to love, to extend His love and see if His love will be returned. He knows the heartache of unrequited love, or betrayal, of lukewarmness, or unkept promises. But He knows the joy of being loved too because He dared to extend His love.
How incredible is that?! Am I missing out on something of the joy of being loved because I'm holding back love because of fear of rejection, heartache, etc, etc?
I'm so challenged & yet so excited at the whole prospect of it....it's one step at a time for me, but I'm so looking forward to taking another step along the journey of love, another step towards having life to the full...another step towards obedience :)
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