Love Myself and Others
Over the next month I will not be writing for the blog. I will be vacationing, relaxing, and enjoying the plans that my family and I have been making over the past two years! So, as we conclude with CHG # 4, I want to leave you with some SW questions to ponder upon. I would like you to consider some common possible traps that maybe have had an impact on how you have loved yourself and others.
1. Has the trap been about “people pleasing” and saying “yes” over and over so as to feel loved and accepted?
2. Has the trap been anger because your “people pleasing” has backfired on you, and it now causes you to feel resentful because you said “yes” so much?
3. Has the trap been a need to control, where you think that it has to be your way or the highway in order to feel important?
4. Has the trap been unworthiness where you see yourself as a mess and you question who could ever love you?
5. Has the trap been of perfectionism where you tell yourself, “If I can’t do it perfectly, I won’t do it at all?” 6. Has the trap been about self righteousness so that you see yourself as being better or more “godly” than someone else?
Here is how I want to respond to these questions of entrapment. God loves us and He wants us to love ourselves and each other. God’s heart and love is mirrored in His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died to save you from you, from Satan, and from the clutter of your sins. When you ask Jesus in to your heart, you are made clean, right, and justified from your sin through Jesus Christ and Him only. It is not dependent upon how good you are or all the good you have done or will do. You are declared not guilty through Christ. You come to the end of focusing on yourself and you begin to put your focus on God. When you love Jesus and obey God you are reflecting Jesus, His righteousness, His light and His love. Our example turns many to Christ and that results in others being righteous through Christ as well.
There is a big differentiation between the righteousness of God and self righteousness. Self righteousness is void of love. It is all about me and my agenda. The focus is on the law verses the love. Look at the Pharisees who were full of zeal. The problem was that their zeal was about religiosity and not relationship. Do you want religion or do you want a relationship with God?
Remember when I suggested that you cut out a red heart and then write on it the message of love that God wanted you to hear? Do you recall what yours said? If you don’t remember, then go back and look at it. Put it on display for your eyes to see so that your heart can absorb its full meaning.
Years ago, when I was on one of my walks praying about all the different relationships in my life this acronym came to me:
S
H
E
It is reflective of what you need to ask yourself and answer in regards to your relationships being less cluttered.
Is it SAFE?
Is it HEALTHY?
Is it EDIFYING?
Am I being safe, healthy, and edifying in what I am doing to myself or with myself?
Am I being safe, healthy, and edifying in what I am doing to others or with others?
Are my relationships or circumstances safe, healthy, and edifying?
How often we have thought that lust was love or looked for love in all the wrong places.
Many of you have not had relationships that were safe, healthy or edifying. It has not been safe because you have not been protected, you were put in harm’s way, or there was no sense of boundaries. It has not been healthy because your well being has been compromised at every level. It has not been edifying because you have been put down so much that you have lacked a sense of value and worth.
Some of you have been abused, wounded, broken, and destroyed for so long that you believe you deserve to be abused, wounded, broken, and destroyed. Someone else may have done these things to you, and now you believe that you must do them to yourself. This kind of thinking is a lie! God wants to replace that lie with the truth of His Word. He wants to give you a new way to love yourself and others.
I want to close with these words from 1Corinthians 13:4.
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never looses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
This Scripture is filled with God’s wisdom about loving me and others. You could literally spend days, weeks, and months reflecting and meditating on just this one Scripture. During the next month, speak this Scripture over and over to yourself and see how God lovingly sheds His light on your hidden story so that you can experience His healing, hope, love, and truth.
September 20, 2012
September 13, 2012
Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #4, Part Two
Love Myself and Others
How would you describe what took place inside of you this past week as you focused on letting go of the condemning thoughts and memories that you have been holding onto, and then replaced them with the heart message of love that God spoke to you through His Word and Holy Spirit?
“This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” This Scripture from John 15:12 kept echoing into my ears all week, especially when I wanted to lash out at the lack of follow though with a number of service people, or when someone saw their way to be better than my way! It can be very challenging to apply CHG #1, which tells me to slow down. For me, this often means to slow down enough to still the words that want to come out of my mouth, so that I can move to CHG # 4 and tell myself to love and speak to others the way I appreciate being spoken to, particularly in the heat of the moment. In other words, love those who irritate you in the same way that you love those who are easy to love, and love them in the same way that God has demonstrated His love for me.
When I asked the Lord for the heart message of love that He wanted me to hear, I heard these simple words, “You are a star of wisdom.” God was taking the Scripture reference that I shared with you from last week in Daniel 12:3 and he was affirming the kind of star He had created me to be. Wisdom comes from the Lord, and the only way I can be that star of wisdom is because I seek the Lord’s face. Upon hearing this message, I was taken back to August 2010 and the memories that were connected to God planting that seed of wisdom that would bear fruit in August 2011 and would become this blog – Red Wednesday’s Wisdom. I recently got an e-mail response to the blog posting from a friend. It read, “You are a star. You turn others to righteousness.” I was humbled by the love of God and Him using my friend to speak the same heart message that He had given me. Our God is a God of reinforcement.
Yesterday I was driving down interstate 65 South and listening to the words of a song that I had not heard before. I was moved by this one refrain, “Father, give me the grace to forgive them.” At the same time, I looked up towards an over pass. In the middle of this over pass was a man boldly and proudly waving our American flag from a flag pole. It was 9/11. To hear this refrain and then see this visual was such a tribute to what happened 11 years ago on September 11th, and here was the heart message that God wanted reinforced, Love your neighbor. Your neighbor is anyone outside of you, including those who attacked the United States. I lessen the clutter of anger, bitterness, hatred, and revenge when I do not condemn but love. Oh my, how hard that is. Forgiveness. This message of forgiveness is so important, that even as I am typing these words for the blog, the same song I just mentioned above just came on the radio! I now know that it is called “Losing” by Tenth Avenue North. I am just in awe of our Lord’s presence in everything. These lyrics just blow me away as I think about that man on the bridge and it being 9/11 and how God orchestrated all of this for me to share with you, and all of it in relation to loving and yes, even loving when we need to forgive! I am honored.
Your SW this week? Reflect on this song, 9/11, our flag, and the recent loss this week for our country with the death of three Americans and our Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
I can't believe what she said
Oh Father won't you forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing
How would you describe what took place inside of you this past week as you focused on letting go of the condemning thoughts and memories that you have been holding onto, and then replaced them with the heart message of love that God spoke to you through His Word and Holy Spirit?
“This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” This Scripture from John 15:12 kept echoing into my ears all week, especially when I wanted to lash out at the lack of follow though with a number of service people, or when someone saw their way to be better than my way! It can be very challenging to apply CHG #1, which tells me to slow down. For me, this often means to slow down enough to still the words that want to come out of my mouth, so that I can move to CHG # 4 and tell myself to love and speak to others the way I appreciate being spoken to, particularly in the heat of the moment. In other words, love those who irritate you in the same way that you love those who are easy to love, and love them in the same way that God has demonstrated His love for me.
When I asked the Lord for the heart message of love that He wanted me to hear, I heard these simple words, “You are a star of wisdom.” God was taking the Scripture reference that I shared with you from last week in Daniel 12:3 and he was affirming the kind of star He had created me to be. Wisdom comes from the Lord, and the only way I can be that star of wisdom is because I seek the Lord’s face. Upon hearing this message, I was taken back to August 2010 and the memories that were connected to God planting that seed of wisdom that would bear fruit in August 2011 and would become this blog – Red Wednesday’s Wisdom. I recently got an e-mail response to the blog posting from a friend. It read, “You are a star. You turn others to righteousness.” I was humbled by the love of God and Him using my friend to speak the same heart message that He had given me. Our God is a God of reinforcement.
Yesterday I was driving down interstate 65 South and listening to the words of a song that I had not heard before. I was moved by this one refrain, “Father, give me the grace to forgive them.” At the same time, I looked up towards an over pass. In the middle of this over pass was a man boldly and proudly waving our American flag from a flag pole. It was 9/11. To hear this refrain and then see this visual was such a tribute to what happened 11 years ago on September 11th, and here was the heart message that God wanted reinforced, Love your neighbor. Your neighbor is anyone outside of you, including those who attacked the United States. I lessen the clutter of anger, bitterness, hatred, and revenge when I do not condemn but love. Oh my, how hard that is. Forgiveness. This message of forgiveness is so important, that even as I am typing these words for the blog, the same song I just mentioned above just came on the radio! I now know that it is called “Losing” by Tenth Avenue North. I am just in awe of our Lord’s presence in everything. These lyrics just blow me away as I think about that man on the bridge and it being 9/11 and how God orchestrated all of this for me to share with you, and all of it in relation to loving and yes, even loving when we need to forgive! I am honored.
Your SW this week? Reflect on this song, 9/11, our flag, and the recent loss this week for our country with the death of three Americans and our Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
Losing - Tenth Avenue North
I can't believe what she said
I can't believe what he did
Oh, don't they know it's wrong
Don't they know it's wrong
Maybe there's something I missed
But how could they treat me like this
It's wearing out my heart
The way they disregard
Don't they know it's wrong
Maybe there's something I missed
But how could they treat me like this
It's wearing out my heart
The way they disregard
This is love or this is hate
We all have a choice to make
We all have a choice to make
Oh, Father won't You forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
Well it's only the dead that can live
But still I wrestle with this
To lose the pain that's mine
Seventy times seven times
Lord it doesn't feel right
For me to turn a blind eye
Though I guess it's not that much
When I think of what You've done
But still I wrestle with this
To lose the pain that's mine
Seventy times seven times
Lord it doesn't feel right
For me to turn a blind eye
Though I guess it's not that much
When I think of what You've done
This is love or this is hate
We gotta choice to make
We gotta choice to make
Oh Father won't You forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
Why do we think that hate's gonna change their heart
We're up in arms over wars that don't need to be fought
Pride wont let us lay our weapons on the ground
We build our bridges up but it's just to burn them down
We think pain is own apologies and get them to stop
Well truth be told it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not
Cause freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
Of mercy and Your grace, Father, send Your angels down
We're up in arms over wars that don't need to be fought
Pride wont let us lay our weapons on the ground
We build our bridges up but it's just to burn them down
We think pain is own apologies and get them to stop
Well truth be told it doesn't matter if they're sorry or not
Cause freedom comes when we surrender to the sound
Of mercy and Your grace, Father, send Your angels down
Oh Father won't you forgive them
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing
Cause I feel like the one losin'
I feel like I've been losing
Oh Father, give me grace to forgive them
Cause I feel like the one losin'
Cause I feel like the one losin'
September 5, 2012
Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #4, Part One
Love Myself and Others
Our SW from last week was to review the one seed that each of us wanted to plant and focus on (Hope, Love, Truth, or Healing) and to look at the personal Scripture that went along with planting that seed. We were to then look up our Scripture in the Bible so we could take in some of the others verses that came before and after our one verse. Healing was the seed that I planted, and the Scripture that has helped me to grow this seed of healing into my life is Jeremiah 29:11. Jeremiah tells me that God knows the plans He has for me, and they are plans that give me a hope and future. When I went to my Bible to see some of the verses that surrounded Jeremiah 29:11, I was reminded that through Jeremiah, the prophet, God had spoken these words to the Israelites when they were in Babylonian exile for 70 years! I can only imagine the encouragement that these words gave the Israelites who had been taken out of their homeland of Jerusalem. I have not been exiled, but I have been moved, and in that move I have already seen the future and hope that God has provided me with. I am surrounded by the love of my family, and I am feeling less cluttered by the demands of home ownership. I am living with greater simplicity because I have less.
What story came to life for you as you reviewed your SW with respect to CHG# 3?
CHG # 4 tells me to love myself and others.
What does CHG # 4 imply as being the root cause of my clutter?
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not love myself.
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not love others.
Therefore, when I learn to love myself and others I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.
The Scripture to support CHG # 4 is from Matthew: 22:39, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
What does Matthew 22:39 imply as being the root cause of my clutter? It reinforces that my clutter builds up when I do not love myself and do not love my neighbor, in otherwords, do not love others. Therefore, when I love myself and others according to God’s Word, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.
CHG # 4 is very dependent upon CHG # 2, which tells us to love the Lord. We learn to love ourselves and eachother by learning how God loves us and calls us to love Him.
It is through God’s Word that we learn to love the way God created us and intended us to love. In my desire to love God’s way, I am constantly asking Him to heal the clutter of how I have loved with wrong thinking and wrong actions and to love through His eyes rather than mine. I actually feel God’s intimate love and presence when I hear what He has to say and how He sees me in Daniel 12:3. God sees me as wise and a bright light in the sky and then He tells me that because I turn others to righteousness I will shine like a star forever. My bright light will help others to see the light of God!
We live in a world that focuses on entertainment and wants to cut throat. It is a world that craves for individual stardom and does not understand why we are here on this earth. We are here on this earth to love! We are born out of God’s love for us and our clutter will be lessened when learn to love ourselves and others through God’s eyes and not man’s eyes. In God’s kingdom we all can become stars. We are His stars forever.
This week’s SW is about you learning to see yourself the way God sees you, not with condemnation but with love. Cut out a red heart for yourself and then apply CHG # 3 by asking God to speak His message of love to you. Write down that message on your heart and be touched by the Spirit of God’s love.
Our SW from last week was to review the one seed that each of us wanted to plant and focus on (Hope, Love, Truth, or Healing) and to look at the personal Scripture that went along with planting that seed. We were to then look up our Scripture in the Bible so we could take in some of the others verses that came before and after our one verse. Healing was the seed that I planted, and the Scripture that has helped me to grow this seed of healing into my life is Jeremiah 29:11. Jeremiah tells me that God knows the plans He has for me, and they are plans that give me a hope and future. When I went to my Bible to see some of the verses that surrounded Jeremiah 29:11, I was reminded that through Jeremiah, the prophet, God had spoken these words to the Israelites when they were in Babylonian exile for 70 years! I can only imagine the encouragement that these words gave the Israelites who had been taken out of their homeland of Jerusalem. I have not been exiled, but I have been moved, and in that move I have already seen the future and hope that God has provided me with. I am surrounded by the love of my family, and I am feeling less cluttered by the demands of home ownership. I am living with greater simplicity because I have less.
What story came to life for you as you reviewed your SW with respect to CHG# 3?
CHG # 4 tells me to love myself and others.
What does CHG # 4 imply as being the root cause of my clutter?
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not love myself.
♥ My clutter builds up when I do not love others.
Therefore, when I learn to love myself and others I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.
The Scripture to support CHG # 4 is from Matthew: 22:39, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
What does Matthew 22:39 imply as being the root cause of my clutter? It reinforces that my clutter builds up when I do not love myself and do not love my neighbor, in otherwords, do not love others. Therefore, when I love myself and others according to God’s Word, I lessen my clutter and this brings healing to me.
CHG # 4 is very dependent upon CHG # 2, which tells us to love the Lord. We learn to love ourselves and eachother by learning how God loves us and calls us to love Him.
It is through God’s Word that we learn to love the way God created us and intended us to love. In my desire to love God’s way, I am constantly asking Him to heal the clutter of how I have loved with wrong thinking and wrong actions and to love through His eyes rather than mine. I actually feel God’s intimate love and presence when I hear what He has to say and how He sees me in Daniel 12:3. God sees me as wise and a bright light in the sky and then He tells me that because I turn others to righteousness I will shine like a star forever. My bright light will help others to see the light of God!
We live in a world that focuses on entertainment and wants to cut throat. It is a world that craves for individual stardom and does not understand why we are here on this earth. We are here on this earth to love! We are born out of God’s love for us and our clutter will be lessened when learn to love ourselves and others through God’s eyes and not man’s eyes. In God’s kingdom we all can become stars. We are His stars forever.
This week’s SW is about you learning to see yourself the way God sees you, not with condemnation but with love. Cut out a red heart for yourself and then apply CHG # 3 by asking God to speak His message of love to you. Write down that message on your heart and be touched by the Spirit of God’s love.
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