love

Friday, September 18, 2009 (5:41 a.m.)

Lover of our hearts,

Lord, thank You for loving us so much. Thank You that it is because of You and You alone that we can come anywhere near loving each other as we are supposed to. Today Dear Lord, teach me more about Your kind of love; the love that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13 (4-7) that is first patient and kind.

Mm. Here’s something I have forgotten. Titled simply “Love” and taken from the Recovery Principle Devotionals of my Life Recovery Bible, “Love is more than a feeling. It is a choice of behaviors that grows in our life; it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, produced in our life as we yield to God…”

Saturday, September 19, 2009 (6:51 a.m.)

Beloved Lord,

I confess. I don’t know the first thing about loving as You would have us love. The love I show to others is most often conditional. There’s an underlying, undefined expectation I have that there has to be some type of positive return to my efforts for me to be able to continue offering love.

Lord, I do not have a proper set of boundaries in place. I thought I did. Hem me in to the things on which You would have me focus and place my energies. Lord, I love You and my strength must come from You alone.

I looked to the sky this morning, to the mountains and to the internet. It’s in Your Word that I gain another glimpse of Your glory. All my hope is in You Dear Lord. And just now as a multitude of thoughts and sadness seem to be swimming around in my head, each wanting to be first and uppermost in importance, I remembered one of the most important things I’ve been teaching my swim friends over the summer.

I don’t have the strength it takes to build any boundaries right now. My body and mind are exhausted. I’ve fought the good fight of ‘normalcy’ all week and Father I can’t do it anymore. Just for this moment, in the midst of the floodwaters surrounding me, I will take a deep breath, stop struggling and just ‘survival float’ on the promise of Your love.

Lord, thank You. As I draw in another deep breath, I recognize that I don’t have to do anything other than to remain calm at this particular moment.

Reading Psalm 73:12, “God is my King from ages past” immediately reminded me of the hymn, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past, Our hope for years to come, Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home!” It references Psalm 90:1. Comments that I bracketed more than six years ago state, “Remembering that life is short and often filled with sorrow, we should ask how God wants us to spend our days and concentrate on making our life count for something. We have wasted enough time creating our own problems. We should focus now on making positive changes in our life so we will be able to accomplish things for God.”

Flipping back over to Psalm 71, I am reminded that “Lord, You are my refuge!” (v.1) “I will keep on expecting You to help me.” (14) As I rest in the power of Your strength today, I will practice trusting and praising Your most holy and powerful name. Thank You Lord. Thank You Jesus for coming to do for me all that I am unable to do for myself.

Praise You Lord that in giving myself completely over to You, You answered my original start to this prayer. In coming here to the end, knowing that I am to rest and trust in You today I was reminded again that “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) You did that for us Dear Lord. Thank You. Thank You for Your ultimate sacrifice on our behalf. Provide all I need to listen, help, encourage and give to others as You so perfectly and freely have given to us.

Praise You Jesus. Thank You God. I love You. Thank You. Amen.

(696 words ~ 8:47 a.m.)