Happy Valentine's Day: Go from talking about God's love to experiencing it..

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!
My post today is taken from a book called "Finding Calm in Life's Chaos", by Becky Harling. Below is a two step process taken from her book (intertwined with a couple of links for you to get an extra bang for your buck, and a couple of my own tidbits) for anyone who wants to move beyond hearing about the love of God, and getting to the point of FEELING the love of God. As someone who has struggled with depression I have had to come to terms with the fact that I cannot base my spiritual life simply off of my feelings. I do believe, though, that a long bout of depression left unchecked can lead to a whole host of other problems, and that is why the Bible speaks against and it and tells us instead to live a life of gratitude and thankfulness. If you think you might be struggling with depression it is possible that a prayer and song is not going to pull you out of your "funk". If you need more information on depression, and things of that nature, you can go here. All of us, whether we struggle with depression or not, need to know and experience the love of God. When we know that God loves us and we let it dig down into the depths of our being it will transform who we are and it will change the way we interact with other people. Take a moment to allow God love on you today. It is His great pleasure to do so.

LOVE LETTER

"YES! God wants you to feel the PLEASURE of His love. Bring Him your hunger. He doesn't just want you to know about His love, quote scriptures about His love and simply admit with your head that He loves you. His overwhelming desire is for you to EXPERIENCE His love. But, remember, when you don't feel loved that doesn't mean His love isn't truth."

"Our emotions don't dictate the reality of God's love. But God wants the reality of HIS love to PENETRATE our emotions!"

"He wants you to feel the joy of being loved. He wants you to receive His love personally and powerfully in a way that is life changing."
So, the question becomes "How do you, and I, in our brokenness, discontentment, insecurities, self-hatred, etc., etc., move the head knowledge of God's love into the deep crevices of our hearts?
1. Worship.
Can we force ourselves to say, and sing, the songs that remind us of God's love? He will bless it, if we do. Click here for a link to the posts on this site that have songs in them that you can jam out to anytime you want.

"Praise increases our faith as we pray."

"When you and I worship Christ, the Holy Spirit quickens our hearts and infuses us with more faith to be able to comprehend 'how wide and long and high and deep is the loved of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:18-19)

"Worship becomes a love exchange. The more we express our love and adoration to God, the more His Spirit enables us to experience His love for us."

2. Meditate on and memorize scriptures that remind us of God's love.
As you run, walk, bike, drive, or whatever, commit to memorizing verses that uplift and pour into your heart and spirit.

Pick your verse(s). Write them down. Put them in your pocket, purse, or wherever you'll pull that thing out until you wear that thing out! Stamp that verse into your heart until it becomes part of your heart!

You can go to this post to find a stack of verses worthy of committing to memory to build up your faith in God's love for you, or go here for a short video that does a fantastic job of reminding you of your importance to God, in my opinion. You will find as you say the words of the verses over and over they will sink in and become seasoned in your mind. Your understanding for the verses will develop with time and you will appreciate the truth behind each one more and more as God makes it personal between you and Him.

Pick the verse that speaks to you and repeat it over and over and over again, memorizing so that the verse comes to you randomly throughout your day. Don't start your run, your coffee, your line up of vitamins, your herbal shakes, whatever it is you do to start your day...DON'T do it... until you have picked up your verse and repeated it to yourself. Pray over that verse as you blend up your shake, or as reheat the leftover pizza (mmm...pizza) from last night or whatever it is you do in the morning to get yourself going. :)
Below is a picture of Becky Harling, Author of the book I referred to in this post, "Finding Calm in Life's Chaos". You may go here, to get your own copy of her book.

Step Two: Meditate on and Memorize scriptures that remind us of God's love.

This post is a back up post to the one entitled:

Go from talking about God's love to experiencing it.
You can click here to get to that post.

IF there was ever an enemy of your soul, who wanted to snatch away any self-worth you could possibly possess that could transform you and empower you to do good for the kingdom, these verses are the kind of ammunition that the enemy would work hard to keep you from so I wanted to make it really easy for you to get to by putting them all in one post.
Use these as your weapon against the enemies attacks on your mind.
Meditate on these. Memorize them until they seep into your brain and into your heart.

The Bible is the living word and it is your weapon against the attacks of Satan so choose to arm yourself.

Here are just a few verses you can choose to memorize, as a reminder of the love that God has for you.

Psalm 90:14
"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."

Zephaniah 3:17
"The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Lamentations 3:22-23
"Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness."

Ephesians 3:18-19
"may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

Psalm 89:2
"I will declare that your love stands firm forever,
that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself."

Psalm 36:5
"Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies."

Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Isaiah 62:5

As a young man marries a young woman,
so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 43:4
Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you,
nations in exchange for your life.

John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
(To this one Becky adds, "Notice the word, 'comes'. Jesus is saying "don't just come once; keep on coming.")

Oh, yeah, and how can I forget Isaiah 49:15...the one that makes all the teenage boys wish they could hide in their shirt collars because it mentions a mom's boob. HEY! It's in the Bible! It's free game! Look, if the message wasn't so stinkin' powerful I wouldn't use it, but it is, so.... :)

Isaiah 49:15
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!"
(Becky adds, "My children needed to come to me for milk as soon and as often as they were hungry. So it is with us and our need for God's love. We need to return again and again, hungrily drinking from His love.") AND I think that is a GREAT note to end on.

Keep coming back to His love!!!! There is MORE than enough! DRINK IT UP and never thirst again!!! ;)