Selfless Love: Shifting Our Focus

There comes a time in the midst of our crying out to God when we need to put ourselves aside and set us in God’s hands. What I mean is that we can get so down on ourselves—how foolish, weak, hurtful, etc. we are—that we lose sight of who God is, in all His faithful, beautiful, and loving-ness. So, after we have exhausted our vocabulary for harsh names to call ourselves (or if one is feeling particularly bold, BEFORE we go this far), we need to set ourselves with all of our brokenness in our Selfless Father’s hands and begin to selflessly Love like He does. This first happens when we shift our focus from ourselves to Him, and continues when we lift up others to Him :D

“praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” Ephesians 6:18 KJV

Closer - Steffany Frizzell and Matt Stinton

"You could love me more in a moment than other lovers could in a lifetime."

Reminder...

God keeps reminding me that me needing His mercy and Grace does not mean I will "mess up big time" in the future; it means I will always need Him and He will always be there.

Chicken...

This post has nothing to do with chicken...

This past December, God has been teaching me about loving selflessly: not loving in order to be loved back, loving in order to be understood, or loving in order to be satisfied in some way, shape or form. This kind of love does not seek what can be gained but instead what can be given, all to the glory of God and the honor and blessing of others. I have been safely learning this lesson while home for Christmas break, and by this time next week I will continue being taught this at school… with a lot more people… and I feel a lot of fear right now.

I have personally come to the conclusion that I do not completely understand God or myself. I know that He is perfect and keeps His promises; I know that I am imperfect and do not always keep my word. I know that He is forever faithful; I know that sometimes I’m just not in the mood to care. I know that He has my best interest in mind; I know that there are times when I just want what I want, so get off of my case, thank you! But love—the kind we learn to give to those we care about most as well as those we care never to see again—that kind of love changes you. It gets down to the heart of things, shines a light, and says, “Yep. We have quite a bit of work to do. Are you up for it?” And let me tell you, it is an option. True love is not going to force you to do anything. True love is going to look at you with its big, beautiful, innocent eyes and ask you if you are willing to partake in a lifelong process that will cause you to work harder and give more of yourself than you ever thought possible. But you know what I found to be amazing? In that process, we can experience more joy than if we partook in the world’s cheap, selfish version of love.

I’m sleepy. I will spend the rest of tonight, tomorrow, and the next few weeks thinking about this, living it out, and crying about some things, no doubt (because that’s what I do when I am overcome with lots o’ emotion, and that is just bound to happen before the month is passed).

Otay, I pray this blesses someone. Good night! Jesus loves you J

P.S.—I believe those tears I will shed will be good ones, the kind that tear down pride and make a little woman out of me and continue to show me the beauty of leaning on God’s strength in my weakness. So, there’s no need for me to be afraid J

Lessons...

God's teaching me that the problem or the cause of some of our pain is not always that we are not loved, but that we are not loved as we would like to be...

This is part of the beauty of having a relationship with God: Even when our human relationships are imperfect, we can run to His loving arms and depend on Him to not only heal our hurting hearts but also bring renewing and beauty to our human relationships in His perfect timing :)

Faith...

An awesome aspect of walking out our faith in God is that we move from the mindset and heart-set of, "Okay, this feel right" to "I don't give a flying fig tree how this feels, I know what my Daddy said and I'm moving forward with Him, trusting that He is as faithful today as He has been every day of His existence."

"He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. Romans 4:20-21 NKJV

Winter Song cover by Natalie Taylor ft. General Ghost

This song was not meant for everyone because everyone will not relate/understand, which is fine. But I connected with this song because the verses almost perfectly describe how I feel right now while the chorus's "Is love alive?" reflects how I use to feel about love and it's stability :)

Quote

"In her eyes love was a very sacred thing, hardly to be thought of till it came, reverently received and cherished faithfully to the end." ~Rose in Bloom, Louisa May Alcott.