A Psalm

God you are so awesome. Everything you do is so amazing, so big, so beautiful. You made everything that exists, including me, by the mere thought of it. All things in Heaven and earth begin and end with you. You are all things. You are Creator. You are everywhere -- at every moment.

Why then I can I not find you?
Why do you hide from me?
Why do you allow even the shadows to mock me?

I am so very tired. The darkness of this world closes in on me. I am so afraid that I have wasted my life, and denied you the opportunity to help me find myself. Have I not been faithful? Have I not devoted my life, my time, my energy to doing those things which your Holy Spirit inspires me to do? Have I not made every effort to accept everyone as your child and my equal?

What I have I not done that you require of me?

Do I not love enough?
Do I lack wisdom?
Do I lack understanding?
Do I turn my eyes from my brother in need?

It is true that everything I need, you freely offer me. Everything I have, you are the One who already gave it to me. Even though you breathed into me my very first breath, and loved me before I was ever conceived, I only seem to know a few things. I know --

I have been unfaithful and lazy.
I have been unwise and insincere.
I have been mean and selfish.
I have allowed pride and arrogance to cloud my judgement.

All of these things and more I have done while you patiently waited for me to wake from my slumber. I have let you down. I have let my family down. I have let mankind down. It seems I am lost in the fog of my own undoing. Even so, my spirit knows you, my heart longs for your touch, my mind searches for your will, and as I stumble down the path you set out before me, one other thing I absolutely know:

You cannot stop loving me!

O Father, how my soul praises you. I sing as if I am among those surrounding your throne. You have the responsibilty of keeping everything in the Universe in order; You watch over the sun, the moon, and all the stars. You keep perfect order of the things in this world. And all the while, you my king, delightfully and joyfully choose to also watch over me. You keep me from harm in spite of my being unaware of the danger. You order my steps, even when I have turned my back on you --

All because you Love me.

Dear God, as if that were not enough, you lovingly proved your devotion to me and all my brothers and sisters throughout the earth by setting aside the glory of Heaven, and laying down your life through Christ, our Messiah so that I might be where you are. You are indeed King of kings, and I will worship you -- even though I cannot see you, I will worship you. I will trust you even though I have never heard you speak out loud to me. No matter what tomorrow brings, I will wait for you to reveal yourself to me, and free me from the chains of doubt that plague me once again.

I know you are here with me, and I know you love me. I know you listen when I pray. I know you want the best for me in all my affairs. And you also know that, for me right now, that is enough.

All glory, honor, and praise be yours, now and forever more. You are Love, and I am the object of your affection. I can never escape the power of Love.

Selah

Does Love Hurt?

Why do we feel hurt by Love?

Is Love the source of our pain?

OR --

Are our past experiences the real bully?

All our lives we've heard that phrase, "Love hurts..." And all of our lives we have believed it. While it may feel like Love is the bully, that kind of thinking denies that God is Love, and that is in conflict with scripture.

All our lives we've accumulated experiences that have helped to form our perspectives, our opinions, and our tolerance thresholds. And all of our lives we have blamed God for our circumstances. That is a further denial of the truth of scripture.

You see, if we practiced forgiveness from the very first time we experienced hurt from a breakup or even divorce, we would be in the ideal position to let Love off the hook and learn from the experience. God allows us to taste hurt to be sure. The truth is, however, he doesn't desire for us to swallow it.

Learning from heartache gives us eyes to see others the way God sees them. We are then able to understand that we live in a hurting world. Those of us who call ourselves Christian have been provided the perfect template for avoiding further pain through the act of forgiveness, and we are expected to emulate it.

When we forgive, we deny darkness the opportunity to deceive us into thinking we've been wronged. Thus we avoid pain. When we accomplish this, we see the perceived offense by another, not as hurting us, but as a cry for help.

Love cannot hurt us, and God is not against us.

Love is not designed to participate in pain except to serve as the cure. God would never allow himself to be called Love if there existed the remote possibility that He/It/Love could actually do anything to hurt us. However, he does understand that we blame him.

To be sure, we do hurt. We hurt for various reasons, and pain in many forms and fashions is sometimes aimed at us by others. And even though we do sometimes hurt, remember this truth:

Love does NOT hurt :)

Beloved, we all want to be loved. It is only natural. So if you ever find yourself at the end of a relationship, don't let Love go just because another person let you go. Instead, allow the God of Love to enfold you in his loving embrace. Then extend as best you can the same Love towards that person.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. . .And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

LUVWRX (believe it)