Author: jamie

By Posted on Posted in fear, God's love No Comments

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Confession: This verse has always brought alternating waves of comfort and condemnation to my heart. I can read it one time and receive comfort knowing that God’s love is the antidote for my fear; that His love surpasses everything that I have ever known about love in this life. And then I can read it another time, and the end phrase with that blasted word “perfect” just nails me in my area of insecurity. The enemy uses that word to make me feel less than, to prompt me to disqualify myself by thinking, “If I was perfect, I wouldn’t have fear in my life. There must be something wrong with me.”

However, when the Bible uses the word “perfect”, it very often means complete, finished, carried through to the end. We all have internal “red alerts” that begin to wail like tornado sirens at the sight of that word in scripture, but it often does not mean what we think it means.

To prove my point, let me share what the Lord gave me as an interpretation of the last part of 1 John 4:18…

The one who fears has not been fully convinced of My love.

Now, before you go running off, trying to figure out how you’re supposed to convince yourself of His love, stay a moment and receive this:

Think of the times that you have experienced a wave of My love. In that moment, you were yielded to me. Your heart was open to me and fear was the farthest thing from your thoughts. In that moment, you were sure that I loved you. You thought of nothing else.

This is My desire for you: that you would walk in that awareness of My love every moment of every day. That you would be able to grasp how wide and long and high and deep My love is. That you would know this love that surpasses human understanding. That you would be convinced of My love and be filled beyond measure with it.

This is possible through the power and presence of My Holy Spirit within you. Meditate on the truth of My love from the scriptures.

Seek Me, to know Me, to know My love. Ask for a deeper revelation of My love. Knowledge and experience of My love bring healing within and provide a hedge around your heart. As you become more convinced that I love you, and that I only work for your good, the enemy’s accusations and arrows will fall short of piercing your heart and fear will strike you less and less.

Oh, Father, make me convinced of Your love!!

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 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. Ephesians 3:17-19

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:7-10

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2:10-12

By Posted on Posted in God's leading No Comments

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything on my blog here. For a season, I was writing a blog for a friend’s ministry, but that has come to a close. So here I am again, feeling the need to put some thoughts together and share what God is doing.

I originally began this blog when the Lord called me out of ministry to be strictly home-focused. My son had just been born, and blogging gave me the opportunity to do something valuable in addition to changing diapers and nursing.

So, I hope to get back to posting on a regular basis. I thought i was ready to write my first post today, but sitting here, I realize I’m a little rusty and my thoughts have not come together completely.

By Posted on Posted in desires, God's provision No Comments

There are all types of moms out there. For years, I was the uptight, live-by-rules kind of mom. I confess that I was a wet-blanket sort of mom when it came to time-consuming, messy, inconvenient, expense-required adventures.  When my son came along (10 years after two girls) I realized that I was spending way too much of my time talking my kids out of things and saying no.

The Lord spoke to my heart about adjusting my perspective on my kids. He urged me to say yes as much as possible to my kids, without endangering their safety, integrity, or maturity.  At first, I did it SO begrudgingly. (Sigh.) Then it became such a joy to say yes!!  I have experienced a long-desired increase in intimacy with my teenage daughter through this adjustment. What do you know?  I have become a blessing to her by saying yes more. I have shown her that I respect her passions and her interests, and she has blossomed in confidence.

This morning, when I read a passage in 1 Corinthians 1, I realized that through this parenting adjustment, God was asking me to follow His example.  Check this out:

Do I (Paul)  plan according to the flesh like a worldly man, ready to say, “Yes, yes,” when it may mean, “No, no?”  As surely as God is trustworthy and faithful and means what He says, our speech and message to you (the people of Corinthian church) have not been a Yes that might mean No.  For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who has been preached among you by us, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is always the divine Yes. For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes in Him.  (1 Cor 1:17-20)

Did you catch that? With Jesus, it is always the divine YES! He loves to say yes to you. When you ask for something, He responds to the heart of your request. He sees the deep-seated need and meets it in the best way possible. The outcome of His yes may not look the way you expected, but it is a divine yes nonetheless.  It will be exactly what you need.

The other gold nugget in this passage is that when it comes to the promises of God, the answer is always yes. When you ask the Lord for something that is promised in scripture, know that the answer is already yes. Think and behave as if you know the answer is yes. Allow a joyful anticipation to overrule your fear or worry.

Open your heart to receive it in His timing and according to His will. The answer is yes!