Freedom is needed to truly love. Listen:
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jn 8:32 NIV
So the truth that God loves me and has already seen my whole life, gives me the freedom to love others. Since I am not focused on myself, trying to control everything and know everything and so on, I am free to use my energy, time and effort to love God by loving others. This is an ongoing lesson, for sure, and I certainly do not do this perfectly. As a matter of fact, way too often I don’t even do it well! But I’m learning. The Lord told me long ago, “Child, people are not projects to be fixed. They are humans to be loved.” And so God does not focus on fixing our problems. He centers on loving us so we will choose to lean on Him as He matures us in Christ, then we, together, can work on fixing my problems. See the different mentality there?
We humans want all our problems to just go away, including things like our bad temper or poor attitudes and so on. But for things to stick, for them to remain changed in us, requires a process. We must surrender our hearts to God. We must submit our soul to Jesus. We must obey the Holy Spirit’s guidance. That’s a whole lot of “must’s” there, my Friends! As growing children, it takes a whole lot of time to get to a point where we even know we have to change. Because it is always…ok, before I go on a rampage, I will stop here…more tomorrow.
Join me in memorizing 52 verses this year:
January: 1- Jn 3:16; 2- 2Co 5:17; 3- Jas 2:26; 4- Eph 2:10
February: 5- Jn 10:10; 6- Ro 6:23; 7- Rev 21:4; 8- Php 4:13
9- 1Pe 5:7
10- Jn 8:32
<><Peace, Diane
