I have not posted a new blog in about 3 months… part of the reason is because it’s been pretty busy, but I think the main reason is that I really couldn’t think of how to share everything that was going on because it seemed to be so much; there are so much specifics in each story. I don’t know how long of a blog it would have been
or if I could even keep up. But I now realize one word I can use to describe everything. PERSPECTIVE. Though I still don’t have the words to describe what’s been
happening (I spent 30-50 minutes trying but then end up deleting what I typed) I can give some points to consider 🙂 If you find yourself struggling in these areas, I hope these encourage you. These are just general points from either an inside and/or outside perspective. Even these don’t cover everything, but it’s mainly these that have come up a lot.
Community
1. Though God is all sufficient and He is the only one who can truly meet ALL of our needs, we shouldn’t close ourselves off to people who genuinely love us. We need to
be poured into and loved also, rather than just pouring out all the time. God is sufficient, but He said it’s not good to be alone – and having people who love you
makes life a whole lot more better 🙂
2. If you can’t find people who genuinely love you (by actions and not just words), it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. After not having loving people in your life for
a long time it’s easy to think they don’t exist, or that you are not worthy or good enough… but there ARE loving people who can help turn those lies around. Ask
the Lord to lead you to them, but also to help you RECOGNIZE them. Sometimes we can miss it, or misunderstand their intentions/motives. The lack of love should not make us bitter towards anyone, nor judge or criticize them. It just means they have things to work on, are very busy, or there are other things we don’t know about.
3. Good community IS possible, it just takes work! Every person is an INDIVIDUAL… each one is at a different place and level in different things. They need to be met,
accepted, loved, and encouraged where they are and as they are… we ALL need others to do this for us.
4. Love at the cost of not keeping/respecting boundaries is not love – whether your boundaries are not respected or theirs.
5. God doesn’t want us to keep what He reveals to us to ourselves and put all our focus on our own growth. We need to help others grow also. We should never think that
we can’t serve others because we’re too busy growing. We all need alone time and we do need time to work out our own struggles, but it shouldn’t be to the point of
ignoring the needs of others. There needs to be a balance of being poured into and being poured out.
Freedom
1. The enemy has as much power over you as you give him, Christian or not, whether you are aware of it or not. What you don’t know CAN hurt you… we should always
be examining ourselves but also ASKING God to reveal to us anything in our lives that are not of Him – not JUST in the present, but in the past also! Not just confessing our sins, but also renouncing every lie and deception we believed at that time and every practice – whether remembered or forgotten (ask him to remind you of anything you need to be reminded of) and declaring truth over them. There is more to it for those who have been involved in or exposed to occult practices.
2. After being born again we, in a sense, are not automatically delivered from everything. In God’s eyes we are, but in our hearts and minds we are not. We need to work these things out, inviting God into everything the enemy once had influence and control over.
For a long time I chose to just not think about my past anymore and leave it alone, because it’s the past. I thought “it doesn’t matter anymore, I’m free and I’m a
new person”.
While it’s true we have been forgiven and we are made new, we still need to make sure we’re not holding onto the lies and beliefs that were connected to those things of the past – which we may not even be aware we are until we see the effects in our present life. This happened to me, and as I was working these out with the Lord He reminded me of more things from my past that I had completely forgot about! (or just didn’t register until that time) After going through these things with the Lord that I had previously just saw as “the past”, things have been so great! 😀 I’m sure there probably may be more things to work out from my past but seeing where I am with Him now compared to before, I am excited to go through that process again – for whatever it may be 🙂 I want the ENTIRETY of freedom!
If there is anything to remember from all this…
Always ask God for better perspective, and to reveal things that we are unaware of that need to be dealt with.
Perspective… which results from knowledge, understanding, discernment, and wisdom – all of which are things that the bible says we should be seeking 🙂
