Posted on Thu, Sep 10 2009
.9/7/09...Rev. Renita
Jesus Loves Me
In my intellectual mind I know that the hardships are not mine to carry. In my intellectual mind I know that I am not responsible for “fixing” the hardships of life. In my intellectual mind I know that each person has to find his and her own way. In my intellectual mind I know that there are some things that we just have to go through.
Nothing.
Then, I thought that I needed to work out some of my own shortcomings, unclog the pipe, so to speak.
“Lord, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me…teach me your ways Lord, show me your paths, lead me in thy truths everlasting….”
“Search me Lord, if you find anything that shouldn’t be take it out and straighten me, I want to be right, I want to be saved, yes I want to be whole.”
Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so, Little ones to Him belong. They are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! For the Bible tells me so!
Over and over and over all I could hear is this song, every time I petitioned the Lord all I could hear was, Yes, Jesus Loves Me.
So walking in the meadow I just had a break down and a break through.
What do I say??
And again
Yes, Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones to him belong. When you are weak, He is strong.
Jesus loves __ this I know
Jesus loves You, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little one, to Her you belong. You are weak, but She is strong.
This is the message for you God’s people. Plain and simple, yet too complex to grasp…Jesus loves you.
God loves you.
Mother God from whom whose womb you were brought forth
Father God into whose arms you are sustained; you are loved with an everlasting love.
Situations in life, life itself often leads us to wonder is there a God out there anywhere who is hearing my faintest call? Will God ever hear my cry? Will She answer by and by?
Maybe if I just knew an answer was coming I’d be okay to wait it out, but this not knowing, this uncertainty in life is just about to do me in.
If you haven’t been there, you will. Maybe you were too pious or stoic to admit doubting God.
Some would say that it is in our disbelief that we find the true answers
It is in disbelief that all of our preconceived notions are voided all of our frames of reference are broken and everything we know seems to be nothing.
It is here that God can begin to give us new information about who He is and who we are because of Her.
What I want to teach you today is not how to get your prayers answered, but rather how to have peace with the answers of God.
I have this row of chairs sitting here to demonstrate to you trusting God. I’ve used a similar illustration before, but feel compelled to use it again. I have sat in each of these chairs.
Notice how each sat in the chair without thinking about it. Just sat.
Each Sunday you come to church you sit on a pew. You don’t examine it first, you just sit.
This is an act of trust.
You are able to trust that these chairs will hold you because you have an association, a mental relationship with these chairs. If you have not sat in these chairs yourself you have certainly seen someone sit in it.
There are signs that our minds pick up that show us not so much when something is safe, but when it is dangerous. For example, you do not notice that the legs are straight, but you would notice if the leg was crooked, or missing.
You do not notice if the seat is attached but you would notice it were hanging off or missing.
You are able to form these mental associations because you have had multiple experiences with chairs, or pews.
Trust is believing the knowledge or experiences you have with someone or something.
We are able to trust the chairs because we know how they are going to perform, how they are going to react.
Take this concept of trust and apply it to your trust in God. Trusting God isn’t as simple because for one, She is unpredictable. We do not know how God is going to respond to our prayers. Sometimes we have an immediate answer, sometimes we get answers we don’t like and sometimes there is a profound silence.
So, instead of trusting what we know about God and the experiences we or others have had with God we run around looking everywhere BUT to God for direction and answers.
I am convinced our prayers go unanswered because we only trust God if He performs, like these chairs, in the way we expect.
This office chair and I have had many episodes. I sit too close to the edge and it tips me out. I know the chair will hold me. I also know that I can fall off of the chair. The chair may not always do what I expect it to do. When I fall it is pointless to say, “stupid chair” the chair is simply there being a chair. It is how I sit in it that makes the difference in my experience with it.
When and if we can get to a place in our relationship with God where we can trust Him to simply be GOD and stop blaming Her for failing to perform to our standards we will see breakthrough in our lives. If we are to grow up in the Lord we must make a decision to let God be God and be who God is not who we want God to be.
I’d love to be able to tell you that all we have to do is rub oil and make declarations to see healing.
I’d love to tell you that if you do this it will cause that to happen.
I’d love to tell you that God really wants you to be well and rich and happy.
All of that might be true. I am convinced however that the desires of God run much deeper than our natural state of affairs.
The primary concern is for our spirit, the spiritual state of our affairs. What is it to gain the whole world and lose your soul?
I may not sit in every chair but I know the principle of chairs will all be the same…4 legs, a seat, and usually a back. I know that I can sit and be held. I know in some chairs I need to balance my weight. I know chairs because I have been sitting in them my entire life.
When we go to God with the cares of our hearts we are challenged to trust what we know to be true about who God is to us personally and to the universe collectively. How has God been experienced in times past?
I cannot name the number of times that the situations in my life turned out in unexpected ways, totally different from how I imagined….I could not even imagine to ask God for the blessings he sent. I do not know how to articulate how totally powerful I have felt after coming through a crisis without the interventions I thought I needed.
God’s power is not revealed so much in the “miracles” of healing and provision as it is in the spirit of the man, woman, or child who comes through the life challenge whole, in tact, in peace BECAUSE OF the situation.
I am convinced that we so much expect God to bail us out of life’s problems that we begin to resent God when She doesn’t. When God begins to say, stand! When God says, “Rest”! When God says, “Praise”! When God says, “Trust”! When God says, “BE STILL”! We can’t handle it. We don’t want to hear God say He’s got it, we want to see the results of Her having it…NOW!
So, I believe that we are at this crossroads. It is time for the faith of this church to grow up. It is time for the sons and daughters of God to blow our noses and rejoice in the joy of the morning.
There are injustices and evil lurking all around. Maturity is accepting each moment as a moment in time to be embraced. Maturity is demonstrated when we stop trying to force solutions onto problems. Uncertainty is a necessary ingredient in life’s experiences.
Part of the magic and mystery of living is not knowing how the story unfolds.
It’s like those “happily ever after” fairy tales. You don’t know the middle, but you know that it’s going to end “happily ever after”.
The struggles of life are only struggles because we refuse to embrace the only thing we know for certain, that God will never leave us nor forsake us. The in the end we will be happy ever after.
That promise is tried and true, just like these chairs.
It will look different but it will be the same.
Sometimes it will be instant healing and sometimes it will be peace in the process of healing and sometimes it will be joy in spite of no healing. But God will never leave us nor forsake us. In sickness and in health, for better or worse, richer or poorer, till death we do UNITE…God will be with us!!
An unmistakable truth is this, you are loved with an everlasting love.
Yes, Jesus loves you, Yes Jesus Loves you
I thought about what one text could I emphasize for this message. But I cannot pick one. The entire theme of the scriptures is God’s enduring love for His chosen people. You and I fall into the chosen class. In sin, God is love. In addiction, God is love. In confusion, God is love. In trial, God is love. In heartache, God is love. In loneliness, God is love. It’s not that God loves you, God IS love.
Fretting and getting ourselves out of sorts only says that we refuse to believe and refuse to receive the unchanging and unfailing love of God.
Why so downcast oh, my soul? Put your hope in God!
Weeping endures for a night. Weeping soothes but for a night. Weeping pacifies but for a night. When life hands you a basket full of when you really just wanted an omelet, its okay to cry and feel disappointed. Know when mourning time has passed. Know when it is time to live. Know when it is time to cook your own eggs, when God knows He no longer needs to cook your omlete for you.
8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Know that the Grace of God will keep you. Know that God is good All the time and All the time God is good. You’ve got to KNOW that. It is not just a cliché stanza, it is a declaration of victory in your life.
Knowing the power and trusting in the authenticity of God’s love is the only path to peace!
Satan has come to do what? Kill steal and destroy.
Satan wants one thing only….YOUR SOUL!!!
What do you think Satan wants with your money or your body or your family or your car or your job or your relationships? YOUR SOUL!
And evil will use your attachment and dependence on your money, your health, your family, your car, your job, and your relationships to get to your soul!
It is when we can, like Job, proclaim though I am slain, yet will I trust
It is when we can, like Paul understand when I am weak, God’s strength is in me
That we can experience victory in our lives.
Knowing that God is love that you are loved in spite of your life’s challenges is the key to breakthrough.
Refusing to let go of the love of God in difficult times is the challenge the soul must undertake in order to be victorious.
Accepting that things just are what they are, sometimes neither good nor bad, they just are what they are. Accept that there comes a time when your faith must be put to work. When your actions will speak louder than your words.
There comes a time when we have to engage in the maturing process, this requires us to trust God. Maturing demands that we pull on the experiences of our life; examples of God in action in this universe, if not in your life in the lives of others; maturing demands that we open our eyes to see beyond the situation and beyond the situation; maturity demands that we trust that God is Love, that we are loved and that everything, absolutely everything works out for our good when we TRUST the process and the power and love of God.
Psalm 57
Awake, YOUR soul!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
9 I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the peoples.
10 For great is GOD’s love, reaching to the heavens;
GOD’s faithfulness reaches to the skies.
And God’s faithfulness reaches to you.
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