This week we're going to talk about one of my favorite things: God is love. We know this, we read this, but do we embrace this???
So often we understand who God is, and the love he has for us as we compare fleshly relationships to our relationship with God. Specifically, this applies to our parents. We will almost always accept or reject God's love based on the type of love we received growing up!
What kind of love did you receive?
If you think you received perfect love from perfect parents--yet you still struggle with accepting and seeing and EMBRACING God's love, I challenge you to pray hard and search deeper. And if it's not from your parents...then who helped you define love...and what does love look like to you!?
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Okay...Pandora's box is about to open!
The love I received from my parents felt very fluid. I never had a relationship or love from my biological father. I was a girl and he wasn't interested.
When it comes to my mom and step-dad I know their love for me is there. However, I feel that in order to get that love expressed to me I must meet certain standards. Do my parents love me...yes. How much....I'll never know!
So to answer the question of receiving love. Not so much, just an understanding that it was out there.....somewhere!
In terms to God and knowing his love, I KNOW God loves me. I just simply don't understand it. I'm learning though. He is faithful in showing me His love in a tangible manner! ;)
I grew up in a home with a single mom with my brother and sister. My parents were divorced which makes me realize my fear for divorce. But I was loved by my mom, siblings and my grandparents very much. My dad wasn’t around much but I knew he loved me. But now looking back at things at a different perspective and I wonder why I have such a hard time trusting Gods word. I think it not having a dad around and not knowing why, is a big part of the reason. I see how I love my son and that I would lay my life on the line for him, so I see how God loves me. But I still can’t get the concept of trusting him. I think that is from not completely trusting my parents as I grew up. Never knowing what was going to happen. I love my father but he is a person still full of disappointments. God has promised us He will always answer when we pray according to His will “and this is confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked of Him.” John 5:14, 15 At times I feel that I am going to be disappointed in my current situation. I know his will and I pray according to his will (I Think) but I still feel at the end I am going to be failed or disappointed. I know God loves me because He has spread his mercy and grace on me. I understand he has forgiven me for all my sins. But yet it’s like I am waiting for disappointment.
How to start... Growing up my parents never acted like they had much time for me or my siblings. My parent were more worried about going out and drinking then showing any kind of love for me. Im sure that my parents loved me but they didnt do a very good job showing it.
Growing up my parents made sure I knew who God was, I went to catholic school and to church every sunday. But God was almost a fairy tale to me. Because I would go to sunday school and hear all the wonderful things that God had to say but they were not reforced in my house. So I have made a decision to open my heart and find a whole new version of God. So it is my mission to have a relationship with God and find the love that I would taught and never given.
Growing up with a bother and two sisters all at about the same age was very interesting. I was never given anything extra because I had to share everything with my siblings. My parents are unbelievable though. They made every effort to be at everything that any one of us were envolved in. It was a little difficult growing up not having some of the things that other kids had but I have come to realize that God gave me something better... A great family. They are a little crazy sometimes but I wouldnt trade them for the world.
I think of God giving me "tough" love. I was never given anything, I always had to work hard for what I wanted and so far God has taken care of me. Just this last week a got a job that had been a dream of mine since like 3rd grade and it just kind of fell into my lap. I am working with MK Prosthetics and Orthotics building prosthetics and I love it. I really think God had something to do with it!!!
Love is...God's unfailing commitment to me. So there's my true feeling.
Love growing up was constant. I never felt unloved and this has always been a paradigm to me because problems are usually connected to the issues from your childhood. The one distortion of love for me is that love meant work. My father was a workaholic. For the most part, if I wanted to experience his love and spend time with him, I had to work with him on the farm. One of the best things about being an adult and out of the house is that my dad is much more fun and relaxing and enjoyable to be around when he is at my house instead of at home on the farm where he never quit working.
Then love in high school became attention. I performed and was a perfectionist. I made up for what I thought was a deficiency in my physical appearance by achieving in every other area of my life. This led to many false expressions and feelings of love and has led to the struggles that still haunt me today.
However, once I began a relationship with Jesus in college, God's love has been more and more real to me. As I have felt less love from my husband, God has cared for me and sustained me through so much, surrounding me with His love.
Such a learning process!
To Andrew: from Nancy
A thought for you. I can relate to the feeling of impending disappointment when I am praying. I have really struggled with this over the past two years. Sometimes I've even blamed myself for not having "enough faith" to will something to happen. I have come to learn that even though the outcomes of my prayers are not what I hoped, God's work and plan is bigger than I can imagine.
My husband should have died in Iraq as he was less than 5 feet away from a dump truck full of explosives, separated by a concrete barrier. He faced life and death, and I thought and prayed that this would be the "spiritual crisis" that would cause him to realize all that God has given him and not to continue in behaviors that would jeopardize those things. When I realized this prayer wasn't going to be answered the way I wanted it to, I was sooooooooo disappointed and was angry with God.
His plan is perfect, not mine. My marriage is still faultering, but my walk with God has never been so alive and I have never been pursuing health for myself and my children as I am now. I grieve for my husband and my marriage, but continue to pray that His will be done.
I hope you're not wondering what my point is. Learning to trust God is so hard, yet so worth it. Living day by day has helped. It is those times of thinking I might be disappointed that I pray "not my will but Yours Lord." And then I hang on to His promises and confess my unbelief that things are going to be ok, "I believe, Lord. Help my unbelief."
Hope it's ok that I shared.
to nancy from andrew
Yes I get your point I can't imagine enduring 2 years of my situation but God must have gave you strength. You've inspired me with your faith. I've been dealing with my seperation for 3 month or so and it feels like an eternity.Thank you for your feed back and I'll keep in mind God's plan is bigger than mine . Your in my prayers!
Thank you for blessing me with your stories....
I grew up in the same single family that Andrew (Trey) did, but our life is seen through different eyes because I'm 8 years older. And I don't have a relationship with my dad. I know that my dad choosing to not be a part of my life has significantly impacted my relationship with God.
I have no idea what it feels like to be loved like a Father loves his daughter. Sometimes I see my husband with his girls, or my daughter talk about her dad or to her dad, and no matter how hard I try...I just can't seem to "get it".
Like Andrew, I wait for God to pull the rug out from underneath me. Constantly anticipating disappointment.
I've had to struggle and fight through the lies by embracing the truth. Like Gabbie, even though I don't completely understand God's love, I know that I can embrace it. When the lies take over, I just mediate on the truth...and prayerfully some day it will sink in!
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