Loving Well

This weekend was the women's retreat, the one our great Father forced me to go to.

And now I see why. What a powerful time!

I had an amazing time bonding with some other ladies who serve on the leadership time at youth with me. It was so great to get to know them on a deeper level and learn about their lives and journeys.

I will admit I discovered this weekend that I am getting old. Saturday night our conversation continued until 5 am, at which point we were left with three hours to sleep. I guess if I was really old I would not have made it until 5 am but I sure felt every hour past 10 pm today.  It was a long day at work today and I plan on sleeping in very late tomorrow to make up for the severe lack of sleep.

I also loved getting to know some of the older women in my church.  I loved being reminded that everyone has a story, a way that God has changed them and worked miraculously in their life. After every meal a women shared a “snapshot” of God’s love in their life. It is so powerful to share your story with others. Please if God is calling you to open up I encourage you to do so, God can use our plain old lives to work powerfully in others.

I also got to connect with one of my most favourite adoptive mothers. We share the same heart and I can hardly wait for her to get her third Ethiopian treasure home. It is so nice to have someone to talk to who has been through the adoptive process in Manitoba and who will listen to me whine about wanting my beautiful children now, and can whine back.

Our Beth Moore study this weekend was called “Loving Well.” I’ll admit when the video first came on Beth was wearing a bedazzled matching jean jacket and pants. “What have I gotten myself into,” I thought. But WOW Beth is a woman anointed who can communicate God’s Word extremely effectively. And she is incredibly hilarious! Our abs all hurt a little after the sessions from laughing so hard.

Beth spoke on 1 John 4:7-12

"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. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

   God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister."

What a powerful section of scripture. And it is so relevant into the lives of every Christian.

Some key points.

1. Our love should always be growing

2. God's love does not change, it is not an emotion it is part of his character so it is not influenced by our actions.

3. Anyone who fears is not allowing God's love to complete them.

4. Let's start loving others because we are already loved, not so that we will be loved

5. We must learn to love with God's love

6. God calls us to see hard love as an offering on his alter.

7. Serving the least of these is an opportunity to love without expecting any love in return.

God spoke to me extremely powerfully after our third session. God revealed some deep truths of where my anxiety originated from. You know when you are trying so hard not to cry, but if anyone asks you what is wrong you know the floodgates are going to burst. Well God is whispering to me, "Go ask for prayer" I knew I needed to be prayed for after what God had just revealed. I did not want to ask for prayer. So I did that challenge this again. I told God I would only ask for prayer if a certain person on the prayer team walked about behind me. As I'm walking out I turn around and see her behind me. Crap. I keep walking. "Why didn't you ask?" God whispers. Well she didn't say hi or anything and I wasn't ready to approach the topic. Then as I'm walking back to my bedroom, she is there again and asks me how I'm doing. I choke out a fine and keep walking. "She said hi, "He whispers. Well I figured I would be okay if I just went to the bathroom and cried for a little bit, then I would feel better and wouldn't need to ask for prayer. After crying in the bathroom I still didn't feel peace. So I went to the prayer room and though I could cry and pray there quietly until I felt enough peace to go hang out with my friends. Well I enter the prayer room and there are two amazing women. I figure they are there on their own but no, God had them there waiting for me. They ask me how I was doing and the floodgates burst. See this is the funny thing, as I shared with them about my anxiety and struggle being on anti-depressants they both shared that they had struggled deeply with anxiety and one of them was on anti-depressants. We had a powerful uplifting prayer time and I'm so grateful that God arranged that time together. I felt so incredibly free after. His will is perfect.

The funniest thing about that situation was that God knew I was going to be incredibly stubborn and He knew He was going to have to fight me to get me into that room. He also fought to get me to the retreat in the first place. One of the ladies I was with shared that she was going to take her time coming to the prayer room because no one had come after sessions yet, but for some reason God told her she needed to go now. 

He pursued me in such a deep way. I walked out of the room knowing how great His love truly was for me. His love is so deep. The whole weekend was about filling up on Gods' love so we can love others better and in that moment God had truly filled me with His love.

I had prayed that when I went onto anti-depressants, it would allow me to function enough that God could reveal to me the root of the problem. And that I would be well enough to work through that and find true healing and freedom. This weekend my prayer was answered and now the healing starts. He is a great God!