Loving More

This week I have been reading a book called The Mastery of Love.
I've had the book for a few years and this week God said it was time
to read it. He are some ideas that have been helping me to see love differently.

"We can talk about love and write a thousand books about it, but love
will be completely different for each one of us because we have to
experience love. Love is not about concepts; love is about action.
Love in action can only produce happiness. Fear in action can only
produce suffering. The only way to master love is to practice love."

"Love has no resistance, no expectations. In fear, we blame others
for not meeting our expectations." So, fear lived out is a recipe for
disappointment and inharmony.

Is it tempting to feel like you don't have enough love to go around because something has you down? That's how I felt yesterday. Something big hadn't worked out the way I thought it should. This morning I opened Mastery of Love I read "Self-pity is disrespect." Self-pity is: I'm not good enough, not bright enough not strong enough, not intelligent enough, not enlightened enough, not loving enough. "Happiness never comes from outside us. You are happy because of the love coming out of you."

So, no one else makes you/me happy or sad. Happiness is the result of Your [God's] love. Well, I realized that I didn't have to put up with self-pity and I was free to love, well freely.

Grace Heals

What do we have to do to be healed? Do we have to pray? Do we have to be good? Do we have to realize the Truth? I heard someone say, "Jesus said, 'You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.' He didn't say your 'knowing of the truth' shall make you free."

What this tells me is it's God's grace that heals. We need to yield up our guilt that we haven't lived up to God's expectation and that is what's holding up healing. According to Genesis 1, you and I were made as God's like-ness, His image.

Jesus told us that the kingdom of heaven we are searching for is "within us." It's here, it's Immanuel, or God with us.

When a disease has gone on for a long time, we feel tempted to feel discouraged or frustrated. That's understandable, but it also points out that maybe we are regarding disease as a reality, even though God, the Creator, didn't make it. Let's look at it as a "presentation" of evil; it's insubstantial. For example, if you go to a cineplex and you accidentally walk into the wrong theater, do you try and heal that wrong picture? No, you walk out (you repent) and go to the proper theater. With the correct mental image before thought there is healing.

What is healing. It's God with us, it's wholeness. But, the root of the word heal is to adore. So, in obedience to Christ Jesus' command to "Heal the sick.", we can adore the sick! And, God's love for us is so great, it's grace. God loves you as you are. "Come as you are!" This healing grace is evidenced in our lives by the expression of gratitude, wholeness, progress, and by love.

Simply put, let go of the burden of guilt that you need to change to be healed. Yield to the truth that you are God's child, made perfect in His image. You are LOVED!