Zephaniah 3:17 "The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He
will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice
over you with singing."
The International Standard Version (so many versions, so little time) -
"The Lord your God among you is powerful - He will save and He will take joyful
delight in you. In His love He will renew you with His love; He will celebrate
with singing because of you."
In the 80's I had quite the eclectic mix of music... from heavy metal to
slow ballads. Air Supply was the slow ballad type - but ranked right up there
with Iron Maiden.
I think in our teenage years at least some of us have had times where we
felt no love (or love was so warped that we were afraid to open up to it). Or
maybe even now, you feel empty of love - far and removed from God. Well, as we
found out yesterday - He didn't go anywhere. He follows us - He's with us
always. So, why don't we feel His Presence like we used to?
When we're 'all out of love' - our lives feel out of kilter... we feel
lost, alone, wondering why what we used to feel is no longer there... or
wondering if love was even there at all.
Sometimes, maybe it's just as simple as not be 'baptized in the Holy
Spirit" - accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord is one thing... receiving His power
and love is another. The Holy Spirit usually is given through the laying on of
hands of one who has been filled with the Spirit. Not going to get into some
theological debate. I'll just leave you with a couple verses... Deuteronomy 34:9
'Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses
had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what
the Lord had commanded Moses." Yeah, THAT one
surprised me.. (it was in the OLD Testament even). Acts 8:15-17 " When they arrived, they prayed for the
new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of
them; they had simply been baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit."
Sometimes it's because the Lord is developing
our faith and trust in Him. He desire that we trust He is near even though we
can't feel Him. This is hard and Jesus knew that when He said to Thomas in John
20:29 "Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have
believed.” We learn and grow in Him more and more when we have moved into
believing His Word that says He is with us for now and
always.
We want God to carry us Home - to His Presence - to feel the Lord
reach down and take out hand when we don't have the strength to raise it and
tell us that He is there and His love will carry us through. I Corinthians
13... without love we're nothing.... we can't go on. What is there to go on
for?
Jesus believes in us. He died for us because He knew we would accept
Him and His love that was poured out on the Cross. Father thinks about us ALL
the time. He hurts when we can't feel His love. He created us as not just as
intellectual beings, but emotional beings... in HIS IMAGE. He knows we need
love.
Sometimes, it's because of our sin and/or rebellious OLD nature that
may rise up from time to time that causes a break between us and His love, that
does NOT mean it's not still there. The Lord disciplines those He loves...
Proverbs 3:12. But He ALWAYS does it in Love... to draw us back to
Himself.
We say that we were wrong.... but what motivates that? It's when we
KNOW deep, deep inside that we were wrong and move into a place of repentance
that restores our love relationship with our Father and with Jesus.
Maybe it's time to explore why we aren't feeling His love... next week
we will focus on one aspect.
When you watch the video think of you and the Lord.... He love you and
will never let you go....
All Out of Love - Air Supply
No comments:
Post a Comment