The Paradox of Living Loved: How would you describe your quest to live in God’s love? As I look back over my spiritual pilgrimage, I think I can say that I am more aware of God’s love than ever, and that even when I’m not tangibly experiencing it, there is an underlying confidence in His tender care, which permeates most of my days. One thing, however, still has the power to sabotage my sense of being loved, and that is when I’m confronted with my self – my weaknesses and failures, frail efforts or lack of commitment, my pride or my cold heart – among other things. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t at some point find myself thinking about the litany of ways I haven’t measured up. When these things cloud my vision, it’s difficult to return to the simplicity of resting in the embrace of a loving Lord. To read more, click here.

Pressing into God-Centeredness: 1. When spending time with the Lord or as you go throughout your day, when accusations or guilt or self-condemnation rises up, make a conscious effort to focus on facets of God’s glory that these things might remind you of. Example: Often in the mornings as I seek to connect with the Lord, I am flooded with self-recrimination for all sorts of things – spiritual and mundane. I can feel guilt over what I ate or how I spent my time, or think of how many times I didn’t pray when I could have or didn’t reach out to someone when I should have – the list goes on and on. What I have learned to do instead is to acknowledge my weakness or sin, but then immediately affirm what is true about God in light of it. I might read Scripture or sing an old hymn or simply wait in His presence as I contemplate His glory until revelation comes and I know that sense of well-being in His presence. 2. Approach Scripture with the question: Lord, what does this tell me about You? Once you see something, ask for greater revelation about it. Study other Scriptures, meditate on it and interact with Him over what you are seeing. To read more, click here.

Father, I Desire:In 1916, with World War I looming large on the horizon, the editors of Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly felt compelled to encourage Americans to join in expanding the nation’s military force. They hired James Montgomery Flagg, a famous illustrator, to come up with a clever cover that would grab people’s attention. With little time to spare, Flagg ended up using himself as a model, and with a few changes, created the figure that would become known in generations to come as Uncle Sam. A few months later the military began an active recruiting campaign, using Flagg’s illustration for a poster with this caption underneath: I WANT YOU. The ad was hugely successful, although in truth, it might have read: I NEED YOU, given the number of recruits that were necessary for the war they'd soon engage in.
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Rooted in Love: Lately that nice little plot in our backyard where we tried to grow a vegetable garden last year has been calling my name, and I am trying to ignore it, largely because we failed so miserably last time. Besides the shadowy nighttime varmints and creepy crawling things that came out in broad daylight to devour everything from stems to leaves to barely budding fruit, we had to contend with mysterious diseases that left us wondering what in the world we had gotten ourselves into. Those, however, were the least of our worries. What really sabotaged our efforts and gives me pause when I think of trying again, is the layer of sandy clay in our soil that kept the roots of our plants from going deep enough and stunted their growth. This came to me when I was studying our Living Loved passage this week and pondered the words in Paul’s prayer about being rooted in God’s love. To read more, click here.