Change

People can change in a heartbeat.  God has changed me in a heartbeat on many occasions.  All it takes is a moment of revelation to transform my world.

I love that God will change me since I have often failed in my own attempts to bring about positive change in my life.  2 Cor. 3:18* reveals that the Spirit of the Lord will change me from glory to glory.  When I saw that He would bring about change in me, my morning prayer became, “Lord, you said you’d change me from glory to glory into the likeness of your image.  I submit to your will in this, expecting to be different tonight than I am this morning.”

It’s fascinating to see the changes occur in me, especially those I never realized were needed.  The love and grace of God never cease to amaze me.

Seeing how quickly I am changing gives me hope for everyone.  Though someone behaved or spoke one way an hour ago, I’m aware that he or she could have changed since then.  Any negative judgment I could have made about someone yesterday, might have no validity today.  The freedom from judging others is an added benefit to recognizing this lifestyle of change.

I love this life!


* 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV)  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Trust and Respect

I read a book about men wanting respect and women wanting love .  This idea is brought out in Ephesians 5:33 regarding marriage:

However, let each man of you [without exception] love his wife as [being in a sense] his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband [that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly]. (Amplified version)

It was no surprise that women want love, but to read that studies show men want respect over love…that was sobering to me.  I had loved but had I ever respected a man?

Argh.

My main struggle to respect was the shift from the old thinking of

You must earn my respect

to

I choose to give you respect.

I thought about what I had always heard – Respect must be earned.  But earned how?  Exactly what and how much service or labor would it take to earn my respect?  As I pondered this question, I realized that to earn my concept of respect, one would have to read my mind and behave accordingly forevermore…

Double argh.

I had many conversations with God about this.  I’ve found that, for me, healthy relationship with anyone is dependent upon my relationship with God and discussing things with Him first.  A breakthrough came when I saw that I couldn’t respect because I couldn’t trust.   God showed me that it was His power on my behalf that I needed to trust first.  There is nothing that anyone can do to me that can overpower the protection and care of God.  Even if my worst fears were to come to pass, God’s love would still be working everything to my good.  What a relief!  All sorts of stressful weights disappear when one learns the freedom of trusting God!  I’m free to trust others because my ultimate trust is in God.  That was a huge paradigm shift.

Another breakthrough was realizing it’s because of God’s unconditional love that He chooses to trust and respect. That’s the kind of love that has been poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit.*  Therefore, I have everything within me to trust and respect the people in my life.  My respect was never dependent on them, but dependent on my choice. 

 

Learning to trust and respect has truly transformed my relationships.

I love this life!

*Romans 5:5 (Amplified version)  “for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.”

Understanding

Matthew 6:22-23 New King James Version (NKJV):
 
22 The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
 
Verses such as these made me want to learn Greek and Hebrew.  I hope that your reading of these verses immediately communicate layers of revelation knowledge but reading them made no sense to me.  So, I read them in different bible versions and read  commentaries of experts...nothing.
 
Then came a revelatory moment.  The lamp of the body is the eye can refer to how we see things.  We use the word 'see' all the time to mean understand.  If we understand something through God's love (our eye being good), that understanding will be worked out through the whole of our life bringing the glory of His love to earth.  However, if we have been deceived into a viewpoint that does not recognize God's love (eye is bad), the more that viewpoint is worked out through our life, the more the deception feeds on itself (great is that darkness).   
 
That understanding flew off the page at me one day as I read those 2 verses.  And that's just one layer of many possible layers of understanding that I believe can be found in any lesson of the Bible.  

I no longer think that my understanding of God's Word is limited because I haven't studied Greek and Hebrew (though I respect those who have).  The Holy Spirit is an amazing teacher who leads us into revelation knowledge of God.  The Word of God is a living book and its life is meant to be imparted to those who seek it.
 
Referring to the Israelites teaching their children God's words, Deuteronomy 6:7 reads, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."  This is often how I see the Holy Spirit teaching me about God.  It doesn't always have to involve hours of study (though I love to study), but can be simply paying attention to the teacher as I go about my day. 
 
I love this life - Leah

Journal Love

I’ve been going through some old journals.  I was remembering the days when my journals were spiral notebooks filled with my anger and frustration.

One day, I heard a wise man say that he had 40 years worth of hand-written journals that his great grandchildren could read.

Ouch!

I didn’t want anyone to read the rants I had recorded.  I thought about David’s psalms.  He speaks of his troubles however there is a “but God” segue that recognizes God as his triumph over trouble.

I bought me a fancy new journal and threw out the old spirals.  My journal became a treasure chest of lessons I wanted to remember, something my progeny could read.

I still had times of anger that I would release on a spiral notebook but I would throw away the rants and record the truths I was gleaning.

Haven’t written in a spiral in a long time.

I love this life!

The Eggshell Dance

Walking on eggshells was not for me. I’d had years of childhood training and was far more advanced than that. I performed perfectly choreographed dance routines on eggshells.

My performances were spectacular.  He would walk in the room and I would sense his mood.  For a bad mood, I immediately went into my well-honed fix-it routine.   I’d get into character, playing one who was empowered to manipulate emotions.  I just knew it was a beautiful thing to behold.

I was asking God for wisdom one day and He told me to stop walking on eggshells.  I thought of how my lovely eggshell dancing promoted peace in the house.  Surely I had misunderstood God because Jesus even said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” 

Again God told me to stop walking on eggshells because it was an unhealthy way to relate to someone.  I was befuddled.  ”Lord, if that’s unhealthy, you’re going to have to show me what healthy looks like.”

He said, “Relate to people like I relate to you.  Do I walk on eggshells around you?”

I imagined myself walking toward God’s throne.  God turns to Jesus and the angels saying nervously, “Oh dear, here comes Leah, I wonder what kind of mood she’s in today…”

Oh dear.

The eggshell dancing lifestyle was deeply rooted in my psyche.  Was I supposed to let him come home in a bad mood and not even try to fix it?  It felt unloving, like I didn’t care.  My thinking had to change.  I began to see the pride and disrespect in attempting to manipulate someone's emotions.  I saw that I wasn't created to carry the burden of another person’s happiness.  Love has greater freedom than that.  

As a matter of fact, I feel so free...I feel like dancing!

I love this life!