It is absolutely amazing how God works through us and in us! This weekend was a time for us ladies to be able to completely focus on God, and our relationships with him! The whole retreat was about The First Commandment:
"You are to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your sould, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment" Matthew 22:37-38.
I learned that God wants me to love him first and foremost above anything else. He wants my heart, my love and my affection! He is a very jealous god and wants ALL of my heart!! Dara talked about how if I wanted to change my heart, I needed to first love him! I are to seek him everyday in everything that I do! He is of the utmost importance! No one can't truly experience love until you have given your heart completely to God and love him first!
Christ is our Bridegroom, and as the Bride we are to eagerly await his arrival!
There are many people, me included, that are like Martha in Luke. We are all wanting to be appreciated and to have someone to always help us. We are always looking for words of praise. Martha was too worried about pleasing everyone else and was irritated because her sister, Mary, wasn't helping her. Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord listening to his words. God wants us to spend more time at his feet listening to his word, than worried about everything else that is going on in our lives!
"We love Him because he first loved us" John 4:19
Christ is our Bridegroom, and as the Bride we are to eagerly await his arrival!
There are many people, me included, that are like Martha in Luke. We are all wanting to be appreciated and to have someone to always help us. We are always looking for words of praise. Martha was too worried about pleasing everyone else and was irritated because her sister, Mary, wasn't helping her. Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord listening to his words. God wants us to spend more time at his feet listening to his word, than worried about everything else that is going on in our lives!
"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." Matthew 25:1
I have to make sure that I always have oil in my lamp and to make sure that I put the oil before the lamp. What it is saying is that the lamps are ministries that I do for the lord. The oil is my love for God! I can't use my lamp if I don't have oil to fill it. The 5 foolish virgins were more worried about their ministries than they are their love for God. The 5 wise made sure to take care of their oil first, then their lamps. I can relate to that a lot. I had always had the mindset that the more that you give, give, give, serve, serve, serve, and do,do, do that the closer you are to God because are you serving him. Don't get me wrong, God loves when you do things that are pleasing to him, but the truth of the matter is, the one that that God wants the MOST is your love, he wants ALL of your heart!! God wants me to have an intimate relationship with him! In maintaining my oil, I need to make sure that I am purposeful, that I learn to say "NO" and I am determined for the long haul. My intimacy with my Lord isn't going to happen overnight, in a few months or even in a year. I have to remind myself to look at the long-term goal-years down the road!
Intimacy is NOT transferable. As in the parable, the foolish virgins asked the wise virgins to share their oil so that they would be ready for the bridegroom. They told them No and for them to go find it themselves and buy it.
Something else that Dara said that meant a lot to me was " What comes to mind when we think about God is most important about us". It affects everything -- our marriage, our relationships with our kids and friends!
We are each God's Favorite! Isn't that amazing and awesome to know!! We are the apple of his eye, Praise God! He delights in his. Micah 7:18 says "He delights in unchanging love". There is a difference between being spiritually immature and being rebellious! Praise God for that because I am very immature in my spirituality but through God I am growing everyday!
Our obedience begins when we set our heart to obey him!
I could go on, but I will stop for now! If anyone of you (what few readers I have) would like to hear more about it, I'd be glad to share with you!
I will continue to love him with all my heart, mind and soul and to make him my #1 in everything I do!!!
Intimacy is NOT transferable. As in the parable, the foolish virgins asked the wise virgins to share their oil so that they would be ready for the bridegroom. They told them No and for them to go find it themselves and buy it.
Something else that Dara said that meant a lot to me was " What comes to mind when we think about God is most important about us". It affects everything -- our marriage, our relationships with our kids and friends!
We are each God's Favorite! Isn't that amazing and awesome to know!! We are the apple of his eye, Praise God! He delights in his. Micah 7:18 says "He delights in unchanging love". There is a difference between being spiritually immature and being rebellious! Praise God for that because I am very immature in my spirituality but through God I am growing everyday!
Our obedience begins when we set our heart to obey him!
I could go on, but I will stop for now! If anyone of you (what few readers I have) would like to hear more about it, I'd be glad to share with you!
I will continue to love him with all my heart, mind and soul and to make him my #1 in everything I do!!!
1 comment:
love it, love it and amen! I love that we went and were able to experience that weekend together. I've never in my whole life thought of some of the things that were revealed to us. The intimate heart cry for my bridegroom has captivated me. I'll forever be refilling my lamp with oil.
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