Tell God about it... (Part I )

Hello dear readers,


 I've been reading some verses in the book of Lamentations. This verses have taught me about the merciful and faithful heart of our father God. God can reveal all his kindness to us when we present our heartaches before Him.

 Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah. In this book we can read how bitterly the prophet mourns before God for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy temple. According to Jeremiah, The city and temple were destroyed because God was punishing the sins of Jerusalem.

 In our time, God does not punish us for our sins because the punishment fell upon Jesus at the cross. God's wrath was exhausted when Jesus died for all of us.  So, Lamentations seems to be a book that can no longer be applied to us. However, I do think that when we sin we will still have to face natural consequences. We may hurt our loved ones, and our loved ones may hurt our feelings too.

 When people make mistakes or sin against us it can be painful for us. Therefore, sometimes there is a lament in our hearts. This lament may lead us to question God's love for us.

 The reality beyond all the things we go through is that God is always faithful. He never changes. When it rains or when is sunny God is faithful. His faithfulness sustains us. His faithfulness renews our strength. His faithfulness will never leave us nor forsake us. His mercies are new every morning.

  In the book of lamentations we can learn that the secret to see God's faithfulness in the midst of our troubles consists in crying out before God. We can pour out our pain, our every thought, doubt, complaint, and every injustice that's ever happen to us. We can be completely naked before God without shame.

Please, Read with me Lamentations 3:20-23:

20 My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.

21 But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation:

22 It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not.

 23 They are new every morning; great and abundant is  has been made to us your stability and faithfulness.


 God invites us to present our cases before him. In other words, God likes when we tell him about the things that trouble our hearts. Indeed, we can read his invitation to do it in Isaiah 43:26 where it says:" Put me in remembrance; let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right."

 The benefit of presenting our case before God is that He has the ability to change our perspective. He can reveal His son to us so we can see the truth of our circumstances.

   When we tell God about our pain and struggles, He heals our hearts so we can trust again in His faithfulness. We will no longer need to put our trust in people, life or circumstances, which have the potential to let us down. Instead, we can learn to trust in Him.

God surely will show His faithfulness to us by restoring everything that we've lost. He will show us His new mercies every morning in the midst of our trials because He is faithful, and His love will never fail.

Invitation to your heart

Pour out your heart before God. He'll listen, He'll reveal His love and faithfulness to you. Then He will restore everything that you've lost.

 Exercise:

1. Make a list of all the things that have hurt your heart.

2. Make a list of the things that you've lost because of people's sin or because of circumstances you faced in this fallen world.

3. Bring the list before God, pray about each of the things listed there.

4. Tell God: "I expect to see your faithfulness in this area____."  Please restore into me  health, my innocence, my joy, my relationships, my sound mind, my confidence, my trust, my job. (You name it!)

5. Expect and believe to receive double of  health or boldness (You name it!) from now on.

6. Pray in Jesus name Amen!

Love Song

God has a precious way to calm our troubled hearts. His ways are not our ways. He sings a song of love for us in times of despair. His song of love makes our heavy load very light. His lullaby can truly calm our hearts. His secret melody is love.

When times of hopelessness, despair come to us. What do we do? Should we sing songs to God to ease the pain? What if our hearts have no strength to sing? What if our hearts have a raging storm that does not let our voice be heard?
 
Zephaniah 3: 16-17  Says:   Jerusalem will be told:  "Don't be afraid. Dear Zion,
don't despair. Your God is present among you,  a strong Warrior there to save you. Happy to have you back, he'll calm you with his love and delight you with his songs.


Zephaniah is telling us that when life has been hard on us. And when we feel that every reason to sing has died, we can still ask our heavenly father to sing a song for us. When He Sings his song of love over us,  His presence is poured into our hearts until it overflows. His song endures until our heartbeat becomes one with His.  His song will allow us to sing again in the middle of our storms.
 
In the midst of our storms and difficulties, God can sing to us the song that we've been longing to hear. His song tells us: "It is over!" "You'll see evil no more." His song tells us that He 'll take the burdens we've been carrying for too long.

It is amazing to hear the voice of our savior singing to us: "Smile! Rejoice and dance! Dance with the song I sing to you today. Evil days are gone. Fear no more! I am mighty to save you! Dance through life and listen to my song. My son/daughter you are mine!"

 God does not promises us to sing His song for us in the future. His song is available for us here and now! His song was written and crucified since the foundation of the world. His song is named: "Jesus!" Jesus has come to take away all our punishment and He has made our enemies turn back.

Jesus is the song of deliverance God sang over us. He sang it to us when Jesus hanged on the cross and shed his blood on Calvary. His song destroys fear and anxiety so we can live in peace. It removes the burdens and dissipates the accumulated sorrows. It also brings honor to our name and removes the shame of our past. His song will make everything inside of us turn into a quiet river of living water.

If you feel like your strength to worship God is gone, maybe you feel like there is no reason to praise God. Don't worry, just stop and in the quiet listen to His love song for you.

Listen carefully,  you can hear his song in everything that surrounds you. If you listen carefully you'll realize that there are many things to be grateful for. Maybe you have a wonderful husband who is cheering you up. Or maybe your friends invite you over for supper and you laugh  a lot! Maybe someone text you: "I'm praying for you." Maybe you see a child smile, or a nice sunset! Or maybe you are reading this post. That means His song is there.

His song is where you are. Listen to it. Let it soothe your heart and calm your raging storm. 


I have decided to listen to the love song my father sings to me. I will cast all my burdens at the precious cross of my savior. Where death became life. Where my curse became my blessing. Where my savior kissed me with a song of love. Where my father exclaimed: "This is my daughter. I count her sins against her no more. I take delight in her."

Would you leave your burdens right there, at Calvary where He said: "I'll quiet his/her heart with my love" ?


Happy Valentine's day!

Listen to a Beautiful Song the Father Sings to you!

I fear not because He loves me!

[Picture by Sofia Di]

Have you ever been afraid of something? I feel afraid about the future very often. God has been revealing to me some truths that are setting me free from it.  One of those truths is to rest in His perfect love. His perfect love drives out all fear. Receiving his love for us help us to embrace and believe in the plans He has in store for us---plans to bless us and not to harm us.

What is fear?

I believe that fear is a negative faith. When we fear, we focus on the negative circumstances that could happen to us. When we fear, we stop placing our eyes on the truth of God's perfect love for us!

What is perfect love?

Many times we believe that perfect love is our love for God or our love for our neighbors, which can be a fruit of it but it is not the root of perfect love. Perfect love is to receive Jesus' love for us. The bible tells us that perfect love casts out all fear.

1 John 3:1 says:  "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." By reading this verse, I realized that perfect love starts by beholding. We  have to behold what Jesus has done for us. Beholding means to see attentively, meditate, declare, receive His love for us and His forgiveness of our sins.

1 John 3:16  says: "This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us"

 This verse makes the concept of love very clear. Perfect love is God's love for us. This is the love revelation that will cast out all fear. Notice, that the verse does not says:  "When we love others we experience love." Instead, it says when we receive Christ sacrifice then we experience love.

The revelation of God's love for us will allow us to trust in him. We can believe that He has everything under control and that nothing we face will ever harm us.

 What about the times we will suffer?

God promises us in Luke 10:19 that nothing will harm us. It says: "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

  As I read this verse and looked back in all the hardships I had to overcome. I asked God how come you said that nothing would harm me? How come then I had to go through all that trouble?

 He showed me that He promised that I would never be harmed by scorpions or serpents. This in fact,  didn't mean that I was not going to have to face them. Instead, it means that God's plan for my life will always reign! I was specifically design to overcome every obstacle in life. Not only that, I was meant to come out of all my troubles better than what I was before!

  Now I believe, that the harm He is talking about is the harm that would paralyze us for ever. And that would leave us completely destroyed without any hope. If The situation we are going through right now is not of victory, it means is not God's plan for our lives. It means is not the end! It is the beginning of our victory.

  God is omniscient, He knows everything! He knew how the world we were coming into was like. He also knew about the enemies that were going to try to prevent us from our divine destiny.

 Since He knew about it, He decided to carefully knit us together our mother's womb. He equipped us with all the weapons, abilities and all the strength we would need to face and overcome every obstacle in life so we can fulfill our divine destiny.

 If He knows that something has the potential to harm us, or to prevent us from our destiny, then He would never let us go through it! It is just like the trees, God doesn't plant coconut trees on snowy places. Those trees are design to endure the heat and the winds. In the same way, God will not plant us in a place that we are not made to resist or that will destroy us.

 God wants us to rest in His love for us. He wants us to know that it does not matter the name of the fire we may go through, it is not meant to harm us. We were made to overcome it. And we are not facing it alone. He is with us until the end of the world. He has sent his one and only son to replenish us with the love we need to cast out all fear.

Some action steps to overcome fear:

1. Read verses out loud about God's love for you.

   Meditate on them day and night. Do it first thing in the morning and last thing before going to bed. Whisper those verses all day long. When fear tries to come back in then declare God's word. Some verses are: John 3:16, Romans 5:8, 1 John 3:1

2.  Make a list of all your fears and next to it write:

I fear _____________________ but I know that God loves me! He will not let me go through this if it has the potential to harm me and prevent me from my divine destiny. If I ever go through this situation that scares me is because I am already equipped to overcome it.