Podcast Episode 167 - Growing Closer to God pt 2 - Rest in Father's Love
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Do you ever struggle to receive love? Or maybe you don't feel lovable?
When you think of God, do you feel like He's waiting to punish you?
Do you run to Him or away from Him when you make a mistake?
It's part 2 of Growing Closer to God. Today, we're learning Secret 1 to grow closer to God.
So, today is for you if…
If you ever feel unloveable.
If you struggle to think, you have to earn God's love.
If your heart desires to crawl up in your Heavenly Father's lap, but religion makes you feel like you're not worthy.
Secret 1 to grow closer to God: Rest in Father's Love.
To rest in your Heavenly Father's love, you must know how fully loved you are just as you are.
Ephesians 3:17-19 NASB
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Growing up, I felt like I had to earn God's love. Now, consciously I would tell you, of course, you don't have to earn God's love. It's a gift, right?
But my actions showed I believed I had to earn it.
I had to learn to rest in God's love, knowing I'm fully loved just as I am and so do you.
If you have to earn love, it's conditional love, which is not love at all.
1 John 4:7-10 Mirror Study Bible
7 Beloved, love always includes others since love springs from God; its source is found in the fellowship of the Father, Spirit and Son. Everyone who encounters love immediately knows that they too are born of the same source! It is not possible to fully participate in love without discovering God. To love is to know God; to know God is to love.
8 Not to love, is not to know God. There is nothing in love that distracts from who God is. Love is who God is - they are inseparable.
9 The love of God is unveiled within us in the Son; he was begotten of the Father in the flesh and sent into the world that we might live because of him. Our lives are mirrored and defined in him. Both his birth in the flesh as well as his commission into the world were entirely God's doing.
10 Love is not defined by our love for God, but by his love for us! It is not our response to God that attracts his attention; we have always had his undivided affection as declared in the prophetic promise and finally demonstrated in his Son's commission and work of atonement for our sins.
18 Fear cannot co-exist in this love realm. The perfect love union that we are talking about expels fear. Fear holds on to an expectation of crisis and judgment [which brings separation] and interprets it as due punishment [a form of karma!] It echoes torment and only registers in someone who does not yet realize the completeness of their love union. [With the Father, Son and Spirit and with one another.]
19 We love because he loved us first!
We did not invent this fellowship; we are invited into the fellowship of the Father and the Son!
Homework:
Read John 4:7-10 and 18-19 in the Mirror Study Bible translation… I'll put it on my website under episode 167.
Soak in it.
Now write out what it means to you.
Each day when you pray to Father, just thank Him for His love.
You can also journal to Father about His love. Write down all the ways you see His love showing up in your life.
If you would, email me what you're Father's showing you about His love for you at hello@heatherbunch.com. I would love to celebrate with you!