Joy and Strength (Christian life and music)

In the age of "unfriending" and "ghosting," divisiveness and polarizing, it is more crucial than ever that we be grounded in God's personal love for us. It is very easy to fall into the trap of comparing God's love for us to people's love for us. God's love is unlike human love in every possible, imaginable way.  The love we give and receive from others is but a taste, a tiny glimpse, of God's vast love for us.  They really cannot be compared at all, if we are honest with ourselves. People can be very fickle.  People change.  People have issues of their own that they are either dealing with or in denial of.  People can be looking more to get love than to give love.  Most wait to give love until they get it from another first.  It is the rare person who gives love freely without expectation. That is exactly how God loves us.  We love because He first loved us (see I John 4:19). While the world seems to be spinning out of control, resulting in a so

Whenever I look to be loved, more than I seek to love others, I suffer.   Whenever we look to get, we lose.  Whenever we look to give, we win. When we give love that is not returned, we win. When we love those who hate and mistreat us, we win. When we love others expecting nothing in return, we win, "But that's not fair!" you say.  I'm not talking about fairness.  I'm talking about life. When we are not loved by those who are "supposed" to love us, it hurts.  Deeply. You can try to reason away why they are so hateful, but it still hurts.  Remember, people have issues. Old Testament Joseph was abandoned and left for dead by his brothers. That wasn't love.  That was hate built on a foundation of jealousy and envy. Certainly that was not how it was "supposed" to be.  Yet it happened.  But God allowed it for Joseph's ultimate good. "You intended to harm me,  but God intended  it for good  to accomplish what is now being done, the savin

Jesus tells me... Keep loving people no matter how they treat you. Love is not a feeling.  It is a choice.  It is action. I chose and loved Judas knowing from the start he would betray Me.  But he was a crucial part of the Father's plan. So when your enemies "send you to the cross," so to speak, since everything that comes your way must be approved by Me first, I am allowing it for your ultimate good. Though the cross is excruciatingly painful - dying to self, to "rights" - it births a resurrection always if you follow through. If you refuse to "go to the cross," then you forfeit the fruit, the rewards. Because it is the cross that eventually gives life.   " And  after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace,  who has called you to his  eternal glory in Christ, will himself  restore,  confirm, strengthen, and establish you."  I Peter 5:10 So don't be too quick to complain or grouse when you are mistreated for My sake.  They