It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the various issues that arise in life. It may be one big thing or a bunch of little things that add up. It’s easy to end up feeling that I should be able to fix this! Or that I need to fix this in order to worship God or to come into the Lord’s Presence. (That’s our fallen natures talking!) But the opposite is always true. We need to come into his Presence as we are with all our struggles with sin, relationships, decisions, emotions, thoughts, whatever is troubling us.
In the Lord’s Presence we are enabled to receive His love. As we come to Him, He begins to melt away the blocks and helps us to start to receive His love. Our role in this is to keep choosing to receive—to let his love flow in—so that He can work in our hearts to lighten the load of care, heal our hurts and free us from our sins and unhealthy attitudes and habits of heart and mind. Let Him do the work. Only He can change and heal your heart!
Sometimes it helps to just say, “O Lord, I receive your love.” The whole point of Jesus’ death on the Cross is that, on the Cross, Jesus has carried every bad thing resulting from this present Fallen creation and has released to those who believe every good and perfect thing from the New Creation of which Jesus in His Resurrection is the Forerunner (see Hebrews 6:19-20). Prophesying about the Messiah who would come and who has now come in the person of Jesus, Isaiah says it best: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5 NIV) As the old hymn says: “What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear”!
Jesus’ love is the antidote to everything that poisons our lives. The following song says it well:
“O Lord, your tenderness,
Healing all my bitterness,
O Lord, I receive your Love.
O Lord your loveliness,
Changing my unworthiness,
O Lord, I receive your Love.
O Lord I receive your Love.”
Let that be your prayer as you come into His presence now by faith. Let Him dissolve whatever is troubling you with His Love.
In this Epiphany season of God’s Love, may we all become receivers and givers of His Love.
Greg
(The song noted above is the second song on the following music video. Listen and receive.)
[stream provider=youtube flv=http%3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DnwGlyw0GyPE%26feature%3Drelated img=x:/img.youtube.com/vi/nwGlyw0GyPE/0.jpg embed=true share=false width=580 height=325 dock=true controlbar=over bandwidth=med autostart=false /]
