Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matt. 5:8
On Saturday I went to a hear Lysa TerKeurst speak at a local church. I had read her book, What Happens When Women Say Yes to God, a year ago. It is all about saying “yes” to whatever God asks even before He asks it. It was really an excellent and challenging book that had a huge impact on me. I was really excited to get to hear her speak in person.
One of the things she talked about was the difference between religion and relationship. Now of course, I know that salvation is found through a relationship with God through Jesus and not through religion. But she put a different spin on it that I hadn’t thought of. She said religion was when we love God for what He does for us, whereas relationship is when we love God for who He is, even when we don’t understand why things are happening the way they are.
I was so surprised that that is what I had been doing. I have been loving God with the conditional expectation that He would do certain things and becoming frustrated when He didn’t! I have been expecting that He would heal my infection, make His purpose clear to me now, make me feel good, and interact with me in the way I want Him to. Boy am I demanding! J
I couldn’t believe that I had allowed my relationship with Him to deteriorate into my making demands. I wonder who is trying to be in control?! And I wonder who is really qualified to be the boss? Definitely not me! But what was worse, I was trying to USE God to get what I wanted, instead of just loving Him for Him. What a precious Person He is. He deserves to be truly loved.
But now I’m not sure how to stop approaching God this way. It is so ingrained in my relationship with Him. I need His wisdom and strength to learn how to begin to love Him unconditionally, just as He loves me unconditionally. And though I’m not sure how to get there, I know He will do it in me if I just stick close and keep following Him.
God, please forgive me for treating you like a vending machine, expecting you to grant my every request and make me feel good. Help me to love You for You. You are so worthy of that love, and I want to love You that way. I do love You. You are precious to me. Teach me, my Great Teacher. You are awesome and we love You!!!
Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil 1:6
That sounds like a really good book, I hope I remember that one. Don’t beat yourself up too hard, it is awesome that yolu came to teh realization that you did. I have bee guilty of the same thing myself, everyone prob. is at one time or another. God bless, and stay strong for Jesus. Robin
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Hello Jenny,
What a great post!
When we just love Him for who He is is when we begin to rest and have peace in Him and it seems that while we are resting in Him all else follows.
It’s as if our resting in Him and just loving Him for who He is brings His blessing :)
BTW i replied back to you at Tamela’s Place :)
God bless you Jenny!
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YES! YES! YES!. This is so true. I have been trying to put this into words in my head and here it is. I have been coming to this revelation as well. God is God and in all things, whether good or bad, we need to Praise Him. Whatever He is doing He has the perfect plan. He does not intend to harm us, He will take everything that was meant to kill us and turn it around to bring Him glory. We do not need to worry or try to figure it out. We just need to trust and love Him.
I love Psalm 84: 1+2. I would rather be in God’s presence when dealing with stuff than trying to figure it out on my own outside the presence of the Lord. God is so AWESOME AND GOOD.
(I tried what you suggested to do in Worship last night and I used the picture illustration about God smiling at us even when we feel unworthy. The response was incredible. I am hearing from the Lord again and it is so great!!!!!)
Love you In Christ
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Robin, thanks for the encouragement! Blessings, Jenny
Tamela, “It’s as if our resting in Him and just loving Him for who He is brings His blessing”. You’re right! If I stop being so demanding, I find He often has so many more better things in store for me that I could have imagined! I just have to seek HIM first.
Bernice, “God is God and in all things, whether good or bad, we need to Praise Him.” You’re right! I found God leading me to actually praise Him for my infection this morning. He would never allow it to continue if He didn’t have great things planned to come out of it!
“I would rather be in God’s presence when dealing with stuff than trying to figure it out on my own outside the presence of the Lord.” I TOTALLY agree! Even being frustrated with Him is soooo much better than ever being without Him.
So glad you are hearing from God again. That is awesome! Many times it is our own doubt about the fact that God enjoys us that keeps us from seeking Him. We think He doesn’t want to see us, but really we didn’t go see Him! I’ve been through it many times!
Love you! Jenny
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that is a great start and probably why you got to go to the conference/seminar–now to take the dreaded steps huh LOL–you can do it, i know you can–thanks for sharing and i havent looked at it like that before—
also thanks for the thoughts, prayers and replies to my blog
wendy
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Thank you for your encouragement, Wendy! You are so sweet!
You know I almost didn’t go to that conference because everybody that I invited to go with me was sick or busy. But I still really felt God wanted me to go, and I’m glad I did. It was definitely worth it!
Blessings, Jenny
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You put it into words so well. That is the very key to intimacy with Him!
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Hey thanks for your thoughts. I wonder if you wouldn’t mind commenting on one of my recent posts:
http://koffihouse.blogspot.com/2009/03/go-inter.html
Thanks!
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I love this post!
God thank u that u are showing us the value of loving YOU period… not loving you IF you heal…. IF things go the way we want…
I had to deal with that a little bit myself when a prophet prayed for my eyes to be healed … and basically nothing changed. I came to the conclusion that God can heal me whether I have my glasses on or whether I tried to activate my faith byh not wearing the glasses…. and ultimately, he’s God whether he heals me or not! It is something to work at, for sure…
“God, please forgive me for treating you like a vending machine, expecting you to grant my every request and make me feel good.”
Yeah, treating God like a vending machine is so easy! It’s hard not to, isn’t it?
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Diane, thanks for your encouragement! :) Bless you! Jenny
Kiffijah, I will come check out your post.
Rob, Yup, God is God no matter what happens! And He’s good too, so that if He does deny our request (for now), it is only because it is the very best thing for us! Blessings! Jenny
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