Sometime during the first session of marriage counseling, I like to ask the couple to share in telling me how they met, then how they fell in love – that first ‘ahah’ moment when you just know there is something jsut really special about another.
I love this question but most of all I love how it transforms faces and hearts. I don’t get to work with marriages when things are going well but more likely when stress and tension are being experienced by one or both people.
Giving voice to our histories helps us relive them. To recall the sweetness of our history empowers us to claim it in our present.
Another question I love asking: Exactly how did you meet the Lord; how did you fall head over heals in love with Him? Oh to relish in the sweetness of those memories! To claim them in my present!
In my own life, I cannot remember a day that I have not known the Him. My parents taught me all about Him!
But, oh how I remember the season I fell in love with Him!
It was 1994-1995 – my precious friend, Sharmon Ramsey, had just died from a massive brain aneurysm. I knew there had to be more to life – more to life with Jesus – than I had been experiencing. I began to cry out to the Lord to teach me, to show me, how to know Him more, how to love Him more, how to want Him more.
That is when I found the words in Jeremiah 29: 12-14:
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”
Those words continue to be my heartcry: Teach me, Father, what it means to seek You with all my heart. I want to continue to find more and more of You. Thank You, Precious Lord, for releasing me from the enemy’s captivity. May I dance in the freedom of Your love and grace and mercy as long as my feet walk on dirt!
Weekly, on Wednesday nights, I will be sharing thoughts from the personal journey that I went through in 1994-1995 – the study that led me to fall totally and delightfully in love with the Love of my life! It is a study of the ‘names’ of God.
If I handed you a piece of paper today and ask you to write out how you met Him, how you fell in love, some of you could fill the page with details. Some would have blank pages. Oh, sweet friends, don’t let your page set blank. Let’s fall deeply, head-over-hills in love with the Creator of our souls! If your page is full, I am praying right now that you will recognize ways to share your story in the days to come!
To His Name be ALL praise and glory!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Sounds like a great study. Yes, sadly many of us could not tell you when we fell in love with Jesus. Many have accepted him but have no real personal relationship with him. My heart is aching for that relationship. Churches don't teach us how to have it.
I won't be participating in the class but I know the feeling. Sadly, my true "come to Jesus" revelation came through a period of pain but I am so grateful that the pain brought me face-to-face, heart-to-heart with my Lord. I would not trade the intimate relationship I have with him for anything.
I hope your class is a blessing to all and those who have not truly met God up close and personal will find that relationship soon.
I remember the first time I studied the names of God and how transforming it was for me! Realizing that each one of those people knew God in a way that caused them to call Him somoething personal and wondering what my name would Him would be. It has changed a couple of times through the years. Right now I don't really have a name, I just say He is my Ephesians 3:20 God. So I ask my Ephesians 3:20 God to bless your study in ways beyond all you can ask or imagine! Love you!
Post a Comment