In the last four months God has shown me his unwavering love for me. He has been my hero, my confidant, my guide, my protector...you get the picture hopefully! :) But for the last month or so I have been nudged several times by the Spirit. He kept reminding me that I was the Temple of the Lord. Yes, I would think, I should probably start respecting myself more as such. But it never went any further. I have still been thinking negative and sinful thoughts, I have still done things that I know God would not approve of, I still (and I only realized this in Sunday school today) lusted after what my sinful nature saw as love and companionship and completion.
Stupid girl.
This morning at church God pressed our pastor to change his sermon for me. Yes I know this sounds silly, I'm really not so conceited to think that the world revolves around me in this way, many people were blessed by this I believe.
I needed to hear this and I wasn't paying enough attention to the Spirit. So, instead of preaching on Genesis, (which I thought was soo cool because we just started a bible study on Wednesday night's about Revelation, we will get back to it next Sunday), he spoke about being fully committed and coming before the Lord with arms open wide, in complete vulnerability and wholeheartedly committing to obeying His will in order to fulfill our responsibilities as the Temple of God.
3 Now Solomon .... knelt in front of the entire community of Israel and lifted his hands toward heaven. 14 He prayed,
“O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in all of heaven and earth. You keep your covenant and show unfailing love to all who walk before you in wholehearted devotion.2 Chronicles 6:13-14
3 Listen closely, Israel, and be careful to obey. Then all will go well with you, and you will have many children in the land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 “Listen, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.t5 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.Deuteronomy 6:3-6
BOOM! He strikes again (the Lord that is), and so I went forward and relinquished that last little bit of control I was hanging on to. Released those desires that I hadn't truly trusted to God's loving care for fear that they would never be fulfilled. Then I asked my pastor to anoint me with holy oil and while he prayed he proclaimed over me and requested fulfillment of all of the things I had just knelt and prayed silently to the Lord. My pastor had no way of knowing them, yet when he prayed over me he prayed specifically for them.
And so you see, because my pastor is sensitive to the Spirit and obeyed God's instructions, I am finally free of the fear that I was hanging on to and can now become even closer to the Lord than I was before. It can now be a back and forth relationship, instead of me just taking and offering nothing in return. He is and has been so faithful to me and now in return I will be able to be more faithful to Him in all things and my body can be the Temple He deserves to have.
This song is a reminder to me every time I hear it of the Lord's love for me. And a reminder that He is the only one that can truly love me the way I desire to be loved. Until I truly understand this, I know God will not allow me to be loved by another. And now, I'm perfectly fine with that.
(I change the "us's" to "me's" when I sing it (: )
How He Loves
And He is jealous from me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions
Eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me
And oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh, how He loves us, how He loves us all
And He is jealous from me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden I am unaware of these afflictions
Eclipsed by glory and I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me
Oh, how He loves, yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us, oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves
And we are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way
Oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh, how He loves us, how He loves all
How He loves
Yeah, He loves us, oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us, oh how He loves
Oh, I love
Yeah, He loves us, yeah, He loves us
How He loves us, oh, how He loves us all
Read more: DAVID CROWDER - HOW HE LOVES LYRICS http://www.metrolyrics.com/how-he-loves-lyrics-david-crowder.html#ixzz261zYJuwn
Copied from MetroLyrics.com
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