More Unconditional Love: My Weaknesses & Asking for Help

     While today is the transition day (the day I should begin focusing on the 3^rd Power Thought discussed in Joyce Meyer’s Power Thoughts, I have something else I want to share about Power Thought #2: God loves me unconditionally.  One of the most important points to get about unconditionally is the simple fact that God’s love is not dependent on our performance. 

     That means two important things to me that I am slowly coming to terms with:  I have weaknesses that aren’t going to go away, and I will always need God’s help—every day, and in everything.  I know these things. I really do, and yet, I find myself thinking that tomorrow, someday, in the near or distant future that I will be stronger and not need so much grace for my weaknesses.  I think that that the fact that I am constantly asking God for help has got to be wearying to Him, and that I need to get to the point where I don’t need so much help!  I guess it’s our culture, our humanity—to want to be strong and to want to be independent, but that fact is apart from God I can do nothing.

    I have started to remind myself throughout the day, “I have weaknesses, and that’s okay.  God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.”  I also repeat, “I need God’s help today, and I will need God’s help tomorrow.”  God loves me unconditionally and He wants to help me.  The idea that God gets weary is a lie, the idea that he gets tired of hearing his children ask for help is even more ridiculous.  God is my Help.  God is my Strength.

God’s Unconditional Love–What does it mean?

     I have had some difficulty with the second Power Thought, God Loves Me Unconditionally.  I attribute this to living in a world where we are flippantly reminded of God’s love constantly, but in a way that is very superficial.  We may see “God (Hearts) You! on buttons, grafiti, and tee shirts.  We may say it, hear it, and never really think about it.  In this next post, I tried to go beneath the surface and really consider what God’s unconditional love means for me.

1. My performance has been canceled.  God is pleased with who I am.  Even when I make mistakes, God is pleased with who I am.  He may not like everything I do, but he knows that I have weaknesses.  He is faithful and lovingly corrects me because he wants me to overcome and to enjoy life.  He wants me to enjoy his salvation.  God is not frustrated with me.  God’s patience with me is endless because of his unconditional love.  God loves me and accepts me just as I am, in this moment.  There is nothing wrong with me, and there is nothing wrong about me.  God has made me right and literally transformed into righteousness in Jesus.  God wants me to do what is good and right, but he doesn’t love me more when I do.  He doesn’t love me less when I mess up.  Even when I make the same mistake a zillion times, God is still patient and his love for me, his joy in me, and the song he sings over me—never stops.
2. I love myself unconditionally and don’t compare myself to others.  I believe that because God loves me unconditionally that he wants me to love myself unconditionally as well.  This means that I am not hard on myself.  I am easy on myself.  I give myself grace and treat myself with kindness and patience no matter what happens.  God is in the process of changing me and helping me to overcome my faults, mistakes, and sins.  I am patient with myself through this process and treat myself with gentleness.  Nothing is accomplished by being mean to myself, feeling guilty or punishing myself.  I am always God’s child—not just when I am doing everything right.  God created me unique.  I am incomparable to any other person.  Comparing myself to others is like comparing apples and oranges; not only do comparisons lead to despair and sadness, they just don’t make sense.
3. God is not mad at me.  I am reconciled to God.  We are intimate and communicate often.  We are close.  He is not angry with me.  He is completely satisfied with who I am and pleased with who I am.
4. My hope and all of my expectations are in God.  When I think about the fact that I am special and precious to God, every other circumstance and situation falls away—it’s like the rest of the world is only two-dimensional, and the only thing that’s real is God’s love and acceptance.  I feel precious and special.  I see and know that my life is good.  God’s hand is in everything that happens to me to bring about good and blessing for me, his special, precious child.  I feel God’s constant attention and care.  I feel like an insider—like I have been invited into a secret room at God’s house, and never have to leave.  This unconditional love gives me a confidence, like I can expect and know that I will receive favor.  Not all people will love me unconditionally—or even at all.  Sometimes, the way a person or loved one responds to me makes me think there is something wrong with me.  Then, I remember that God says there is nothing wrong with me.  I am special and precious.  If others don’t see this—it is because of something in them, not in me.  I do not depend on the reactions and acceptance of others to know my value and worth.  God is excited about who I am.  My hope and my expectation come from God.  He never has disappointed me, and He never will.

Power Thought #2: God Loves Me Unconditionally!

The second Power Thought is this:  God loves me unconditionally!  Do you believe that God loves you unconditionally?  I tend to answer this with a “yes, but…”  I need to simply realize and believe that God does love me unconditionally.  He loves you unconditionally, too.  He doesn’t love us less when we fail, mess up, or show our weaknesses.  He knows that we have weaknesses. 

     When we accept and rejoice in his unconditional love, it is much easier to move toward positive change and right behavior.  If we try to earn His love by being good and doing everything right, we set ourselves up for an unending cycle of frustration and never measuring up.  When we accept Jesus as our savior, God sees us as Jesus is—righteous and pure, His holy children.  This week, I am meditating on the fact that God loves me unconditionally.  I have posted signs around the house to help keep this Power Thought at the forefront of my mind—on everything from the fridge to the top of my coffee maker! 

     Normally, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how much God loves me.  My human tendency is to focus more on the ways that I disappoint him.  Now, several times throughout the day, I am saying the Power Thought and reminding myself that I am precious and special to God.  This thinking transforms an ordinary day into a day to notice all of the signs of God’s goodness and blessing to me.

Ready for Anything & Equal to Anything on God’s “To Do” List

Check out Philippians 4:13 in the Amplified Bible:

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

Yesterday, while I was waiting for an appointment at the doctor’s office, I meditated on this verse, which is part of the “Power Pack” of scriptures to go with the power thought, “I can do whatever I need to do in life through Christ.”  Philippians 4:13 in other versions had become so familiar to me that I never really took the promise to heart as I should have.  I memorized the scripture years ago, as “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”  As I read over the Amplified text, I zeroed in on ready for anything and equal to anything.  Wow!  I imagined someone speaking those words to me:  “You are ready for anything and equal to anything in Christ.”  In the past, I have often used the excuse, “I’m not ready for that,” or “That’s too hard for me.”  Well, here’s the verse to refute that type of thinking.  I am ready for anything and equal to anything.

This verse also has important meaning to me because as I was writing in my journal and thinking about my plans for the day, I realized that I want to as much as it is within my control, always say “yes” when my husband or another family member asks me to do something, issues an invitation, or just wants me to listen.  I also have a rule that I always answer my cell phone whenever a family member calls.  If it’s not possible for some reason, I call back as soon as I can.  I want to be ready and equal to anything they might need or request.  My husband asked me to go with him yesterday afternoon to look at some cattle he is considering buying, and I told him I would let him know.  I was in another town for my doctor’s appointment, and I wanted to browse the January sales, and do some work of my own since classes start next week.  I decided that everything would wait except for the opportunity to spend time with my husband.  I am trusting God that the other things will also be completed in due time.  I had a similar experience this morning.  My “to do” list for today was beginning to reach into Thursday and Friday, and I had no sense of where or how to start on the long list of tasks today.  I went to bed, trusting God to show me when I woke up.  This morning, I remembered that my mother-in-law needed a ride to work so that she could pick up her car which she had worked on, without having two vehicles in town.  My husband told me he could take her to get it Thursday or Friday, and I didn’t say anything.  While I was drinking my coffee, the Lord brought this to mind, and I felt compelled to get myself ready and take her to get her car.  I am trusting God to lead me through the day, even though it means that not everything on my list may get marked off.  I would much prefer to do the things on his list.

I Can Do All Things Through Christ

     The first power though to work with in Joyce Meyer’s book  Power Thoughts is this Whatever I need to do in life I can do through Christ. 

     Yesterday, I made signs proclaiming this thought, and posted them all kinds of places–in drawers, on my guitar case, on the front of the refrigerator.  Then later, I played Scrabble with my husband and won.  He said that it was because my signs were giving me power.  He was kidding of course, but there is no doubt that there is power in holding onto the belief that I can do whatever I need to in life through Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Power Thoughts Program

     This last week, I bought and read Joyce Meyer’s book Power Thoughts.  This books is about taking responsbility for your thoughts and attitudes and thinking good thoughts on purpose.  I was drawn to the book because it flows with the direction that I am going in–ending worry and trusting God.  Power Thoughts deals with twelve powerful thoughts that line of with the Bible that I feel I would greatly benefit to have firmly ingrained in my mind.  This is how I am going to approach my goal of trusting God completely.

     Beginning the first week of the year, I will take one power thought each week for twelve weeks and work on making it a part of my mind.  This is the an important part of the process that all Christians need to do–renewing the mind.  See Romans 12:1-2:  “Therefore brothers, in view of God’s mercy, I urge you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God.  Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  Transformation?  Isn’t that what the new year is all about?

Since there are twelve power thoughts, I plan to repeat the process four times over the course of the year, and I will choose my focus for the last four weeks of the year, a little closer to that time.

With each power thought, I will:

1.  Reread the chapter in the book and answer the questions in writing.
2. Write the power thought on signs (post-its, posterboard, etc.) and place the signs where I will see them.
3. Meditate on the thought.
4. Say the thought out loud often.
5. Meditate on and memorize one of the scriptures pertaining to the power thought.
6. Journal and/or blog about my personal experience with the power thought.
7. Talk to a friend about what I am learning through my week with the power thought.

That’s my plan for learning to trust God and renewing my mind!  I can’t wait to get started!