Well, it's been quite a while since I've blogged. Personally or publically. How it is so good to record our thoughts and be able to share things that might encourage another in their walk.
Living Waters has been such a wonderful journey.
I've learned:
-I can't do anything in my own strenght.
-I need to really grasp the importance of the cross.
-It's a process. Everything that God does in my life isn't going to be instant. The suffering I experience here is meant to draw me closer to the One who knew, the One who knows, and the One who is allowing, guiding, directing, pruning, and refining me through it.
-God loves me for me. I am loved. Really, I am worth loving. And, He alone is the One who helps me to love others.
-He is calling me out of striving and into surrender. He is showing me how to press my hurt into the cross.
-Living Waters has given me a desire for the fullness of the Spirit.
-It has shown me a new way to view the opposite sex whom we should refer to as the other sex.
The last point is the topic I wish to discuss briefly.
In today's society, we view male and female through a tainted lense. We view that as an object of possession, as something that can benifit us. We view each other as opposite. Though it is true that we are opposite, we are quite similiar as well. The core similarity is one we don't tend to remember often enough: Male and Female are created in the image of God and are thus image bearers of God. That's right. We bear the image of the Most High. The Creator.
Oh, if our view of the opposite was instead the other, viewing them as image bearer, created to bring glory to God. In our selfish ambitions, in a fallen world that has twisted what was good and turned it into evil, we tend to sexualize and idolize the other, beginning usually in our thoughts which leads to acting out towards the other in a way that is not honoring.
How can we love the other well in a society where the norm is the complete opposite?
-don't be conformed to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
-stay in the Word, keep Christ as center of all you do
-view the other as an image bearer of Christ and begin to see them as Christ see's them
-in conversation, keep Christ as center
-know your boundaries, what triggers you, and ask the Lord to help you take every thought captive
-die to selfish desires and self
There is more to write and in greater detail but the hour is late.
