Beauty Among Thorns: Grow with LOVE (Week 1)

We're going into a season of love and I thought it would be fun to actually DO some things to show love and grow in loving others and grow with love.

I got really inspired and encouraged at church yesterday to kick this year off right and excited to seek more on what God wants to show us on Love.

I don't know how I didn't really know this after growing up in the church my whole life, questioning my faith in college, graduating from a Christian school with a Bible minor, BUT here's a new piece of truth that came to light yesterday that THAT is the point. We don't know everything all at once. We continue to learn more as we grow more. We continue to grow in love as we learn what love is.

I WAS saved when I was little girl, I AM saved now, and I'm BEING saved for the rest of my life. It's a continual growing journey. It's not some moment in time, bam, saved good to go, heaven here I come. Once we choose to commit our life to following Christ, we can go back to practicing sin OR we can PRACTICE righteousness. There's no in between, there is no lukewarm. It's in practicing righteousness that God can begin to transform us daily over time. That takes such a huge burden off my shoulders. I have to want to practice righteousness each day and when I screw up and sin, which we all do everyday, God in His great love for me nudges me to repent, whispers to me to go ask my family for forgiveness, encourages me to turn from my sin and that is how I become better, that is how I am continually saved until the day of completion.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6

If we truly want to know God, bee a follower of Jesus Christ, we are going to want to be different, we are going to want to turn from our sin, we are going to want to repent. God moves the sin out of our lives as we continue to humble ourselves to what His Scripture says to do. We will want to love our husband better, we will want to be better moms and friends, we will want to read Scripture and learn how to be better, we will want to find true friends, accountability partners to help us grow in our faith, not drag us more into sin. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation, and LOVE is a response to that new way of living.

We no longer have only this short 80 years of life on this earth to hope for,

We have access to a relationship with God the Father,

We have eternity in heaven to look forward to.

In response to that great LOVE, we are joyful, we are kind, we are patient, we care about the needs of others, we don't think about ourselves,

we think "what can I do for someone else?"

So this week. . . . what can you do for someone else?

Stop thinking about your stressful, overbooked, busy life, stop thinking about how depressed you are, stop feeling sorry for yourself, stop zoning out to your iphone (I, I, I, me, me, me). I know God has a lot of growing to do in me still, but it's time for a new year of learning and growing and thinking of OTHERS.

Start by opening your Bible to 1 Corinthians 15 and read through it. We can't do any of this without starting in the Word of God. Ask God to reveal some new truth to you. Ask God to show you where there's sin in your life and then I guarantee you seek Him you ...will...find...Him. You will start discovering more of His great great LOVE for you and then you won't be able to help yourself but respond out of that love.

It's going to be a great year. I just know it. I want to love better. I want to be a better wife, friend and mama. On January 1st after many days in hiding, the sun came out so bright and so warm, and I knew this year is going to be different, this year God is going to grow me and challenge me in new ways, and it's going to be good. People are going to be free from addictions, free from bondage, free from pain and God is going to reveal His great great Love.