Tea Time With God
SIX MEDITATIONS TO RENEW YOUR PEACE WITH GOD
Has rebellion ruined your relationship with God?
Do you think that you have done something so bad that He would never want you back?
Do you think that you are lost forever?
Then this book is for you.
As I write this, I am at the tail end (I hope) of a long period of emotional and physical trial. More importantly, I am at the end of a long period of selfish rebellion against God.
Almost exactly ten years ago I thought I surrendered at the foot of the Cross. I surrendered most aspects of my life to Jesus's guidance, but I really held one area back, hoping, believing, and actually demanding to fix it myself. I refused to submit to God, because that meant I would have to submit! Even now, I don't want to submit. I want what I want!
But this attitude has reaped me much pain.
The separation from that wonderful fellowship with my Lord caused me more agony than anything I could have ever imagined before. I thought I was lost down the darkest chasm, never to be seen again.
I walked around in darkest gloom. Actually, I was clinically depressed by my fear of being lost and my resentment over God's seeming conditional acceptance of me. As long as I was His little puppet, I reasoned with myself (with some help from Satan, no doubt), He would love me and reward me. As soon as I exercised "freewill and liberty", He punished me with loss and pain. I could not identify that it was rebellion I was exercising, not freewill, and that the pain came as the consequences of that rebellion, not as punishment from God.
Maybe you are at the point where you have given up your rebellion, but you wonder if God will take you back. You stay awake at night, wondering what will become of you, mourning the loss of the relationship that meant everything to you, wanting to talk it over with your Savior (you best friend) but being afraid He'll just turn His back.
For years, many of my Christian friends preached that a person could lose their salvation, forever separating themselves from God, by rebellion. And certainly, I thought, the blasphemy that was part of my rebellion had to make a permanent fissure between us. No one would want to renew a relationship with someone who yelled at him horrible things I yelled at God!
But God isn't a human being, and He does want us back. No, really!
The next six pages are meditations on verses from our love letter from God, the Bible. Over and over, He has told us that He never wants to lose relationship with us. You can really believe words out of God's own mouth, can't you?
Read each one, one at a time. Really think about each one, one at a time. Let the first sink into your heart, the full meaning, before going on to the next. It may take a few days or a few weeks to believe what He has said, so be patient with yourself!
It may help to carry it with you wherever you go, so that you can look at it whenever you need to.
(I will post one new meditation each day for six days--LL)
copyright Foot of the Cross Publications 1998
used by permission
SIX MEDITATIONS TO RENEW YOUR PEACE WITH GOD
Has rebellion ruined your relationship with God?
Do you think that you have done something so bad that He would never want you back?
Do you think that you are lost forever?
Then this book is for you.
As I write this, I am at the tail end (I hope) of a long period of emotional and physical trial. More importantly, I am at the end of a long period of selfish rebellion against God.
Almost exactly ten years ago I thought I surrendered at the foot of the Cross. I surrendered most aspects of my life to Jesus's guidance, but I really held one area back, hoping, believing, and actually demanding to fix it myself. I refused to submit to God, because that meant I would have to submit! Even now, I don't want to submit. I want what I want!
But this attitude has reaped me much pain.
The separation from that wonderful fellowship with my Lord caused me more agony than anything I could have ever imagined before. I thought I was lost down the darkest chasm, never to be seen again.
I walked around in darkest gloom. Actually, I was clinically depressed by my fear of being lost and my resentment over God's seeming conditional acceptance of me. As long as I was His little puppet, I reasoned with myself (with some help from Satan, no doubt), He would love me and reward me. As soon as I exercised "freewill and liberty", He punished me with loss and pain. I could not identify that it was rebellion I was exercising, not freewill, and that the pain came as the consequences of that rebellion, not as punishment from God.
Maybe you are at the point where you have given up your rebellion, but you wonder if God will take you back. You stay awake at night, wondering what will become of you, mourning the loss of the relationship that meant everything to you, wanting to talk it over with your Savior (you best friend) but being afraid He'll just turn His back.
For years, many of my Christian friends preached that a person could lose their salvation, forever separating themselves from God, by rebellion. And certainly, I thought, the blasphemy that was part of my rebellion had to make a permanent fissure between us. No one would want to renew a relationship with someone who yelled at him horrible things I yelled at God!
But God isn't a human being, and He does want us back. No, really!
The next six pages are meditations on verses from our love letter from God, the Bible. Over and over, He has told us that He never wants to lose relationship with us. You can really believe words out of God's own mouth, can't you?
Read each one, one at a time. Really think about each one, one at a time. Let the first sink into your heart, the full meaning, before going on to the next. It may take a few days or a few weeks to believe what He has said, so be patient with yourself!
It may help to carry it with you wherever you go, so that you can look at it whenever you need to.
(I will post one new meditation each day for six days--LL)
copyright Foot of the Cross Publications 1998
used by permission
.
