Love is patient; it is kind. If what you have is neither patient nor kind, it is not love. It is something else. Love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. If what you experience envies, boasts, and is proudful, such competitiveness in all its shallow forms is not love. It is something else. Love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. If what you endure is critical, selfish, rash, begrudging, disrespectful or devalues your worth or honor, it is not love. It is something else. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. The truth is found in the Lord Jesus alone and must be held in the highest esteem. Pray with concern for one another to build each other up. Pray with each other. This is love, not something else. Love protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. So support and encourage one another. Have each other’s backs at all times. This is love, not something else. If you’re looking for love, witness the traits to build upon. If these characteristics are missing, then it’s not love. It’s something else. Love is not a feeling, infatuation, attraction, even a connection. Love is a distinguishing trait of the godly. A quality of the righteous, and an integral ingredient for any kind of relationship. A bond outside of this kind of love presents structural holes, even gaping ones. Make Jesus your first love, the lover of your soul, to fill you up with his agape love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things… HIS perfect love makes us whole.
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When we wait on the Lord, we expect deliverance, promises, whatever it is he’s asked us to wait on. His time, his terms. His solution to our problems. The waiting is hard, because we want something; we want to get there, to see results, and to move on from where we are to what is ahead in all its hope and glory. Waiting is tough. We have times where we feel like giving up. Frustrated and disappointed, we say, “This should have happened by now already; why hasn’t it happened?” But what if waiting becomes a revelation of the intentions of the heart? Not a test as much as it is the ability to see where our intentions lie. What if waiting on the Lord for something brings us to a place where we wait only because we love him that much? We love him so much that we’d do anything, even if it means nothing. His presence is our gift, our pleasure, our light and delight. We wait, because he’s asked us. For him, and not the outcome. We wait because we love him. That’s all. "I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. Your wilderness journey led you straight through a desert, taking years to cross. Your provisions dwindled; toes worn down to nubs. Bone-dry thirsty, malnourished, desperate for replenishing and decent covering from the scorch. You need a complete change of environment and nutritive balance. And here, you’ve not crossed the desert at all; you’ve only gone in circles. Rearranging the same old nest conditions in different patterns, just to survive—or give the appearance of survival; a place to tuck and rest your weary head. Around and round you go in the barren land of choked streams, stuck in a wash-n-dry cycle called The Agitator. The thorns of the desert cacti have shredded you, making the agitating stings more abrasive. Fear you carry isn’t that something bad will happen; it’s the dread that things will stay the same, that nothing will change. “God, are you even there?” you ask. “My Sparrow, I love you. Have I not said, ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world?’” “God, what do I do?” “My Sparrow, I love you. ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Just be in me.” “God, do you still care?” “My Sparrow, I love you. Has it not been written, ‘Give all your worries and cares to me, for I care about you?’ I care so much that ‘I’ve kept track of all your sorrows. I’ve collected all your tears in my bottle. I’ve recorded each one in my book.’ Not one will be forgotten. Not one goes unnoticed. Trust me to handle your life in the best way, my way. I will carry you with my wings.” “I feel forgotten, useless—” You think you hear a faint melody. “My Sparrow, I love you. ‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.’” There’s a pause. “My Child, I Love You. Isn’t that enough?” 🎶 His Eye is on the Sparrow… 🎶Yesterday, I posted about varied and unlimited styles of prophetic boldness, focusing on the word boldness. Boldness doesn’t have to mean loud and commanding, as I’d once thought. That for the introverted types, boldness can come in the style of taking risks confidently yet still quietly. Communication of God’s message that is strong, vivid, and full of truth can have a delivery that looks a lot of different ways. The gifts of the Spirit are variedly special and purposeful. It's not about us, but about God’s love expressed through us that encourages and motivates others. With that said, there is a prophet who has spoken into my life already several times and affirmed visions and promises of God. I so appreciate his demeanor; his soft-spoken, humble words of truth, love, peace, and trust. I now subscribe to his YouTube channel and listen to his Daily Prophetic Word and more. Encouraging, edifying, sweet, full of God’s tender love and light. I’m taking comfort along my journey with his lovely gift of prophetic boldness. It’s good medicine to have a true prophet of God speaking into your life with words of hope and affirmation (“A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing…” Proverbs 17:22). I consider several to be prophets of edification in my daily walk. Kevin Bridges is one who I’ve only recently discovered, but who speaks of God’s love in a compassionate and serene style that is nurturing to my soul. He is a calm conduit of hope and encouragement. So I thought I’d share his channel information. If you’re like me, a quiet and reflective one, you might like to listen to his inspired words, too. https://www.youtube.com/@KevinBridgesDP/featured I also just finished reading his poetic book, and of course I recommend it: With Love: Loving Words from Father God by Kevin Paul Bridges Be ever blessed with words that inspire. There was once a person who hadn’t intended to be a bomb technician and wished they were something—anything—else. If only they could’ve predicted or seen from the beginning what they knew later, their life would have looked very different. They weren’t always skilled at identifying dangerous devices in a threatened area nor deactivating or disassembling the explosives. In fact, they got their start as the cleanup crew of only one, taking care of whole messes after they erupted, clearing the damage and spaces of shrapnel and debris. Even acting as a paramedic and patching wounds, deep or small. A rota never existed; nobody was scheduled to relieve them. They’d been all alone dealing with the volatile environment 24/7. They worked their way up to recognizing and diffusing danger, got good at it, skilled. Turned something destructive into something more static. Sometimes, though, sometimes they deflected the disparaging elements. Wedged a portion under a dead tree stump; hiding it from the public because of shame. Because their position, which never should have evolved in the first place, went on for too long, and what they daily faced proved hard to endure. The pressure behind such things never dissipated; in fact, felt insurmountable. But what they tucked under that dead old stump didn’t just collect into a mound of rubble. Instead, the start of a sprig, something tender, fresh, and green pierced from beneath the hard ground and unforgiving places of concrete and gravel. The sprig became a new tree, and the living trunk grew wide and strong. Its roots went deep to where the black soil provided rich nutrients. The mighty cedar soon towered over the hidden things that had wrought such chaos and, in fact, smothered the negative forces. It overpowered cannonballs, dynamite, and other fused components, detoxifying, purifying as it reached toward the heavens. Its branches spread open and wide, providing shade to the scorched and shelter to the displaced. Its call was for helping others, but in a way that differed from thwarting disasters, especially of the human-terrorist type. Yet growing well while stuck in that unstable environment provided it the understanding necessary to gain essential nourishment and peace of the everlasting kind, and safety for the distressed. It thought its field wherein it’d planted its roots was fallow. Instead, its field had been prepared for the splendor of an entire forest of breathtaking beauty. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19 Dear Bomb Technician: He makes a way where there is no way. He makes all things fresh, new, and different. Things will change. You’ve sensed this; you’ve known things have to change. Situations, while they lasted for many seasons, will not stay the same. If the hazardous devices you face are from a cyclical circumstance, work, relationship, or condition, and you’re burned out, tired of putting out the fuses alone, and sick of being so achingly lonely while doing it; lift up your eyes. Soak in the Spirit. Listen to the wind, which causes the leaves of the wilderness to dance and branches to sway in delirious freedom. Inhale the woodsy scents of other cedars. Lift your eyes to the heavens and know the promises whispered to your heart will rain down upon you. The Spirit is like the wind. You don’t know from where it comes, from where it starts, but SUDDENLY, it’s there, flowing over you, refreshing your soul. Sailing you into crystal waters, brighter beginnings, enhanced positions, thoughtful relationships, and greatest joy, where the deepest longings of your heart find fulfillment. Expansion awaits, for all that your spirit-filled life can hold and release, grow and heal, and love. “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” Psalm 92:12 |
Tessais a storyteller, and a transcript editor. She's also a Romans 8:28 kind of Jewish girl ... For Tessa's new
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