God's Love in Bloom

Happy & Blessed Sunday all you lovely people out there!
I wanted today's post to be focused on our relationship with God & Jesus as our shepherd.
I listened to a really great sermon series from Chip Ingrim and it was all about Jesus Unfiltered.
How we view Jesus, God, and what we think or believe he feels about us.
This is something I struggle with because of issues from my past that create conflict within when it comes to trust and believing that I can be seen as worthful and deserving of love.
It's an odd duality that conflicts with what my head can grasp. I know when I read, hear, or have my mind and eyes opened, that God is good, that He cares and only wants the best for me. This is something I feel at peace with, calm, and full of joy; when it settles on my shoulders and in my heart. I walk more assuredly and the spiritual awakening moves me in a way that nothing on this earthly planet can even come close to.
It seems to be going so well, then life, issues, trials, tribulations, and the enemies destructive intentions creep in.
I become lost in the myriad of crushed hopes, dashed dreams, painful disappointments, and serious weight of difficulties. I cannot cope.
I revert to old patterns or fear, anger, isolation, ranting, complaining, tears, and utter despair. In all of this, nothing is solved, nor is there comfort, and everything seems impossible and highly unlikely to ever turn around. Loneliness and a genuine belief that God cannot possibly love me, that Jesus cannot forgive my sins, and that there is no use in prayer, begins to play in my head. It's very dangerous, and the enemy has perfected this game too well. The enemy knows that prayer is a Holy communion with God, our direct line to a wealth of spiritual reinforcement, meaning, depth, truth, and unconditional love. Yet, when we are led astray, prayer seems to be one of those things that falls lower and lower on the priorities list and then it becomes a why should I, and that in turn can become, there is no reason to bother, it won't help. These are the lowest points in our Christian lives, and it is so painful that often times no one can see or understand your pain, they often say or do the wrong thing, cannot reach you, or worsem you are left all alone with burdens too great to bear.
This is when something shows up, it's not big, just a little something that brings back breath, clarity, calm, and a feeling of love wrapped in worth. This is God, reminding me/us of what I/we have so quickly forgotten. His love is greater than anything ever known, His love has no limits, no ties to earthly meaningless folly, and it is always in bloom.
He does not want hurt, he wants health, joy, love, and devotion to Him is a natural flow in the tides of our relationship with Him.
It's so sweet, to feel and be blessed, knowing Jesus is reaching out, that our Heavenly Father is always with us, and that we can receive the Holy Spirit. All we need do is ask, listen, receive and then we are reminded of the precious gift of His love; that the enemy tries so desperately to steal away.
This week, the sermons were a two part series which talked about Jesus as a Shepherd and what he felt when he saw the multitude, who came to be ministered. It truly opened my eyes.
Did you know that when a Shepherd tends his flock they are completely reliant on the shepherd, they will die without the shepherd. One of the things that sheep do is they find a spot or depression in the grass and they sit in it, this is called being downcast.
The thing about downcast sheep is that 100% of the time, a downcast sheep will die if a shepherd does not come and pick them up to place them back on their feet.
Do you know what it says in Matthew 9:36-38?
And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus could not walk through the crowds of people without being touched by the human condition. The lives of these people had been adversely effected by disease and sickness. Increasing the misery was spiritual hopelessness that led to their distress and their despair. They were a spiritually bankrupt people. They needed something, but they were not sure exactly what. But Jesus knew.

Does this not sound familiar? In all this time we are still stuck in the human condition, waging wars, violence against children, women, men, lost in despair and depression, corrupted by greed and desire, destroying our planet, destroying lives through slander and gossip, seeking approval and to fill wants through external empty sources, ill and unable to stop dis/ease, constantly searching and never finding. I know I am not alone in the feelings or thoughts that dwell in uncertainty, these are the play things of the enemy, we are so much more than this.
God's children have a calling, they are gifted with all they need to meet what God has planned for them, do not forget how tenderly you are loved and never forgotten.

Here are the links to those two sermon's, I truly recommend that you give them a listen, they will soothe your hurts, make sense in the distress, and resonate in a way you have been looking for.
God bless you.
http://livingontheedge.org///broadcasts/series?name=jesus-unfiltered-volume-1-believe&mt=Daily-Radio

http://livingontheedge.org///broadcasts/series?name=jesus-unfiltered-volume-2-follow&mt=Daily-Radio