The Answer Before the Question

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a women's retreat at Fort Caswell.  The Bible Study we used for the weekend was Beth Moore's "Loving Well" study.  It was a wonderful study that I highly recommend but also as all good studies should, it challenged me.  I left the weekend feeling quite unsure of myself.  I really started looking at how I was loving others, and sadly I came to the realization that it wasn't well.  I also began to see that there had been a few relationships that I had been extremely hurt by.  And those experiences severely decreased the level of trust I put in others, outside of my husband and family.  So I was quite glad that the study pointed this out to me, however, a weekend wasn't long enough for me to completely delve into this issue and find the answers.

But my wonderful husband reminded me that the answer is Jesus.  He is the answer to all the questions before we even know what the questions are!  The best only way to love others well is to first understand and grasp the very love of Jesus!  This works for other things, too- grace, mercy, forgiveness- until we fully focus on Jesus and seek out each of those attributes of his character, we won't be able to give them ourselves.  So imagine my surprise (even though I should have realized God was working all this out in the totally amazing way that he does) when first I realized that our Pastor is preaching a series entitled "Wholehearted Love" this month (you can watch them here) and second I saw that the Good Morning Girls were doing a "You Are Loved" Bible study through this summer.

So here we are one week of June already gone and I am completely inundated (in an amazing way) with scriptures, sermons, and devotions about God's love.  Because the beauty about the Bible study that we are doing is that it isn't just verse upon verse of God loving us and we are wonderfully made- which is of course true, but the beauty in it is that we are seeing the very character of God in the verses that we are studying.

Even though I have been a Christian for many years, I will never know all that I need to know about God.  It's not because He keeps changing, because He doesn't.  But it's because He is vast and amazing and the more I know him the more I am changed by him to be like Christ.  And the more I change, the more of himself, He reveals to me.

And that is why it is so important to be involved in a church.  Yes, you can be a Christian and not go to church, but if you desire to know Jesus more and more, then hearing God inspired sermons, attending Bible studies and small groups that are grounded in his word should be appealing to you.  But if you don't have the desire to know him and be changed by him, then it is not only possible but also probable that he doesn't actually know you and you are not one of his children. 

So where is your heart?

Is Jesus the answer to all the questions for you?

Are you too focused on you, to focus on Him?

As I've stated before, I am a work in progress- and that is OK because I hope I am always progressing in the journey of my faith, becoming more like Christ through each chisel that God gives me.

And just a reminder, I have a giveaway going on that you can enter by commenting on the post at this link- and your chances are REALLY GOOD at winning!  :-)


And I'd love to connect with you:
Email: coveredlifeblog@gmail.com
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Love in Christ,

Alyson