April 24, 2024

Seeking His Face in Your Lonely Place

Today’s blog is a little bit different than my typical Saturday blogs.  I decided to take a week off from the Letters from God series to share with you something that the Lord showed me this week that truly changed not only my heart, but my perspective on some things too.  I am so excited to share with you what the Lord taught me.

Let’s pray together before I share: Heavenly Father, we come to You today asking You to join our hearts together with Yours.  Lord, help us to get rid of all the lies and yuckiness that tries to make its way into our hearts.  Please fill our hearts with Your never ending, never fading love and truth.  You truly are our heart’s Desire.  I pray that eyes are opened, hearts are changed and You are praised!  Only You are capable of such miracles.  Lord, I am giving all of the control over to You, guide my finger tips with Your words.  I pray You alone get all of the glory forever and ever, Amen.

It all started with the word “lonely.”  How many of you detest the feelings associated with that word?  Really think about it for a moment.  What are the first feelings that come to mind when you hear the word “lonely?”  Prior to four days ago, the first thing I feel when the word is brought to my attention is this sad, depressing, pathetic feeling of never having anyone and simply dreading the next time that word will become my reality.  The best way to describe loneliness in my life (prior to four days ago) is a black cloud right above my head darkening my heart every time I end up in a solitary place…alone.  This is not me being dramatic…this is me being honest with you.  I remember crying out to God with tears, big tears streaming down my face because the thought of being alone…again…was just too much for me to bear.  I quickly learned that I am never alone because God is always with me, and that truly brought so much comfort to my lonely places, but it did not cure my loneliness.  As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes even knowing the truth is not enough for me to feel it in my heart.  Is anyone with me on that?

I happen to know for a fact that I am not alone in this struggle, no pun intended.  It is a fact that every person struggles, at one point or another, with loneliness.  I am writing this today to show you hope in your lonely placesI am here to show you we all have the cure for loneliness already within us!  I believe God wants to share with you how to take your knowing His truth one step further—feeling His truth in your heart!

Four days ago I read Luke 5:15, 16 “Yet, the news about Him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.  But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”  This verse has opened my eyes and changed my perspective on loneliness.

I believe with all of my heart that those two verses found in the Book of LIFE will open YOUR eyes and change YOUR perspective on loneliness TOO, if you let them!

When Jesus was walking around on the Earth in the flesh, being Jesus, He drew crowds of people to Him.  I imagine He did not have to worry about being alone; someone always desired to be near Him.  Jesus embraced those crowds and did amazing miracles and helped so many find healing and freedom through God’s perfect power.  We also see that Jesus chose lonely places to spend time with God in prayer!  WOW!!  Does this realization pull on your heartstrings???  It pulled on mine, big time.  Jesus DESIRED lonely places to spend time with God!!!  Here we see the pure form of the word lonely.  Lonely places are meant to be spent with God.  Loneliness is supposed to be a time for prayer with our Father in Heaven.  What is it that our hearts want when we are alone? Is it a crowd?  Surely God will be our crowd when we are alone!

LonlinessKnowing this, can you see so clearly now what we have let Satan do with this word.  We have given Him control over our loneliness.  It is so bad that sometimes you do not even have to be alone to feel this pain of loneliness through your soul.  Satan uses loneliness against us!  He will try so hard to keep us from spending time with God.  He will fill our hearts and thoughts with lies about the world loneliness and everything associated with it.  The last thing Satan wants us to be doing in our lonely places is to be spending that time with God.  Instead of praying in our lonely places we are simply sulking in our loneliness.  We become distracted in this time by lies.  Loneliness ends up pulling us further away from God when it was designed for just the opposite: to draw us closer.  How awesome would it be for God to look down on us from Heaven and see that in our loneliness we are no longer turned away from Him, but looking up at Him seeking His face!  How awesome would it be to give God control of our loneliness instead of Satan!

The way to feel God’s truth and not just know His truth in our hearts is to make the choice to feel.  If you know God’s truths and desire to feel the benefits, you must let those truths REIGN IN YOUR HEART WITH GOD! 

Thank You Jesus for opening our eyes.  Thank you for our lonely places!

Be Blessed, 

Diane

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If you would like to send Diane a private email in regards to this blog post, please email her at: Diane@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com

Captivating: Chapter 4 – The Messages of our Wounds

Three years ago, I stepped into the office of my counselor.  Nervous and excited (but mostly nervous) I was there to discuss my past relationships with men.  I was there to figure out how to forgive myself for the sins of my past.  I was there to talk about my ex-boyfriends and the issues in our relationships.  Boy, was I surprised when my counselor threw me a curve ball. We spent the majority of the time talking about the messages, rather the lies, I had come to believe about myself, about forgiveness, about relationships, and about God.

Our wounds produce the messages we believe.

These messages are exactly what the enemy wants us to believe, defend, and keep alive.  As we defend these messages daily through our actions and thoughts, we give the enemy victory.  But here’s the truth: the only power Satan has over us is the power that we give him.

I don’t know your story, I don’t know how you’ve been hurt in the past, and I don’t know how you may even be hurt in the future.  But God does.  God has messages for you to hear, too.  He’s waiting for you to trade in those evil messages that try to control you.  He wants to exchange those messages for His messages of affirmation, love, beauty, strength, boldness, self-worth, and perfection in Him.

Paul defines our methods of war against the enemy and his lies in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS <aka the messages, the lies>.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

So these weapons with which we fight…what are they? They are the spiritual armor of God found in Ephesians 6:14-17: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

Psalm34_4

 

So how do we gear up? I believe before we try to pile on all of the armor, we have to get rid of the stinky, smelly, worn-out rags we’ve been wearing until now.  They stink!  I encourage you to spend time today taking off those rags, removing those messages or lies that you’ve come to believe.  Some of the strongholds in your life may be apparent and some you may not know.  Ask God to reveal them to you.  Ask Him to remove the rags, to cleanse you, and prepare you for the future battles waged in your mind and in your heart.  David writes in Psalm 34:4, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” He will deliver you, too.  All you must do is surrender your strongholds to Him, and let Him heal your heart.

Praise Him,

Carissa

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Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, we praise You for the power You have and the power You’ve given to us through Your son, Jesus.  Father, the enemy’s lies are all around us; reveal those lies to us.  Help us to denounce each and every one of the strongholds in our lives, surrendering them to You.  Take them, Lord, they are Yours.  Cleanse our hearts and renew our minds as You have promised. In your precious Name, Amen.

Your Assignment

Sit with God today and ask Him to reveal the messages you may have come to believe. Denounce and surrender those messages to Him.

What are the things you have come to believe about yourself through hurts you experienced as a little girl?

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If you are interested in joining this Online Singles Bible Study, click HERE.  Once we receive your registration, we will email you further details.

If you would like to send Carissa a private email in regards to this blog post, you may email her at:  Carissa@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com