Unconditional Love
I was talking to someone today, a loved one, who was battling discouragement. I too have been heavily besieged by this –discouragement so heavy and thick (because of myself and not for a lack of blessings) every day of the last few weeks has been a battle royal. A few weeks ago I pleaded with the Lord for relief, for surcease, for the keys of intercession to work on my behalf. You know how when you are at the bottom of the cycle fighting fiercely just to cling and stave off the discouragement you feel; it’s so hard to believe anyone, even the Lord loves you. Unconditional love is just something really hard to understand in those moments. So I begged with the Lord to show himself to Me. Just once I wanted to *feel* His unconditional love and to know that it is for real.
The Lord replied quietly, finally, that He couldn’t. He wouldn’t, because it would ruin the tests and rob me of the rewards that I had already endured for –and that He knew I didn’t want that. Apparently, this is something that I had agreed to go through before I came to this world and these are the specific tests that I agreed to and wanted. His love for me is tough enough and strong enough to say ‘no’, and to watch me endure until the end. I guess He can do that because He loves me so much. Because, yes, His love for me IS unconditional. Unconditional even to what I have done, what I am like, what I lack, how through any number of blunders I have possibly even hurt or stumbled others. It is unconditional to my requests and pleas for easy ways out. Even greater than my need for reprieve, for release, for proof. I’m just learning about it in a different way than I thought I could.
Soon after, I found this quote that spoke of the same thing:
(These quotes are Jesus, speaking in prophecy)
Jesus Remember too that there are special things you wanted to learn on Earth. These are things you decided and desired when you could see things much more clearly through the eyes of the spirit than you can now. So even though you don’t remember all those things, try to stay focused on the goals of the spirit–the attributes which will remain a part of you long after your earthly body is dead and gone–the beauty of spirit which you are building day by day through your choices of love, humility, and unselfishness. That’s the beauty that will last forever.
Cultivate the desires of your spirit, and give your spirit to those things that will nourish it and strengthen it. Exercise your spirit through stretching yourself to be more unselfish, more giving, more willing. Feed your spirit well with the nourishment of My Word. Bathe in My cleansing, revitalizing elixir which washes away the old and dying and gives way to the new. Rest in My arms. Share your spirit with others so that it becomes experienced in loving and stays practiced in how to love. All these things enhance your spiritual beauty and give you a shine that will remain for all eternity.
(Jesus:) How will you face the famous martyrs, missionaries, Christians, and heroes of the faith who gave their families, fortunes, bodies, and lives for Me, if you have to say that you couldn’t make the small sacrifices that were asked of you, and for that reason you failed in reaching My best? How will you face those who were tortured and killed for their faith, if you have to say that you couldn’t forsake a small earthly pleasure, or lay aside a little weight of sin, or make a small personal change in order to really champion My cause and win the victory? Think about that as you make these choices of faith.
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A few days ago my sister Amy sent me an awesome compilation of quotes that have been a huge encouragement to me. (THANKS AMY!!) Here’s one that really touched me:
Jesus: Sometimes what you look too much at is perfection. You expect yourself to be perfect in all things because you can see the goal so clearly. You know what the ultimate end result should be—that you be the reflection of Me—and so you become terribly discouraged when you don’t reach that goal just perfect at every moment.
What you must understand is that I have never required perfection. I alone am perfect, I alone can make it. I have never asked you to be the all in all. And so I have fitted you with weaknesses, with blemishes, with little idiosyncrasies that keep you humble and in essence desperate for Me. I want you to be clinging on to Me as your only hope for survival, so how do I do this? By making you weak in yourself. This is what I have done, and not just with you, but with every one, every single human being that has and is and will walk the earth.
Just because there are areas in your life that you need to improve in and make greater progress towards, does not mean you’re a failure or useless. You must learn, you have to have things in your life that need improving, you have to have lessons and battles, there must be error and mistake so that greater fruit can be borne! Without the priceless element of mistake, error, sin and weakness, there could be no greater connection between Me and mankind. It is simply because you are so weak that you see your need for Me!
So trust Me for your mistakes and even parts of your very nature that you don’t like or feel others don’t even like, trust Me for every weakness of your life, because I use these to draw you closer to Me. You can’t be perfect and you will never be perfect, but you can trust Me, you can let Me have free reign in your life, you can commit and yield it all to Me and faith in My will and way.
I allow you to make mistakes, to forget, so that I can help you to stay dependent on Me.
As you do your best for Me and strive to uphold the standard of My Word to the best of your ability, yet you slip and blow it in some way, big or small, just trust that it’s part of My plan to keep you soft and weak so that My Spirit can continue to speak to you.