Hi everyone,
My heartfelt greetings to all of our friends both locally in Melton and also around the world. I especially say hello to our churches in Africa and partners in India. My family has been in the process of moving home over the past few months, we have gone through the sorting out, packing up, transporting and then unpacking and finding new places for our household items. As we went through this tiring process the Lord reminded me a few times that he wants to do this in his children too. He wants us to sort through the stuff in our heads; the things that fuel rejection, anger, fear, selfishness, jealousy etc etc. Most of these things affect us from our past; because we have been let down or deliberately abused in some way. Our parents and carers weren’t perfect, just as we are not perfect . No-one can escape being hurt in some way, and our natural human way of coping is often to expect the same treatment from others we get close to, or never allow ourselves to be close to anyone out of fear. Our God is a relational God, the trinity is a perfect example of love and perfection. As we become more Christ-like we should be able to put aside these things that keep us from loving unconditionally and receiving love from others. The only way we can do this is to trust and allow Jesus firstly to get into the dark places of our soul, the places we don’t even want to look at. He knows what’s there anyway. Secondly we need to determine that we will not be a victim anymore, if we act like a victim we will always try to justify our position of pain, keeping us from fully forgiving those who have hurt us. We can get so used to the unhealthy patterns in our thinking and acting that although we want to be healed, we refuse to give up our position as a victim because we may not get the same attention anymore. It’s time church to stop looking at ourselves and begin to look at others first. When we do this, our own issues begin to take perspective, we see Christ in other people and begin to trust that He can do the same for us. Our faith and trust is re-charged when we serve others with a thankful heart. When we choose to think or act according to how Jesus has modelled His love to us, the strongholds in our own minds begin to loosen and hope, grace and love take over.
Ask the Lord to help you to sort through the things that hold you back, but be ready and willing to really let these things go and let God set you up in your new home (way of thinking) with Him as your centre.
You are all loved very much,
Pastor Julie
