What image of God do you hold in your mind and heart in our spiritual journeys, we often form assumptions about the nature of God, based on our upbringing, religious teachings, and personal experiences. What if some of these bleeds are faults or incomplete?
Many of us hold misconceptions about God, based on our upbringing, cultural influences, and personal experiences. These fall through include images of God can impact our lives.
Some of the common misconceptions about God I have had in my life include:
God punishes: many people with that God punishes us for our mistakes or sins. This punitive view of God was harmful and hindered my spiritual growth.
God was distant: some people perceive God as being far away and uninvolved in our lives. This can lead to feelings and loneliness and abandonment.
God was a rigid rule maker: Other see God as a stripped enforcer of rules and regulations. This legalistic view God can relate to fear and a sense of unworthiness.
When reflecting on our child who upbringing and how it influence, our spiritual perceptions, it is important to consider the images of God that we may have been exposed to. these images, with accurate or not can shape our believes and understandings.
Some have been taught to see God as a harsh judge, ready to punish any wrongdoing. This can lead to feelings of fear and unworthiness.
Others have been raised to God as detached from human affairs, creating a sense of abandonment and loneliness in our relationship with God.
Believing that God‘s love and acceptance are contingent upon our behaviors or beliefs than can lead to a performance based spirituality. Where we must constantly strive for approval.
When we recognize and challenge these false images, we have of God we can begin to cultivate a more authentic understanding of who God is.
Is process of deconstruction and reconstruction our spiritual, we can lead to a deeper connection and true nature of God, as loving, compassionate, and ever present in our lives.
The fear of the Lord is a deep reverence and awe God‘s power and authority, often seeing as a positive attribute in religious contexts.
While I religious spirit typically considered a negative term because of overly rigid adherence to the rules and traditions often associated with a lack of genuine relationship with God and potentially stemming from a spirit of fear and judgement from a spirit of fear and judgment rather than true devotion.
The fear of God is a healthy respect and submission to God‘s will, which leads to a desire to live righteously, while a religious spirit and manifest as a controlling, legalistic attitude, focused on outward appearance, and strict adherence to rules, often neglecting the deeper aspects of faith. We see an example of this in the Bible with the pharisees.
The fear of God is motivated by the recognition of God’s power and a desire to please Him.
I really, really the spirit can be driven by fear of punishment or the need to appear pious devout.
A person who carefully considers their actions before making decisions because they want to live in accordance to God‘s will has a fear of God.
Someone who hardly judges others were not following specific religious practices to the letter, even if they’re motives are not aligned with love and compassion has a religious spirit.
Small talk is boring to me, but then I thought of something. Maybe small talk is essentially checking out the other person or whether people are interested in talking or not. We either have an opportunity to give short answers or reply with standard phrases which signals our disinterest in something without being rude. It is a ay to scope people out.
The other person will think they have interesting things to talk about. But if it’s something you’re just not interested in.
To me, small talk is superficial and lacks deep thought and emotion. But I’m aware avoiding small talk cuts me off from meaningful social interactions. I never learned any social skills, but I always thought people would never understand what was going on at home if I let them get too close. Which led to my complicated social navigating skills in social settings, and also played a role in my introverted tendencies.
One of the greatest blessings Jesus obtained for us, is the love of God. Jesus came into the world and gave His life that we would know and enjoy God’s love.
The love of God is unfailing, so measureless, so perfectly suited to the needs of our souls, that it is all we need to live a full and satisfied life. it is the only thing in this world that is able to make us truly happy.
Moses prayed in Psalm 90:14,
“Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.”
Yes, prayer was made in the middle of very dismal circumstances in the wilderness. Moses felt that life was short and filled with suffering, but he knew that God was able to fill our hearts, able to satisfy us, and causes to sing for joy and be happy all of our days with His love.
There’s a quote by A.W. Tower in the book “The Pursuit of God, that reads,
“God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious, and deep as that nature is.”
Once we come to God with our deficiencies, and adequacies, and emergencies, our work pressures, marriage difficulties, rebellious, or straying children, and emotional problems and every ever need we have experienced in our lives. We learn that God knows all our needs within us and all there depths, and meets each one with a love that is beyond measure.
When we read the Bible, we see the way people found joy and satisfaction in God‘s love. We might ask ourselves do we really understand the love of God? I have asked myself when I’m experiencing problems in my life because Ive forgotten not the love of God
Maybe the most important thing of all is experiencing the love of God in such a way that I love Him. John 4:19 says “we love Him because He first loved us.”
God gives us free will, but how many of us can say his love has touched us in a way that we want to love Him, please Him, obey Him, and radiate His love to others?
The last thing that Jesus prayed for His disciples, was for them to know an experience God’s love. John 17:26 says,
“I have made known to them, and will make it known, that the love with which you have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
The Father love us with the same love that He has for Jesus. Jesus, prayed that we would know that. Jesus, prayed that the Father’s love would be in us.
Paul said in Ephesians 3:17-19,
“He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that you may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man, that Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the width and length, and height and depth, to know the Messiah’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled will all the fullness of God.”
The highest human experience is to be filled with God and His love.
God’s love has a curing power in our hearts that nothing else does. His love, gives us such a deep sense that we are held, and loved and cared for, that creates security and stability. We lose our need to control others, and to control circumstances in order that we may feel happy and safe. We know we are safe and the love of God.
If the love of God does not flourish in our hearts, then our insecurities and fears flourish. We won’t feel safe around other people or safe in the turmoil of life. Our wounds remain unhealed and we’re offenses, we become defensive and critical, and we just don’t care about others.
Without the love of God, we are easily defeated in life. But with His love, we can overcome anything.
Romans 8:35-37 says,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Messiah? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, for our sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
The love of God is big enough in our lives, no matter what happens to us. Even if all hell breaks out against us.
God loves to take us all the way to maturity, holiness, and spiritual health. Jesus showed love to the woman caught in adultery by protecting her from vicious cations of the Pharisees, but He also showed loved to her by saying, “ neither do I condemn you. Now go and send no more.” God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us just as we are.
God’s love does not affirm who we are, in our sin and brokenness. It is compelling and transforming. it changes us, conforms us to the likeness of Jesus. His love calls us out of darkness and into the light.
God love enables us to love the imperfect people around us. Dick Staub said “Only those who experience God‘s loving presence, and the deepest places of their souls can be a loving presence in the soul of others.“
The Bible is clear that there is a completely unique realm of love that the Father has for those who follow Jesus. Understanding this love and experiencing this love can be much more than it is.
There are three ways to know the love of God, and grow in it,
There has been a trend in America toward a healthier and mindful consumption of drinks. Prioritizing wellness with compromising on flavor.
There have been many attempts to have different flavors infused in Coca-Cola and Pepsi to try and drum up customers from the younger generation. But I rarely see people at the grocery store buying soda.
The so-called healthy carbonated drinks with pre-biootics and pro-biotics infused in them are a new trend. As well as $7.00 coffee from places like Starbucks are in.
For me it’s either coffee or green tea that are my favorites.
Have you ever wondered why our favorite people hurt us the most? Maybe it’s because we are more vulnerable with them, we share our deepest thoughts, feelings, and dreams, which means that when they let us down or act in a hurtful way, the impact is much greater due to the level of trust and intimacy we have established with them. The closer we are to someone the more potential there is for deeper pain we have if they hurt us.
When we love someone deeply, we open ourselves up to being hurt by sharing our vulnerabilities, and expectations with them.
Because we care so much, we have higher standards for the people we love, which makes us more likely to be disappointed when they don’t meet those expectations.
Sometimes, we can repeat patterns from our childhoods where loved ones hurt us, which leads to similar dynamics in our adult relationships.
Close relationships can sometimes lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations which can escalate into hurt feelings.
Some people put up walls to keep them from being hurt. But those walls not only keep the hurt from us, but they also keep love away from us. It’s up to us to decide if we are going to risk the chance of being hurt, for the sake of true love.
According to research, studies suggest that anxiety and gratitude cannot exist in the brain simultaneously, meaning that when actively focusing on feelings of gratitude, the brain cannot be experiencing anxiety at the same time. One emotion overrides the other due to the brain’s inability to process both states concurrently.
This idea is supported by the understanding that the brain cannot focus on both positive and negative information at the same time.
Practicing gratitude can be a helpful strategy for managing anxiety by shifting focus toward the positive aspects of life.
Philippians 4:6-8tells us,
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
When our hearts are filled with gratitude, we cannot be controlled by anxiety.
This is a simple remedy that is in the Bible and is affirmed by science.
Practicing thankfulness can help us begin the process of overcome worry and anxiety, plus it is God’s will for us.
Tell us about your favorite pair of shoes, and where they’ve taken you.
I love my boots, it doesn’t matter if it hiking, cowgirl, or knee highs.
My boots have taken me to a few states like Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada. Going on a road trip is peaceful to me, and I get to explore all the out of the way places that I would never see if I went on the airplane.
Words have many layers and are more than just a way to communicate because words have energy, they hold of vibration, have power, and can sometimes reveal our secrets.
Words had the power to impact us both negatively and positively on a daily basis.
Have you ever wondered why you feel good or bad vibes from certain words because there are positive energy words, and negative energy words.
“ Every word carries an energy that can be sensed, regardless of whether you are thinking it, speaking it, hearing it, or reading it on a page a lot of elements impact a words energy” -Anne Klingler
A word is more than its definition because it contains energy and power. Words have weight, sound, and appearance. Words can invoke strong emotions, or create a sense of value.
Even though words don’t seem to have an emotional value, we can still feel a difference between them, that’s because words have energy. The words, spark, light, and shine have a different energy shift than dull, dark and heavy.
Depending on our personal experiences, we will either have positive or negative attachments to words. Happy times can be associated with positive energy words, while unpleasant and painful memories could have negative words attached to them.
Because of our emotional attachment to certain words, they can actually shape our lives.
It’s important to use words that inspire us on a daily basis that will change our thoughts, energy, and therefore our actions which also attracts more energy to us.
Using negative words, or self-defeating words, surround us with negative energy and attracts more negative circumstances to us.
The fact that words have the power to reach us on an emotional level, is one reason we have to pay attention to the words we use.
The language we use bring forth the life that we create. And the words that are used over and over are the language that teaches us and teaches the world around us. Our words are reflections and images of ourselves.
For example, the word love, vibrates at a higher frequency than the word hate. We can feel the difference in the energy of these two words.
I came to see dark red for anger, as I’m sure most of us do. And I see light blue or white for peace.
 Every word, even when it’s not spoken, carries a vibration that can impact all our senses. This vibration can cause us to sense heavy or light, cold or hot, bright colors or dark.
We can use the power of words and there positive energy to align, inspire, and motivate us.
When was the last time you were forced to admit to yourself that your preconceived expectations about someone or something was incorrect? Whenever we are not well-versed in a particular matter, we easily get it wrong by forming ideas and opinions based on a few small factors.
If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that sometimes our assumptions and preconceived expectations are wrong. Our interpretation of events is incorrect. This causes us to overreact and take things personally, or to judge people unfairly.
Even Jesus’s disciples had preconceived expectations about Him. when Jesus told them in Luke 18-31-34, they were going to Jerusalem, and everything that was written by the prophets about the Som of Man would be fulfilled. be handed over to the Gentiles. They would mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him, and kill Him. The disciples did not understand any of this. It’s meaning with hidden from them, and they did not know what He was talking about.
The disciples were under the assumption that Jesus (their Messiah) had arrived to usher in an earthly kingdom of temporal grandeur. They were unwilling to believe that their Messiah would be taken into custody and killed.
Matthew 16:21-23 record an incident that highlights the agitation and confusion Jesus‘s disciples were experiencing. from that time on Jesus, we can to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hand of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day, He would be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never Lord!” Peter said, “This shall never happen to you.”
Peter refuses surrender to his preconceived expectations. We’ve all done it. We read something in the Bible that challenges our personal view, but we are unwilling to consider it because it might mean that we have to adjust your perspective. Jesus‘s first disciples demonstrated this stubborn mentality. They could not wrap their mind around the upcoming event. Jesus told them we’re going to take place. The message completely contradicted their preconceived expectations, and they failed to comprehend it.
The best gift I have received isn’t anything material. I was Jesus came in loving me and rescuing me. When I thought no one could love me or rescue me because of all things I had done.
Jesus forgave me and rescued me from my guilt and shame. He healed my spirit and took away the heart heart of stone I was hiding behind, tore down the walls I had put up, so I could feel love -His love. He as always there to console me though the darkness I felt. And brought me a peace I never thought I would find in my life.
He gave me this gift not because I deserved it. But, because He loved me first, and His mercy and grace.
The sooner we learn to confront our challenges and throw positives at the negative, the sooner things begin to change for the better in life.
When we replace the question “Why is this happening to me?” To What is this situation trying to teach me?” Doing this shifts our perspective from feeling victimized by a challenging situation to actively seeking a lesson or personal growth opportunity within it. It essentially replaces a reactive “Why is this happening to me” mindset with a proactive approach to learning from the experience.
By asking “What is this trying to teach me,” we can actively engage with the situation, and look for potential lessons instead of dwelling on negativity.
This mindset empowers us to take control of our response to challenges and see them as opportunities for positive personal development.
When we actively seek lessons in difficult situations, we are more likely to bounce back and grow from adversity.
I believe everything happens for a reason and will make us strong enough to fight the odds. The sooner we learn to confront our challenges and throw positives at the negatives.
Change is a continuous process and adapting to a new normal is the key.
From Pity to Praise 