Control or Surrender? - by Karena Lout

Does it feel that life has been unpredictable, uncomfortable, out of control? Unfortunately, that’s been the reality for most people (especially the last few years.) There’s a tendency to want to jump in the driver’s seat when that happens. It takes a great amount of trust to surrender areas of our life that still feel “in process.” Control can be more appealing than trust because it gives us a false sense of protection. But ultimately, our safe place is in knowing that Jesus is our good Shepherd.   Jesus doesn’t just want to be our Savior. He wants to be our King. His leadership is perfect in every way. He uses his power to heal us; to love us. I heard someone once say, “In the world, we surrender when we lose. But in the kingdom, we surrender to win.” I’ve found that surrender isn’t a one-time thing. Every day, I have a choice to hold a firm grip on all the things I think I can control OR I can live with my hands open, giving Jesus access to it all.    “Father, into your hands, I commit my Spirit.” Luke 23:46  “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.”  (TPT)   As we took communion last Saturday night, we remembered how Jesus completely submitted himself to his Father when he went to the cross. I encourage you to tell him today, “Father, I surrender my Spirit into your hands.” Then ask him to show you what that looks like every day in your life.   Love, Karena

The Origin Of Love - Brent Lokker

“Beloved, love always includes others, since love springs from God; its source is found in the fellowship of the Father, Spirit and Son. Everyone who encounters love immediately knows that they too are born of the same source. It is not possible to fully participate in love without discovering God. To love is to know God; to know God is to love.” 1 John 4:7 (Mirror)   The “knowing” spoken of here is not an intellectual thought about God and his love, but a relational encounter with our Father, our Holy Spirit and our Jesus. It’s an immersion into the deep love they have always shared with one another and have warmly invited us to share with them. Each time you allow your heart to be awakened by Love’s embrace, you soar ever higher into a sweet confidence in their tender affection for you as the Beloved!   Love is not defined by our love for God, but by his love for us. It is not our response to God that attracts his attention; we have always had his undivided affection as declared in the prophetic promise and finally demonstrated in his Son’s commission and work of atonement for our sins. 1 John 4:10   I remember vividly my desire for God that for years and years was marked by an earnest attempt to let God know how much I truly loved him, yet something in me felt like a fraud at times and I was sure God knew it too. My well-meaning attempts at convincing God of my love was rooted in…myself. That was the problem and it took quite a while to be wooed by the Lord to finally see what he knew all along: my deep love for God originated in his love, the only source of love that exists. As I stopped measuring my own attempts at how well I thought I was loving God and simply enjoyed his intense pleasure over me as his treasured son, the love within bubbled up and over in delight for my Father and Lover of my soul!   Loved Ones, if this is true about God’s love for us, it is equally true of his love in us for others. God was never visible to anyone until Jesus brought him into full view; now your love does the same.Our love for one another is evidence of God’s seamless union with mankind as witnessed in his love perfected within us. 1 John 4:11-12   This pure love that originates in and with the Trinity—Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit—is more than sufficient for us to love each other. Friends, our Father has always planned for his kids to be so loved into a blissful joy of belonging to him, that our love for each other becomes the attraction and tangible proof of our Father’s heart is for those who long for genuine love and still need to encounter him. In other words, our genuine love of Jesus within is the first of Jesus they will see until they discover what we already know—that the Origin of Love has made his home right inside of us!   Take a moment to tap into this Living Love. Not by striving to love better, but by immersing yourself in a tender Father and his merciful Son, Jesus and the sweet, eternal Holy Spirit who are all sharing their love and affection and honor and deep joy with you at this very moment!   His own Spirit is the source of this gift of knowing that we are continuously, seamlessly, and very consciously present in him and he in us. 1 John 4:13