She held on to her unloved state with both hands griped tight. Oh, how she wanted love. “Children will surely bring it my way”,she thought.

However Leah soon found out, her beautiful children couldn’t be used as tools to gain love. God never gave up His pursuit on Leah and He will never give up on you. 

You may have tried to gain love in all the wrong ways. 

What you thought was real proved to be more disappointments.  You probably compromised your original values believing it was okay if it brings you love.  Yet, soon you realized it was another empty road of despair. 

Sisters…God never gives up His pursuit toward us because we belong to Him.  He wants to teach us how to thrive during our barren times. Thriving is living and soaring above the mess…especially an unloved mess.

Leah was unloved and God knew. 

He knew and He moved with action to come to her rescue.  God didn’t remove Leah from her situation.  Instead, He revealed how much he loved her right where she was. 

God blessed Leah with beautiful children; however, the blessing that transformed her mind was when He taught her how to soar above her circumstances and worship Him.  Amazing! 

This week, we will see how Leah’s unfilled longings lead to a surrendered heart toward God.  We will also discuss how she almost missed God’s great blessings and His great love.  

Sister’s let’s be brave. 

Choosing to surrender when the world tells us different is brave and beautiful. You are valued and loved.  Walk in this truth….but most of all…walk in His love. 

 “God takes everything in our lives and uses it for the good of His kingdom” (Unloved, pg. 57).

Leah was unloved.

This wasn’t something she imagined, God recognized it.

God is always concerned about the conditions of our life.  He loves us and values us beyond our imagination.  We are valued because He has created us in His image with freedom to choose and a capacity to love and be loved.

He has placed with us an innate desire to be loved, however, many are moving on this earth without love and hope.  Jesus came to bring us hope but not only hope, He sacrificed His life for the sake of love.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Son” (John 3:16).

Our life thrives on God’s love and hope.

His love is designed to energize us, motivate us, and encourage us to persevere during the tough seasons in life. Without God’s love, we would be utterly lost.

There are women who feel all hope is lost because they are missing God’s love from their life.  That’s where we come in.  We are called to be God’s hands and feet.

“We are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20). God wants to use us to make an appeal of His love and salvation to the hurting in the world.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

God commands believers to love and it is their choice to obey.

He requires us to have the compassion of Christ when it comes to dealing with the unloved (Page 34).  The best way to show God’s compassion is to love with action.  Ladies need to see God’s love through us in action.

God’s light shines through us when we sacrifice our time to show love to a co-worker suffering in a hard marriage or a single friend going through a season of loneliness.  We can say to the unloved, “God loves you”; however, how much better it is if we take time to show them the love He showed us.

Take time this week and look

for ways to spread sacrificial love to someone.  This means you may have to look deeper than what appears on the surface.   Every woman is worthy of God’s love.

Feelings of being unloved can be real and not a figment of someone’s imagination…

I. Laid. Sod.

Yup, all by myself. This girl, right here. I did a good job, too! My husband could not get over how great it looked…oh he of little faith.

And then I went on summer vacation…In Houston, Texas…With a broken sprinkler system…For 2 weeks. Upon my return, I found mostly dry, yellow straw where my gorgeous, green grass used to live.  Needless to say, I was heartbroken.  I had been defeated.  Consequently, I surrendered my efforts and gave up on my once-beautiful (and nearly-professional!) lawn job.  My grass had stopped growing, but my indifference was sprouting up like a weed!

I no longer cared for my sod.  I stopped watering it even though I knew that I might have been able to save it with just a little love. But, I refused to love it.  I stopped checking on it all together.  I even went so far as avoid that part of the yard.  It’s not that I was angry or upset with the sod, I mean come on, it is just sod.  The reality was that I just didn’t care anymore.  I destroyed what was left of my sod by separating it from myself.  It had died because I had stopped loving it.  I didn’t “do” anything to destroy it, I just stopped caring for it.  My indifference caused it’s destruction.

You see, you don’t have to hate something to destroy it.  The opposite of love is not hate…  It’s indifference!  Love creates, but indifference destroys.  A simple and often justified attitude of indifference can bring unintentional consequences into our lives.  I didn’t kill the sod by hating it…  I killed it by no longer caring for it.

Love is an action.  Love is a verb.  It creates and sustains, that’s what love does.

1 John 4:8 tells us that, “The one who does not love, does not know God, for God is love.” 

God is not indifferent. God is love!  Love must create and God is the creator of the universe.  He created us and He sustains out of His love.  The fact that we exist is simply an expression of God’s greatest moral attribute… Love!

This is why you and I were made, as an expression of God’s love, because if God is love and love must create, then God must create.  Saint Theresa of Avila said, in her work Way of Perfection, “The primary purpose of creation is that God wishes to bestow love and teach love, so that creatures can share in the blessedness of divine life, of loving and being loved.”

Isn’t that an awesome concept?  God had to create us.  He didn’t have a choice!  God is love and love must create… Wow!  God wants us to know Him and experience His love.  He desires to have a personal, intimate and loving relationship with us.  Through our personal relationships with Him, He uses us as the primary agents, so that, through us, His love might be carried to others.  This is why it is so important that we not let indifference and complacency take root in our lives.  We must weed it out!  Our love should always be in motion, always doing, always creating.  The same way that my indifference destroyed my sod, our indifference towards God can destroy our lives and rob our joy.  If we are not actively imitating God’s love then we are not in fellowship with Him.  If we are not in fellowship with Him, We… Will… Die!  It’s that simple.  But, God is love, He is not indifferent and He wants us to prosper spiritually while on this earth.  Ultimately, He created us so that one day we might live in eternal fellowship with Him in Heaven.  God’s Word assures us of His promise…

Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever.

Guest Blogger Ali Martin

This morning I got on the scale for the first time in…well…a while. I’ve been telling myself that I need to do it for quite some time and frankly…I just did not want to know. It is the same thing I did last week when I wanted to cancel an appointment at the dermatologist where I was to get a full body screening for skin cancer because…I just didn’t want to know.  Everyone puts stuff off because we don’t want to know how it will change our lives and we don’t want the accountability.

Most of us don’t like to be held accountable.  After stepping on the scale this morning, it is confirmed what I knew in my heart all along…those stubborn 5 pounds that I had not-so-long-ago worked hard to take off…were back.  I could not ignore this fact anymore, for there was the number peaking at me from between my toes.  From here I could do one of two things.  I could choose not to care about my weight gain and continue living how I have been, which would most likely result in more weight gain, or I could take the instruction I have learned on how to live a healthier lifestyle and make a change.

It is hard work getting those stubborn 5 (or 10 or 20…or 50) pounds off!  It requires much discipline in diet, exercise and an overall change in lifestyle.  Loosing weight is not easy.  Being obedient to what is required to loose the weight goes against what we naturally want to do (i.e. lay around and eat Cheetos and drink Soda).  However, the result of our obedience is very enjoyable!

Reading the Bible is no different.  Many times, we don’t want to open our Bibles and read because it tells us how we should conduct our lives and, frankly, we just don’t want to know.  We don’t want the instruction.  We don’t want the accountability.  We don’t want the change in our lives.

Once we have made the choice to open our Bibles and read God’s instruction we are then faced with another choice.  Do we ignore what is staring us in the face and continue living the same lifestyle, which will most likely result in spiritual emptiness, or do we take the instruction we have learned on how to live a Godly lifestyle and make a change?

Living a life the way God instructs is not easy.  It goes against what we naturally want to do (i.e. think only of ourselves and what we want) and requires a great deal of discipline.  However, the result of our obedience to His Word is so very, very enjoyable.

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” –Hebrews 12:11

Submitted by Alison Martin

Usually it doesn’t take much for me to get motivated: the smell of coffee motivates me to buy a venti-upside-down-decaf caramel macchiato, a rainy day motivates me to clean my house (yah, this is weird), and least I forget, an extra 40%-off-the-whole store sale at Chico’s motivates me to go shopping! (Okay, too much motivation). But my point is that sometimes our motivation to shop, eat, and work is rather simple. 

Motivation is the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something. It is the condition of being eager to act or work and a force or influence that causes someone to do something (Courtesy of Merriam Webster Dictionary).  Motivation is important.  It’s really a driving force in everything we do.  The smell of coffee motivates me to want more coffee, a gloomy rainy day, motivates me to clean, and a great sale motivates me to shop.  Motivation is the controlling factor in ever thing we do.

However, a Christian’s motivation should be higher than the motivation we see in the world.  The love we have in Jesus Christ should motivate us to honor God and give Him control of everything we do.  Jesus’ love is unconditional and selfless.  His love is bathed in the never-ending pool of God’s grace and mercy. God’s grace gives us in abundance what we don’t deserve and His mercy graciously withholds the treatment we do deserve.  Jesus’ love for all believers is rooted in abundant grace and compassionate mercy. 

This is a great motivating force that propel us to do what’s right!   

Whether we are serving in the church or serving in our homes,

Whether we are helping a neighbor or helping an enemy,

Whether we are eating, sleeping, playing, or ministering. 

Whatever we do it should be because Christ’s love controls us. 

The results will be powerful as we walk in God’s holy calling to esteem others higher than ourselves.  The precious love we have in Jesus should motivate us to live our lives determined to do all things that honors His name.

Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ’s love controls us now. 2 Corinthians 5:14 (TLB)  

• What motivates your thoughts, actions, or attitudes? 
• Is it the unconditional love of Jesus? 
• What will you do today to allow His love to control you? 
• Will you give Jesus your life?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16 (NIV)

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved.  Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV)

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15 (NIV)

After a high-speed boat ride, given by my adrenaline-junkie-brother-in-law, we decided to take all the kids to the giant water trampoline anchored to the floor of the lake in front of their cottage.  The kids loved it!  They were jumping around having a fantastic time while Mommy tried to keep them from flying off the side into the water.

Believe the impossible!

It’s easier said than done. I tend to keep my heart guarded – afraid to pray big because of silent fear. Afraid to challenge myself, afraid to really listen to God, afraid that He might take me someplace and . . . . I fail. Not because of His inadequacies but because of my sin tendencies.  It’s comfortable and safe to do the same secure thing. 

Too much little faith God! Please teach me.

In church, I’m learning about Mary’s life as she sat at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10:38-42).  She witnessed Jesus’ miracles before her eyes and remembered His healings, casting out demons, and His transformation power on lost souls.  Mary believed in Jesus.  She didn’t fear the pressures of her world or the ridicule of her surrender.  She chose to cast her cares at the Lords feet and listen to His words. 

Mary had BIG faith! 

Her faith was big enough to be small enough at Jesus’ feet.  As a result, Jesus chose to sustain her and shower His love in her heart!  Because of Mary’s willingness to sit, to listen, and to be with Jesus, he commended her well by stating, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

I’m learning a lot from Mary’s example. 

Her example teaches me that sweet surrender at my Lord’s feet will rise up unshaken faith.  The more I sit with God and chose to listen with my heart, the more he will replace my fear with big faith.

I choose You Lord. 

I choose to believe in You. 

I choose to believe Your grace will sustain me  down the hard roads. 

I choose to believe the impossible and  . . . .  

I choose to sit at your feet. 

• Are you choosing to believe that God will do the impossible in your life?
• Have you spent time with Jesus today?  He waits with loving arms.

“Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”  Psalm 55:22 (HCSB)

A man was paralyzed and sick for thirty eight years. In John chapter 5 (John 5:2-9), it says he would lay by the pool called Bethesda and watch as hundreds of blind, sick, and lame people went into the water sick and came out healed. This man desperately longed for someone to carry him into the stirring waters so he too could be healed. Lying by the pool one day, Jesus saw him and asked, “Do you want to be healed?”

What a question! Yes, he wanted healing… probably more than anything in life “but” said the man, “I have no one to put me in the pool.” And then Jesus said something that would revolutionize his life forever, “Get up, pick-up your pallet and walk.” This man paralyzed for most of his life obeyed. In faith, he got up off his mat and stepped into his healing, never to be the same again.

There have been times in my life when I was in a black pit of depression or feeling unsure about my purpose and God’s love for me. How I desperately wanted my soul to be stirred by God’s healing hand. I sought God with all my heart, soul, and mind and He brought healing. It was His word that encouraged me to change my focus from “my misery” to His victory.

You may be desperately seeking healing from a crushed spirit, a broken marriage, depression, anger, food addiction, low self esteem, a critical spirit, and… the list can go on. Perhaps you’ve been suffering for months, years, or even decades waiting for someone to carry you off your miserable mat of circumstance and place you in the pool of healing. With compassion, Jesus sees your suffering and asks, “Do you want to be healed?” You cry out, “Yes! Please save me from my misery.” Then Jesus tells you to do the impossible, “Rise up, pick up your miserable mat and step into your healing.” Supernaturally, when you obey by faith, Jesus does the work of healing in your life.

For there to be healing, there has to be obedience, and for there to be obedience, there has to be faith in Jesus. When our faith chooses to believe that our trouble soul can be healed, the results will be lasting joy and peace. Studying the Bible and developing a meaningful prayer life will help us realize the power of God to heal when we rise up and walk closer to Him.

The man had a choice and so do we… to stay down on his mat of misery paralyzed by fear or to believe by faith God will lift him up in victory. Fear will always keep us on our mats of misery without relief and hope.  However, Jesus came so that we may have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). This supernatural healing is only possible when we obey the word of God and walk by faith—believing that His word can and does heal.

Beloved, we have to believe that Jesus can heal our sickness and that He desires to revolutionize our life. Only God has the power to bring us out of our spiritual sickness. All we have to do is get up and walk.

How to get up off your mat and let go of fear

1. Don’t give in to fear. The bible says to be courageous and know God is pulling for you.”This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9 (NLT)
2. Speak Out! Don’t allow fear to silence you from seeking help from a godly friend or a spiritual mentor.  Ask them to pray with you, walk beside you, and cheer for you.”One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent!” Acts 18:9 (NLT)
3. Know that God loves you unconditionally. When we believe in God’s perfect love for us, it banishes all fear. Have faith and believe God loves you, just as His word says.”We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” 1 John 4:16 (NLT)”Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.” 1 John 4:18 (NLT)
4. Pray! Tell the Lord about all your fears. Once you tell Him about it, give it to Him and watch what He does. Only God has the power to free you from all your fears and help you walk in victory.”I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.” Psalm 34:4-5 (NLT)