Tag: love

Posted on

Having Faith When the Situation Seems Hopeless

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 HCSB

How do you have faith when everything that you know comes crashing down? Have you ever felt hopeless?

I remember when I got sick in college. I had prayed that I did not have Lupus, repeatedly. In my mind, I was devastated because there was nothing the doctors could give me those two weeks I waited to find out, because they did not know what was going on. I was asking why me, why am I still alive, why am I suffering? I had lost hope, or rather I had lost faith. I had lost belief and trust in God because I could not understand what was going on at the time. I was thinking about myself, thinking about why did that thing had happened to me. But I remained prayerful, because it was the only thing I knew that would produce a result.

Of course all along I was praying, so I never lost sight of what I knew–which was that God had to heal me. Even though I was still in a vulnerable place, my faith was my reality and I knew that God’s word was truth. So sometime after I being released, I talked to one of my mentors. I told her that God was going to heal me and she said that God doesn’t heal everybody. I realized I could not receive her words because it went against the truth that God had revealed to me in my heart and in His word. I held on to that belief and rested in the fact that I could not accept things went against what I knew…and I can say that from 2003 to 2006 my lupus serologies were negative; it was positive once while I was hospitalized in February of 2006, and it has never been positive since.

I thought about these things today as I left the courthouse. I saw several men and a few women that have fallen into a state of hopelessness, or truthfully speaking, disbelief. They do not believe in anything and accept life as they see it as reality and their lives and choices manifest the evidence of it. And I asked God, how can we faith in a place like this? How can you have faith when the system (well, the legal system here in New Orleans, that is, and I’m sure several other places, but metaphorically speaking) is orchestrated for your failure?

I realized this as I got some news that would have depressed most people…but because I know that God has control of everything, I am faithful that it will work out and truthfully not concerned. We maintain faith in desolate places by remembering the truth of God’s word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17. It is the promises of God, and the things He has already done for us and for others that should serve as the foundation for our faith. I digress and I realize that most of you may not be like me; there are things that I know as truth and fact–The Word–and for those things there is nothing that can come against it. Being raised in the church and as the granddaughter of a preacher, one thing I was raised to know, was that the Word of God was, is and will always be fact. So despite doubting because I had momentarily accepted what I saw as reality, I was reminded of the scripture above that has come to be one of my favorites. Knowing or believing in a thing makes it a fact for us. When we condition our minds to acknowledge the Word of God as fact, all else fades away. It is at that point that your faith becomes your reality and the things you are believing God for are merely waiting in the queue, so to speak, to manifest. It is in having that Word database that you are able to encourage yourself and others when life may be saying otherwise.

So the key to having faith even when the world seems to be crashing around you, when everything you have known is no more, is in trusting what you know–trusting and relying on the promises of God. Even when your mind says no, you have to make the decision to keep trusting in God’s word. Trust in what He has done for you. Trust in what He has done time and time again and bear down in your faith and know that your breakthrough awaits. You must know that this situation and all others in your life will ultimately work out for your good, because like the Word, it is written.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. Psalm 34:19 KJV2000
Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. Psalm 71:20 NIV

Posted on

Love is Your Best Weapon

Love is patient. Love is kind. Love isn’t jealous. It doesn’t sing its own praises. It isn’t arrogant. It isn’t rude. It doesn’t think about itself. It isn’t irritable. It doesn’t keep track of wrongs. It isn’t happy when injustice is done, but it is happy with the truth. Love never stops being patient, never stops believing, never stops hoping, never gives up. Love never comes to an end. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 GWT

Happy Wednesday!! I have a lot to be grateful for: God has moved in my life in a major way. Because of my detox I have actually been receptive to God so that I can just watch and participate. He has also been moving in the lives of my friends and family. Oh wait yes…the first semester of law school is over!!!!!!!!! Hallelujah!!! Glory, glory!

Anyway, I’ve written a lot of posts lately via Facebook and Twitter on the importance of guarding your mind and the war we face against the enemy. But I realized something today in listening to Joyce Meyer’s message on Spiritual Warfare. Don’t laugh, but I just thought about a Boondocks episode with Stinkmeaner lol and how they overcame his hatred was with a like mind, and in essence, in love (what both Stinkmeaner and Uncle Ruckus loved to hate lol). As a result, they were able to cast him out of Tom. And that is the lesson: you fight the enemy through unconditional love, love that loves them when they don’t love themselves, pure and uncontaminated love, Agape love, the God-kind of love. How you do this is you make it up in your mind that you will smile and be kind to the grouch, you will open doors for the bigots, you will pay for the meal of an elderly or homeless person, you will give to the person that asks…yes all this and more!

As she was preaching, it made me think of some things. One thing in particular…I loved a man…(I think that is in a song…yep Lauren Hill lol!) This love I had for him was different from any I had ever experienced in my life. Before this, with my ex-boyfriend, I had purposed in my heart to love people the way that God does. Loving my ex-boyfriend was extremely difficult. It is hard loving a broken person, someone who had been abused and in turn dished out that same abuse. (Hmmm, I know that is something God could say about me…and you too!) But with this other man, the love came naturally and was easy at first because it was fun and there was a transparency I never had. I loved him like I loved my brothers, not romantically, although I felt I grew to love him that way. I felt like it was okay to be Marquita–almost, but I was afraid to really love him. Then things started to go sour, and strangely enough, I loved him more. I wanted to pour out all the love that God had placed in my heart on him, to help heal him from the pain he had, because whether he admitted it or not, there was pain. I could see it…because having been in that same kind of pain, I knew what it looked like. At some point over the last year or longer I finally gave up–and did exactly the opposite of what was above. I realized my ‘keeping hope alive’, lol, was from a selfish place. I was truthfully not walking in love towards him by getting caught up in my feelings. Finally, I realized one day, I was only thinking about myself. So I had to let God lead me as I tried to stop loving someone who did not love me back and still walk in love towards him in spite. How did I do that, you ask? Well, I knew that we are instructed to love–so I had to keep interceding, praying and trusting God with that person. It meant putting everything into the perspective of his soul being saved instead of being caught up in my feelings, especially when it meant our relationship was over for good.

You see it is those very things…feelings…that keep us bound in the hurt that a person inflicted on us, and sometimes they do not even know what they did (blinders to our shortcomings sometimes prevent us from seeing who we hurt while we are hurting). Can’t you see that this battle is in our minds?! Our emotions, thoughts and feelings all tell us to protect ourselves and retreat in defeat instead of warring in the Spirit through the love of God! Not only do we fight war in the traditional sense of binding and loosing the enemy, but we war by giving that person the same love that God gives us. You must make a conscious decision in your mind to seek God for the strength to love everybody His way. Love even the person that broke your heart, your mom who lied or put you in the middle, your family that did nothing but tear you down, your ex-boyfriend who physically put their hands on you…or that best friend that abandoned you. We must love these people in spite because God loves us that very same way.

I love 1 Corinthians 13 because it speaks to my heart. Before my dad passed, I had already purposed in my heart to speak and share how God taught me what His love was in the four months that it took for the cancer to steal my dad from us. I saw friendship, forgiveness, and love between my parents like never before. My prayer was that God healed him, so that I could keep seeing that smile and light emanate from my mom. I searched in an unfulfilling, mentally and emotionally taxing relationship to create the love He put right in my parent’s home! At the prayer vigil, I read and I guess I preached, from this chapter. The passage above shows us the very actions that the Agape, God-kind of love does and what it is, and this is our guideline. You war in love: you are patient, allowing the process and let God’s work take place. You are kind because you remember God is kind to us especially because we don’t deserve it. You get rid of that jealous spirit; don’t get mad because you have to share your friends, your spouse, family or children with others. But wait, let me be real here, don’t envy someone else’s relationships because your relationships are not what you envisioned. When you love others you don’t always point out the things you’ve done and conversely you don’t remember every wrong they have done to you. I can and would go on, but you see what I mean. We war over those we love and God has assigned to us by these scriptures. You fight these battles with agape love: keep praying, keep hoping, keep interceding even when it hurts. The enemy hates nothing more than when you spread your love on those who have hurt you. He would hate nothing more than your being loving to all you encounter. Perfect love casts out fear; perfect love dispels hate. That’s how you fight the enemy! You can bind the spirits but then you have to work on the mind by loving them in spite. Get over yourself and let God’s love transform you!

Love sincerely. Hate evil. Hold on to what is good. Be devoted to each other like a loving family. Excel in showing respect for each other. Don’t be lazy in showing your devotion. Use your energy to serve the Lord. Be happy in your confidence, be patient in trouble, and pray continually. Share what you have with God’s people who are in need. Be hospitable. Romans 12:9-13 GWT