Are You OK?

It’s an Alabama winter day. The temperature has risen dangerously high, and everyone has battened down the hatches in anticipation of the severe weather that often results when cold fronts crash into warm fronts. I am tucked inside, thinking about you, those that read my writings, and wondering if you are ok. This season is a tough one for many of us. It’s the time of year when the enemy brings up what is missing in our lives. I know that he keeps that “one thing we most want and seem to never get” in our faces all the time, but he pushes extra hard during the holidays. It’s one of his most effective discouragement tools. How do I know this? Because I haven’t gotten what I want the most in the whole world. I want my son free from mental retardation. Such a thing is not too hard for God. The enemy knows what I want, and he knows that I have been waiting and believing for a long time. I don’t think that I am special in this. I think most of us long for an answer to that one prayer that is the most important of all. And I think we are all subject to despair when the enemy taunts us with reminders of how long we have waited for that answer. Now, I can’t get your prayers answered. But, I can help with putting the devil back in his place. And that helps with the despair. First, realize this. The enemy comes in on what we believe. If we believe that we have to have something in order to be ok, then guess what? All the enemy has to do to make us miserable is remind us, and keep reminding us, that we don’t have that one thing. Instant misery. When we believe that we MUST have something – whatever that something may be – in order to be ok, hasn’t that one thing become our god? Paul said this in Philippians 4:11. “For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in.” Paul suffered. He was rejected by his people, beaten until he was crippled; he was imprisoned, betrayed and abandoned by his friends. And, in the midst of all of that suffering, he somehow learned to be content. He went on to say that the secret lay in being strengthened by Jesus. Well then. God is no respecter of persons. If He strengthened Paul, He will strengthen us, too. If, in that strengthening, Paul learned to be content, so can we. I pray for us all right now. Lord, strengthen us so that we can learn to be content! Here is how I responded to the enemy’s taunts this time around: Lord, You have given me everything I need pertaining to life and godliness, so into Your hands, Father, I commit my spirit. (2 Peter 1:3; Luke 23:46). No. The devil didn’t go away immediately. There was a struggle with my emotions. But, this time around, when the enemy’s cold front crashed into my warm front, I did not allow him to whip up his usual tornado of weeping and begging until I ended up, soggy and beaten, in the pit of despair. Because Jay’s healing is not my god. Not anymore. I don’t have to have that one thing to be ok. I have everything I need in my beautiful Lord. Are you ok? Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Peter 1:2

Blessings upon your new year, Susan 205.556.4555 Send me your emails. I love getting them. Visit the website to donate. thepoolministries.org

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How to Heal the Image of God (That’s You) Part 2

This continues my previous writing about what it is to be the image of God and how to heal that image. I am in the middle of writing a book and managing a Facebook page for The Pool, SO I am updating you guys by sharing the Facebook posts. I am pleased to announce that the ministry is gaining followers through Facebook. My goal is only this: To get helpful information and effective tools into the hands of people. If you would like to support me in that effort you can donate at the website.

The Conflict As the image of God, you possess a spirit, a soul, a heart and a mind (among other things). So far, I have written a little bit about your spirit and soul and hinted about the conflict between them. (See previous posts). In brief, your human spirit understands eternity while your soul fears death. Because of the fallen condition of our world and the fallen behavior of people, the soul quickly decides to distrust its human spirit. This is very unfortunate since the spirit and the soul are designed by God to work together. So how do we heal this conflict between the spirit and the soul? Healing starts with the third aspect of the image of God: the heart.

Your Identity, Your Reality, Your Heart Proverbs 4:23 warns us to Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Guard your heart. Not your spirit or your soul or your mind or your brain, but your heart. Guard it above all things. Why? Because, according to scripture, your heart determines the course of your life. That’s pretty significant. Science has found that the Bible is right (imagine that) about the importance of the heart. Researchers in the emerging field of neurocardiology have discovered that the heart – the thumper in your chest – has its own little brain. This “heart brain” controls many of your body’s internal rhythms. This means that how you think and feel within your heart is expressed (felt by you) throughout your entire body. God designed your heart to establish you in an identity and in a consistent perception of reality based upon your early childhood experiences. This would be just fine if humanity wasn’t fallen. Because of the fall, your heart establishes your identity and “how life works for you” in the midst of chaos and based upon the behavior of the fallen people around you. as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7 (NKJ) Did I mention that the heart is supposed to stabilize you in one CONSISTENT identity and reality? That means the heart does not easily change once it believes. for with the heart a person believes Romans 10:10 What you REALLY believe in your heart – not what you want to believe; not what you hope you believe; not what you have been taught to believe – must be unlocked in order to settle the conflict between your spirit and soul. The how of that is next.

The Fall Your heart’s primary function is to keep you sane. It does this by establishing you in two things: Your identity and your understanding of reality. Let’s look quickly (because this is Facebook after all) at your identity. Truth: You are a unique, priceless being who expresses the image of God. There is no evolving up from that. You are the highest point of creation. Why are you arguing with me? Why are you saying that you are a loser who just doesn’t measure up? Here is why. You were created within a chaotic, fallen environment, surrounded by fallen people, acting in confusing fallen ways. Your heart MUST make sense of what is incomprehensible in order to establish you in a consistent identity. So, your heart rejects your true identity and replaces it with a painful identity that makes sense. Here’s an example: The reason people don’t want me is because I’m bad. I’m the bad person. That makes sense! Bingo! New painful identity. Because the heart is designed to keep you sane, any questioning of what the heart believes is treated as an assault and automatically repelled.

Stabilized in Chaos In my last post I wrote about how the heart believes and why it believes the way it does. Here it is in short: Your heart is designed by God to stabilize you in one consistent identity and reality. But there is a problem. You were conceived within a chaotic fallen environment, surrounded by fallen people, acting in fallen ways. This means your heart has to impose order over unrelenting confusion and incomprehensible pain. Your heart MUST make the crazy make sense. And it does just that by accepting a bunch of lies about you. And about life in general. Every important thing is filtered through the heart’s worldview. This is why God warns us to guard our hearts above ALL else (Proverbs 4:23). So, what can you do with this information about your heart? The heart is designed to believe. In order to replace the painful worldview your heart believes in, you must first learn how the heart communicates that worldview to you. Listen to your inside talk. Do you hear the words “Always, Every time, No Matter What, No One, Never, Everyone?” That is heart language. Begin to take note of these kinds of statements. Write them down. The heart communicates in absolutes. Absolute statements reveal what is hidden in your heart. Let’s start there and continue in the next post.

The First Key Sorry this is so long, but the information is absolutely vital. Please read and apply. It would be helpful if you read all my previous posts about the Image of God: spirit, soul, heart and mind. In a perfect world, your human spirit and soul would love each other; the spirit offering gentle and wise guidance to your soul; your soul submitting to your spirit’s nurture so that it grows into a mature image of God. The problem is this: Sin entered through the Fall and what SHOULD happen exploded into unrelenting chaos. So how do you restore your spirit and soul to a healthy relationship? Your heart holds the keys to this restoration. Or rather what your heart believes holds those keys. God designed your heart to perform certain jobs for you. The foremost of its duties is to stabilize you in ONE CONSISTENT identity and understanding of reality. This means that once your heart believes something is true for you, it will believe that forever … unless you learn how to change your heart. Because your heart has stabilized you in a fallen world, your identity does not line up with truth: That you are a priceless, much-loved child of God. Instead, your heart looked at the chaos surrounding you and decided that there must be “something wrong with you” that is causing the Crazy. In my last post I asked you to listen for absolute statements of belief. Statements you hear inside of you or that come out of your mouth. Like this: “I’m stupid. I’m ugly. I’ll never be good enough. No one likes me. I will never be loved. Everyone hates me. I’ll always be a failure.” Notice the language is absolute: Always, Never, No One, Everyone. This is heart language. So, what are the keys to replacing those heart beliefs that feel cemented into place? It is actually very simple and surprisingly easy. It does take persistence on your part, but changing out those heart beliefs for truth is quite doable. Here is the first key! Write it down and PRACTICE it! When you hear those absolute statements inside or coming out of your mouth, stop and say this to your heart. “Heart! The reason the bad things happened isn’t because I am bad. The bad things happened because of the Fall. That is the only reason bad things happen. You will now believe that instead of what you have been believing.” I will give you the second key to replacing wrong heart beliefs with truth in the posts to come. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. John 14:27

The Truth Your Heart Loves In order to heal your soul and spirit; in order for your soul and spirit to work together according to God’s plan, you MUST convince your heart to cooperate with you. In my previous post I introduced the first of three keys that will gain you that cooperation. (Please read previous posts). Key One replaces what your heart currently believes about Who You Are and How Life Works For You with ONE absolute godly truth. That truth is this: ALL the bad things happened because of the Fall. Not because you are bad. Not because other people are bad. Bad things happen because of one thing: The Fall. Tell your heart this every day. Ten times a day! Tell it to stop believing that all the bad stuff is your fault, or your parents’ fault or whoever. Instead, command your heart to believe that the bad things happened because of the Fall. This is the first key. Replace all those painful and confusing lies with this absolute truth. Be very firm with your heart. Jesus revealed that you have authority over your heart in John 14:27. He said: “Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Key Two coming soon. And yes, the keys work together.

Is It Really That Simple? Key One to convincing your heart to stop blocking and start cooperating may seem simplistic. (See previous posts). But let’s take a closer look. Much of traditional inner healing involves locating heart beliefs and replacing them with truth. This is effective but very slow. If there has been lots of damage it can be excruciatingly slow. And when the damage makes no sense – as in the case of child abuse – finding a truth your heart will accept is a huge challenge. Remember your heart has already accepted, and established you, in the belief that it is All Your Fault. Over the years I have prayed with a lot of people. And I have discovered that hearts need to know only one thing for everything to make sense. Here it is: Bad Things Happen Because of the Fall. This one truth explains it all. When your heart accepts this, it no longer needs to hold on to all the other reasons why the bad things happen. It no longer needs to stabilize you in painful beliefs about yourself, others and life. Tell your heart today, every day, ten times a day, that the bad things happened because of the fall. Not because “something about you” makes people hurt you. Key Two is next. for with the heart a person believes Romans 10:10

Hugs and blessings from me to you, Susan 205.556.4555 Send me your emails. I love getting them. Visit the website to donate (if so led by the Lord, of course). thepoolministries.org

The Image of God

I am exploring the different aspects of the image of God (that’s you) in short posts on Facebook. For those of you who are not on Facebook, or would like to read my observations together, here are the posts from October 28 – November 5, 2018.

 

October 28, 2018

Because you are made in the image of God, it is useful to look at the different aspects of God in order to better understand how you work. God is described in scripture as having a soul, a heart, a mind, a spirit and (in the case of the incarnated Christ) a body. (Leviticus 26:11 & Jeremiah 32:41; 1 Samuel 13: 14 & Acts 13:22; 1 Cor 2:16; Genesis 1:2).

So, because you are human, you also have these parts. Is that not the coolest thing ever? You are God’s mini me! Except for NOT being omniscient; omnipresent and omnipotent. lol Here are the scriptures: Matthew 22:37; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Romans 10:10.

October 29, 2018

If humans are patterned after the image of God and if God has a soul and a spirit; a heart and a mind, then we have those components as well.

Many people have been taught that the soul and the spirit are the same, but they are not. Scripture is very clear that the soul and the spirit are distinct aspects of the human being. There are many scriptures supporting this. Here is one:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23

October 30, 2018

In my last post I showed that the soul and the spirit are not the same. So now that we know that, let’s look at what the human spirit is.

“And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” Revelation 4:5

“And I saw between the throne … a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God …” Revelation 5:6

These scriptures (as well as Revelation 3:1) state that the Holy Spirit is a seven-fold spirit.

Is the human spirit a seven-fold spirit? It must be if it’s made in the image of God.

November 1, 2018

Your human spirit is amazing. It remembers everything that has happened to you (1 Corinthians 2:11) and it is capable of working with the Lord to search out all the parts of your innermost being (Proverbs 20:27).

This makes your spirit an excellent resource when seeking to resolve emotional issues buried in the past.

Unlike the soul, your spirit does not need to mature. It is created fully mature and complete at the time of conception. But your spirit does need to grow in wisdom.

November 2, 2018

The human spirit is drawn from the infinite Spirit of God. Because of this, your spirit comprehends existing eternally.

The human soul does not automatically grasp the concept of eternity. This is because your soul is truly a new thing.

The soul comes into existence at the moment when God joins matter (earth) with His essence (spirit). This happens in the womb at the time of conception. Or in the case of Adam, when the Lord blew breath into him and Adam became a living “nephesh” or soul (Genesis 2:7).

What didn’t exist before – what could NOT exist before – was produced when spirit and matter were joined by God. This is the human soul.

November 3, 2018

Let’s try again on the soul since my last post was met with bafflement lol. The soul is one aspect of the image of God. You are the image of God. Unlike the human spirit which comes directly from the Spirit of God, the soul is a new thing.

The soul comes into existence at the time of conception when God joins together spirit and matter. Because your soul did not exist in any way before this joining, your soul is a brand new, one-of-a-kind, creation!

Your soul faces many challenges. First of all, it comes into existence within the fallen world. This means the first emotion your soul feels is fear. Without intentional and direct intervention, your soul will rule your life from a position of fear.

The fear of being wrong, of being embarrassed, of making a mistake, of being rejected and abandoned imprisons most human souls. The soul’s many overwhelming fears affect its willingness to listen to your human spirit.

November 5, 2018

The human spirit is drawn directly from God’s Spirit (Genesis 2:7). This means that your spirit understands eternal concepts and principles, BUT it is placed within the womb with NO knowledge of sin. Thus, your spirit must grow in wisdom in order to successfully navigate you through the fallen world.

A soul is an entirely new thing that comes into existence within the womb. This means the soul has no automatic understanding of the eternal. It only knows the pain and confusion of sin because the womb is a fallen place. The soul responds to this dark and fallen environment with fear.

Wise parents can disrupt the fear. But this happens only rarely, because all parents are fallen and most are ruled by their own fearful souls.

It’s not too late for you to disrupt the fear ruling your own soul though. Think of your soul as a traumatized child who desperately tries to make itself safe by controlling everything and everyone, who either hides or strikes out because of fear.

Your human soul needs compassionate nurture, training and discipline in order to successfully mature. A well-loved and gently disciplined soul will rest on the spirit as a weaned child rests upon its mother.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. Psalm 131:2

The Pool Ministries Is On Facebook

If you would like to follow me on Facebook, you can! I have begun sharing short, and pithy, teachings :] as well as my blog posts there. It’s a good place to have a conversation about what I post. Here is an example of what you can expect. If humans are patterned after the image of God and if God has a soul and a spirit; a heart and a mind, then we have those components as well. Many people have been taught that the soul and the spirit are the same, but they are not. Scripture is very clear that the soul and the spirit are distinct aspects of the human being. There are many scriptures supporting this. Here is one: Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Click the link here and you will be translated, I mean transported, to The Pool Ministries’ Facebook page. Smiles and blessings to you all, Susan thepool@thepoolministries.org 205.556.4555 (Leave a message when you call. So many spam calls these days, we don’t answer unless we recognize the number. So leave a message). Please share if you found this helpful.

Transition: Arrived!

This is Part 3 of the series on transition.

It’s been awhile since I have written because I have been happily nesting in our new home. And, yes, there is a crazy story about finally getting here because we are NOT in the sadly neglected house mentioned in the previous article about transition. So many lessons learned during this amazing (and amazingly stressful) transition that I can’t think of a single title that begins to cover them all. It has been a year since my mother passed away and my transition into a life without a living parent began. During this year, I managed to survive settling her estate and moving into a much larger house to accommodate my adult son. Jay is intellectually challenged and really needs a space to call his own. Sam and I thought we had found a house that would suit all of us. It was a gorgeous old girl, but it needed lots and lots of expensive work. Finding a house that would work for us all, that we could afford, wasn’t easy. So we felt really blessed when our bid was accepted. But then things started going crazy. The closing date kept being moved forward because, unbeknownst to us, the sellers were in bankruptcy. I grew more and more anxious as time rolled on until finally, after another night of tossing and turning, I completely disrupted our plans by calling our agent and asking if we could look at some other houses. It was the call she had been waiting for apparently, because she immediately canceled our pending contract (we got our earnest money back) and set up appointments to view other properties. This all happened without Sam’s knowledge. He had gone birding (shorthand for bird watching) with some of his buddies, leaving me alone long enough to hear from God without interruption. (I live in a busy, noisy house. Even my two cats are noisy … and opinionated). As soon as I made the call to our agent, the peace of God came crashing back and resumed its rightful place. I had missed that peace. So what was Sam’s reaction to my high-handedness, you ask? He was profoundly relieved one of us had made the call. Because, you see, he thought I had my heart set on that house AND I thought he had his heart set on that house. We wanted to please each other so much that we ignored our anxieties, forgetting that we are supposed to seek the peace of God … not satisfy the whims of our spouse. Lesson Learned! Seek the peace of God, stupid! I mean really! How could we have forgotten that? It is so very basic. And if you are tempted to correct my confession, please don’t. Just don’t. Nothing is more stupid that a human doing their own thing. Let’s be honest about it. That is why we need the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Lesson Learned! God will yank you back from the ledge if you will show just a little bit of gumption. The day before I cancelled our contract on the grand old lady, I was overcome with the oddest sensation. I felt like a bride conflicted about her upcoming wedding. I really didn’t want to marry my fiancé, but didn’t feel like I could back out because of all the time and money invested in the ceremony. Plus, I couldn’t disappoint everyone or bear the embarrassment! I felt trapped! God had nailed how I felt about marrying that old house. But I still had to make the call. I had to risk missing out on a wonderful house. I had to risk disappointing and upsetting Sam, Jay, the sellers and our real estate agent. I had to risk following God. Lesson Learned! Following God is worth the risk. Two days later we found our house! It’s not perfect, because nothing is this side of heaven, but it is near perfect for our needs. The moment we walked through the door, all three of us felt the presence of God and his assurance that this was it! We moved in about three months ago and I have been busily nesting ever since. So fun! But what if I hadn’t followed God? We would be spending our little bit of money putting on a roof instead of buying an awesome sofa. We would be having a HVAC unit installed instead of kitchen counters. God would be patiently walking us through the challenges of fixing up a sadly neglected house on a budget. In other words, we would be learning our lessons the hard way. And one day, down the road, we would face another risky decision that required us to choose between following God or following what had been set in motion. Let me pray for you (then I’m going to paint my new – found it on the roadside – coffee table). I pray that God will give you the gumption to follow Him, no matter the risk. And I pray that He will give you ears to hear clearly when He calls you to those kinds of decisions. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. And remember! Seek his peace! Hugs and blessings to you all, Susan thepool@thepoolministries.org 205.556.4555 (Leave a message when you call. So many spam calls these days, we don’t answer unless we recognize the number. So leave a message). And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 Please share this if you found it helpful.

Transition: Are We There Yet?

I will cause showers to come down in their season; they will be showers of blessing. Exekiel 34:26 The wife of one of my long-ago pastors told a story about her rude and cranky neighbor. After a run-in with this neighbor, she reported being shocked at what had poured out of her mouth, finishing up her story with these wise words: You don’t know what is in your bucket until someone kicks it over. Transition is good at bucket kicking. That in-between stage of “one foot in what will be and the other stuck in what was” is a stressful place. Uncertainty, impatience and anxiety spills out of our inside bucket, sometimes in a flood; sometimes in a trickle, but out it comes during times of big change. My mother passed away in September 2017. Being without a parent has been a difficult emotional transition for me. There is no way to describe it except to say it is a very odd and disconnected feeling. Settling my mother’s estate has been a long and challenging process, requiring me to meet and interact with relatives, lawyers, stockbrokers, real estate agents, estate sales managers, auction house movers and so on. Then, when her house sold, the closing date kept shifting around. I felt like I was chasing a broken egg across the kitchen floor. All my prayer appointments became maybes. (Thank you to all those I pray with for their patient understanding). My settled, predictable life became very unsettled. When my mother’s house finally closed, I grieved it, unexpectedly. I had no idea what that house meant to me until I walked through it one last time. This was the house where I had visited my mother for 30 years. The house she loved. The house she died in. So what did Sam and I do in the midst of this life transition? We bought a house! A big beautiful, sadly neglected house that we could in no way afford unless it had been sadly neglected. And guess what? That closing date is shifting around! AND the sellers are in bankruptcy, which was NOT disclosed at the time we made our offer. So, we don’t know for sure when we will be moving or even if we will be moving. And there is an enormous amount of expensive work to do on our new house. What were we thinking?!? So here I am suspended in transition, painting the windows of our current house, getting it ready to go on market. And like a tired cranky child riding in the backseat on a too-long road trip, I’m asking the Lord: Are we there yet? Here is how I’m handling TOO MUCH transition. Heads up: it’s not pretty. Panda Fun got my take-out order wrong. I cried. Sam stepped in front of me to use the sink while I was cooking, I bit his head off. (Not as tasty as Panda Fun). I’m spending too much time on Facebook. I’m restless, unfocused and sleeping poorly. I’m worrying about the new house. Did we follow the Lord? Have we made a mistake? What were we thinking?!? I even caught myself watching a mental movie of the previous day’s social interactions while the devil provided a nasty commentary. I haven’t succumbed to that kind of self-hating nonsense in years. What’s going on besides transition? The Devil. The enemy requires negative emotional energy (the dark stuff) in order to have any kind of power. He sees transition as an opportunity to amplify any fear of the new and unknown. Fear is negative emotional energy. Unresolved Historical Pain. Past issues stored in your bucket (the heart) surface during times of anxiety. That unresolved emotional pain mixes with, flavors and amplifies any present-day uncertainty. The Fall. We live in a fallen world. This means that we are surrounded by fallen people acting in fallen ways. They are afraid and uncertain, too. We feel their distress and add it to ours. Ugh. Help! Is there help with transition? In the midst of my distress, the Lord posed a question. He said: “If you were in heaven and I gave you a challenge, like the one you are facing with your new sadly neglected house, would you be afraid?” I answered, “No. I would not be afraid because I would have all the resources of heaven to call upon to help me.” The Lord responded: “You have all the resources of heaven now. It just doesn’t feel like it because you are in the Fall.” I remind myself of this when I’m scared. It has helped to read the books of Proverbs and Psalms. Worship is helpful. If you have unresolved historical pain, work on it. If not, but the enemy is trying to take you back to resolved pain (what was happening to me), recognize what is going on and tell him to get lost. Sending my angels to bring in the help I need to accomplish the task at hand. Reciting the Lord’s attributes in my mind (so that I don’t give in to worry). He is kind; He is willing to help me; He is eager to guide and advise me; He wants to share His wisdom with me and so on. Remembering to be kind to myself, being my own best friend, the friend I always wished for has been helpful. Let us pray together as we grow together, that our buckets will contain less and less of the nasty stuff and more and more of the good stuff. Because, while we are in this fallen world, our buckets will get kicked. This time of big transition has been emotionally upsetting AND beautifully humbling. Any notion that I was a spiritual big shot full of faith and confidence is long gone. I still need a savior. And I have learned that when the challenge is big enough, what is in my bucket is going to spill out. I bless your journey wherever you may be. Hugs, Susan thepool@thepoolministries.org 205.556.4555 (Leave a message when you call). Please share this teaching if you found it helpful.

Prayers We All Pray (That Never Get Answered)

 

in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6 So, your neighbor has once again delayed mowing his grass until the dandelions have gone to seed. Your teen just used up all the hot water taking another hour-long shower. Your spouse doesn’t appreciate you. And the dog ate your new couch. Sunday’s sermon was about loving your neighbor, but you’re just not feeling it. What to do? You try praying to see the situation from God’s perspective. “Lord, let me see with Your eyes.” The next thing you know, you’re yelling at your family and looking into rehoming the dog. So much for God’s perspective. How about the sermon instructing you to have God’s heart for the lost? You pray: “Lord, give me Your heart for people.” That works until someone shoves their overloaded grocery cart in front of you in the express lane. Or a store clerk is rude. Or someone jumps you about your political views. Next thing you know you are thinking everyone needs to go to hell! So much for God’s heart. Why doesn’t God answer when we ask for His eyes and His heart? He doesn’t answer because you and I are not capable of seeing or loving the way God does. If we saw everything the way God sees it, our heads would explode. If we loved people the way God loves, our hearts would stop. We simply do not have His capacity. So these kinds of prayers go unanswered, leaving us frustrated with ourselves and, if we are honest, with God. So what do we do when we desperately need His help navigating challenging situations and loving people? A small adjustment to your prayers will make a huge difference. Instead of praying for God’s perspective, pray like this: Lord, help me see that person or situation the way You want me to see it. Instead of praying for God’s heart, pray like this: Lord, help me love others the way You want me to love them. You and I cannot see or love the same way God does because we are finite and lack His capacity. But we can ask Him to adjust our perception and our love for others appropriately, according to our capacity and according to His will. These prayers do get answered. Hugs and prayers for you, Susan thepool@thepoolministries.org 205.556.4555 Please share this teaching.