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March 2010

What a blessing it is to share another monthly view, affirming God's love for you. An affirmed person knows the love of Jesus and expresses God's abounding love even in an emotional way with something as simple as a hug or a kiss. The apostle Paul commanded the church at Rome, Corinth, and Thessalonica to "Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss."1

The Unaffirmed Person

An unaffirmed person has never felt genuine care and concern from a mature adult. Can you find yourself in this partial list of characteristics of an unaffirmed person?

  • Attempts to affirm one's self through material goods, sexual exploits, power or fame.
  • Plagued with obsessive thoughts, distorted feelings, and compulsive actions.
  • Suffers from worry, anxiety, tension, fears, restlessness, and a sense of lack.
  • Doubts one's self-worth and identity, plus fearing the adult world.
  • A nagging fear of failure to achieve in a demanding intellectual world.
  • Feelings of inferiority, inadequacy, insecurity, loneliness, and depression.
  • Inability to establish normal rapport with one's peers and form lasting friendships.
  • Medicates emotional pain with alcohol, drugs, and sexual immaturity.

The goal of aboundinglove.org is to affect the way you see God. Our prayer is that you will see God's love in Christ Jesus as the ultimate affirming love that heals human wounds and patiently awaits your graced response.

A New Heart & Spirit

Our desire is to help you understand that God loves you, knowing the Holy Spirit can reveal His love to you. Years before Jesus fulfilled the promise, God said, "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new, obedient heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so you will obey my laws and do whatever I command."2

In June 1975, God began a healing process of the unaffirmed areas of my heart through the blood of His Son and by placing His Spirit in me. The blood of Jesus cleansed me from sin so that His Spirit could come within my heart to empower me towards a healthy life as His temple.3 He gave me a new desire to renew my thoughts, choices, reasonings, and emotions, that have caused so much pain. These will take a lifetime to be brought into harmony with God's word.

Jesus' Affirming Love

This may help you as it has me. If you go to the Gospel of John in a red letter edition, the affirming love of Jesus is in red. These are the words of Truth that will set you free from the unaffirmed life.4 Here are some of Jesus' words:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.5

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst."6

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."7

"I am the light of the world, He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."8

"I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."9

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"10

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."11

"Father, You have loved them [us] as You have loved Me. I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."12

Your Graced Response

All my life, I wanted to be loved for who I was, but was never accepted as a unique individual. I was raised by parents who loved their children, but I grew up feeling that the love of others was earned or based upon conditions. I never felt unconditional love, the God kind of love that awaits my graced response. For God's unconditional love to be effective, it must be spread from one individual to another through the power of the Holy Spirit in an emotional-felt way.

Over the years, I have experienced the love of God through friends and family, but rarely do I feel the love of another in a truly special way. For those who have never been affirmed themselves, it seems so wrong to say "I love you" with a hug. We fear it may be taken the wrong way. Don't get me wrong, it is necessary to use wisdom while abounding in God's love, but wouldn't it be wonderful to literally feel the love of God throughout your entire being?

Won't you respond to God's love today? "We love each other as a result of God loving us first. If someone says, 'I love God,' but hates another Christian, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, who we have not seen. And God Himself has commanded that we must love not only Him but our Christian brothers and sisters, too."13

A Prayer For You ...

Heavenly Father, it's hard for me to believe that You would love me, but I want to believe You. Holy Spirit, I need Your help to know God's love and for the willingness to receive Your love through abounding love ministries. My life is a mess, but I believe that Your love in Christ Jesus is the ultimate affirming love that heals human wounds and patiently awaits my graced response. I come to You now in faith, believing that You raised Jesus from the dead for my salvation, which is available to me. I invite Jesus into my heart, so that I may be cleansed from sin, to receive a new spirit and a new heart with new and right desires. Thank You, Father, for setting me free to experience Your healing and affirming love. Amen.

Scripture References:

1 Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26
2 Eze. 36:25-27
3 1 Cor. 3:16, 17
4 John 8:32
5 John 3:16
6 John 6:35
7 John 7:37, 38
8 John 8:12
9 John 10:9
10 John 11:25, 26
11 John 15:7
12 John 17:23c, 24
13 1 John 4:19-21

Acknowledgement: A special thanks to Sherry for transcribing this months view!