Currently I am reading the book And I Will Be Found by You by Francis Frangipane. One particular chapter has just blown me away. I still have trouble wrapping my mind around some of the truth found in here! You can read the entire chapter here. Here are a few quotes that particularly stick out:

• “Love Me where you’re at.”

• “‘Lord, is that all You want of me?’ To this He responded, ‘This is all I will ever require of you.’”

• “…and I was released from the false expectation of ministry-driven service. God was not looking at what I did for Him, but who I became to Him in love. The issue in His heart was not whether I pastured, but whether I loved Him. To love the Lord in whatever situation I found myself—even as a television repairman—this I could do!”

This is the first and greatest command—to love the Lord our God with all our mind, heart, entire being, and our might. Just to love. By simply focusing on loving the Lord, that gets us out of the way—in a good way. That allows the room for God to prompt us, move us, guide us, lead us, transform us, on and on, without us being in the way of His work. All of this because we are so engrossed in His love and loving Him that all else simply falls into place! It becomes a result of our love. We become so enamored with focusing on our exceedingly huge God that we aren’t trying to fiddle around with our issues. Then we turn around and POOF! (Ok, I realize that not all issues in our lives are short-term. However, the piece of the puzzle I am hoping to bring light to is to transfer your needs to God and focus on Him. By being consumed with Him you will be doused with the grace and everything you need to move forward in life with strength and joy.) I will never forget my time at a CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) conference one year. Going into the conference I was struggling with various things. After a few days of giving so much attention to God, I returned back to normal life and was confounded! Those things that were tangling me were no longer there!

What I’m really trying to say here is that if we will just allow ourselves to become consumed with the diamond-like and infinitely multifaceted Being of our God, wherever on earth we may be, we can bring great joy to His heart.

I find Francis’ story so encouraging. Currently I am living life at home, working as a substitute teacher, continuing to hone my musical skills. Thoughts of ministry, service, and doing something bigger with my life have frequently passed through my mind. Francis’ story helps to bring peace to my current state-of-of affairs, and I hope it does for you too. For the three years Francis was working simply to provide for his family he had no titled ministry. He was not traveling all over the world. He was working a job, providing for his family. And yet in the midst of this utmost simplicity, Francis was drawing near to and loving the Lord right where he was. God still passionately loved him. He wasn’t sad or disappointed because Francis wasn’t out winning hundreds of thousands of souls. God loved Francis and showed Himself to him in the most ‘average’ and everyday situations. Such intense love can be found in this. A spark from this example has reignited my heart to love everyone I know the best I can.

By no means was any of this performance-based. My mind keeps on wanting to say, “But, wait!” No… I am learning to refuse the thoughts that I have to perform in order to keep God happy or be branded a better person, or more faithful, or whatever. We are called just to love. Only to love. Become to God in love. Let the scales fall away. Everything else will follow. Learn to dwell in God’s love.

Everything flows from Love itself! By providing for his family and loving the Lord in the midst of it, Francis was fulfilling his purpose at that time. Situations and circumstances may change, but our highest purpose and calling remains—to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, with all of your strength, and with all of your mind. This is a true purpose for us all.

From knowing first of all that we are loved and accepted for who we are, then we are empowered to go forth doing. The love of God frees us in our hearts, with purity of motives. Then we are equipped to love others with pure hearts, just as Jesus did as He walked this earth.

All else will fall into place.

Lord Jesus,
May we be like You as You walked this earth. Fill our minds and our vision with You, that we can simply allow You to work. Consume our hearts with Your love, that we may be totally and wholly freed of performance-based mindsets. May we be grounded in You, loving You absolutely anywhere we are, being set free from any limitations. Because of Your incredible love for us, we long to love you in return and bring glory to You in every thought, situation, and every action we take!
In Jesus’ awesomely wonderful name.
Amen.

Therefore return to your God! Hold fast to love and mercy, to righteousness and justice, and wait [expectantly] for your God continually!
Hosea 12:6, AMP

Let’s picture this turning from the Lord in our minds…

The Lord, bright and holy, His face shining as the sun at noonday, is before us. His loving, passionate, yearning gaze captures our hearts and attention. He desires us more than anything and wants to consume our hearts with His never-ending love. Truth Himself is the object of our gaze.

Jesus Christ, the hope of glory, may You save us all!

I believe that there is infinite freedom in facing the truth. The saying goes that the truth hurts. It is a time when we acknowledge and consent that this is the way things really are. We might not like to see it or admit it but we must agree.

Joy becomes more pervasive of our lives when the facts are laid bare. No cover-up, no hiding. They are in plain sight. We begin to accept things. Maybe change will result. The important thing is that we see things the way they really are.

“Our fallen thinking processes automatically justify our actions and rationalize our thoughts. Without the Holy Spirit, we are nearly defenseless against our own innate tendencies toward self-deception.

“Therefore, if we would be holy, we must first renounce falsehood. In the light of God’s grace, having been justified by faith and washed by the sacrificial blood of Jesus, we need not pretend to be righteous. We need only to become truthful.

“No condemnation awaits our honesty of heart—no punishment. We have only to repent and confess our sins to have them forgiven and cleansed; if we will love the truth we shall be delivered from sin and self-deception. Indeed, we need to know two things and two things only: the heart of God in Christ and our own hearts in Christ’s light.”
Francis Frangipane, Holiness, Truth and the Presence of God

In the same way God’s Truth (His Word) shines the light in our hearts as to expose the darkness that lies within us. It does us no good to deny, cover-up, or make excuses for those things. That prevents the Light from penetrating our beings and doing the work it was sent to do. What we must do is simply confess, ask for forgiveness, and then receive God’s healing touch.

Too often, I fear, we get caught up in should’s and shouldn’ts. ”Well, I shouldn’t be like this, so it cannot be true.” “I ought to be a better person. There must be something wrong with me.” If you’re a Christian, you most likely know what I’m talking about. We need to shine with God’s light to the world. Sometimes, though, we generate all of the doing part on our own for the sake of appearances. For instance, we are told that we are to be hospitable to others, so then we feel it’s something we should be, regardless as to whether or not that is really in our hearts. Instead of possessing a submitted life lived for the Lord, obligation and legalism settle in. The heart of the matter gets dissipated. (Please see my last blog for more on this matter!)

When we just admit to God our weaknesses, faults, sins, etc. and ask for forgiveness, the whole healing process goes so much faster!!! We consent that we are weak and need God’s help and grace to have a heart for what He wants us to be and do. It is in totally relying on the Lord that we are able to be who He so desires us to be.

Any relationship is radically strengthened when you are able to be lovingly truthful with others. Fears. Doubts. Worries. Mistakes. Brute honesty and forgiveness are the way to go.

As we open up our hearts to others, may we always know that our hearts are laid open to and totally bare to the Lord God every single moment of the day and of our life. Whether or not you believe in Him, this is the truth. All that He asks is that we come to Him and give it up. He will replace our darkness with the radically awesome light of His love. Tell Him you are weak. Tell Him you need help to be the way He wants you to be. Then lean on His grace. Look full into His Truth. His Spirit will take God’s Word through the very fibers of your being and make you to be more like Christ.

Face the truth. Face reality. Face God’s Truth. It is reality.