Morning Thoughts

I love when I awaken not by my alarm clock but by half-asleep thoughts! This morning I was aroused with the phrase, "Compelled by love." I stirred and reached for my Itouch and wrote this down before falling back to sleep- You are compelled by what's inside you. Boat with a propeller. That was that and I snuggled back into the comfort of my covers and caught another hour of sleep with my alarm snooze going off every ten minutes.

The best thing about those morning thoughts is that it gives me something to ponder and dissect throughout the day.

Now, I didn’t really remember a verse about being compelled but of course Google knew...
1 Corinthians 5:14 says, "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died." In other translations, compels is translated as controls, constrains, even overpowers. Webster’s dictionary translates compel to mean: to force, drive, or constrain.

I believe with all those word usages, we imagine God forcing us to do things. That is how most of the church lives anyway. I lived that way, thinking that God wants me to do this and He will love me if I do it. The lie: I am supposed to love God. And He will love me and bless my life if I am enough and if I do enough. The truth: God loves me. And when I understand His love for me that is what drives me...im not driven to be loved because I am already loved. Being loved, I love.

As I mentioned, I woke up with this thought-You are compelled by what is inside of you.

Think of the propeller of a boat. The definition of a propeller is this: A machine for propelling an aircraft or boat, consisting of a power-driven shaft with radiating blades that are placed so as to thrust air or water in a desired direction when spinning. WOW!

Now let’s make this propeller apply to our spiritual lives as our heart being compelled. When we surrender to Christ and give our lives to Him, it is giving him the ownership of the boat. He has say of what direction it goes, how fast it goes, and how slow it goes. But the propeller has an important role, and must work properly. The propeller represents the compelling of our hearts. And in order for it to not burn out and to work alongside of Jesus' guidance, it has to trust the lead of its Master. But even with the owner turning one way, the hidden propeller has the power to thrust into a completely different direction.

So although you have given ownership over, what is inside of you is what drives you. The hidden, unseen things in our hearts have power to detour our true destination. And many times they operate against instead of alongside of God's leading.

The church has done the things God has asked desiring to be loved instead of being compelled by His love. Only His love thrusts us into our calling (the ultimate direction of our lives) - to love Him in return and to love others as we love ourselves.

It is time to clean the propellers in the church; the motives, the wounds, the scars of our hearts. And it only comes by knowing God's love and character and being renewed day to day by His truth.

Psalm 45

"Now listen, daughter, don't miss a word:
      forget your country, put your home behind you.
   Be here—the king is wild for you.
      Since he's your lord, adore him.

I have never read this before-  at least not in a way that spoke to me like it did today.

My parphrase: "Jessica, deal with your place of origin. Be honest with the way that you grew up and the lies that you came to believe. But then put it behind you. Recognize that the King is crazy in love with you and you are lovely and enough for Him. Quit using excuses and going back to those lies, know the truth and adore this King that has given all to lavish His unfailing love on you."

The New Living Translation puts it this way.

  "Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say.
      Forget your people and your family far away.
 For your royal husband delights in your beauty;
      honor him, for he is your lord."

It excites a girls heart to know that she is delighted in and that she is royalty. I have sought to be found delightful in many ways but to know that God delights in my beauty, wow, i have no need to capture anyone else's gaze. Teach me Lord, to know Your thoughts towards me. Search me and know me. I live to know You and be known by You.


Selah. As women, bask in the Lord's overwhelming goodness and desire for you. No striving necessary! It is time to stop worrying about doing enough or being enough. Just be. Be loved. Be known. Be His delight.

Wholehearted Surrender

Its difficult to come to a place of wholehearted surrender. For many of us, we live un-whole. And we seek to surrender, but its not wholehearted. We give part of ourselves to God, but then we take it right back. We give Him our heart, but if things are not going as planned or the unknown overwhelms us, we take our hearts back and do what we think is best for ourselves. I have found myself in this situation many times. And most Christians (Followers of Jesus Christ), spend their whole (yet un-whole) life with the desire to surrender but unable to come to a place of abandon. Its not because their is a lack of desire or passion. I have come to realize it is because of our unwholeness.

Surrender isnt a forced thing when our hearts are whole. It flows out of us from the inside out- with complete trust and confidence and hope in Christ alone.