Sometimes I hit the jackpot with a new thought and it just gets me. I know that whenever I think that new thought I feel a certain way. I didn’t used to know this. So now when I find a thought that I love thinking all of the time, on purpose, I want you to know about it too.
So the gift of God’s love is what I am so excited about right now. I know a lot of you don’t feel love regularly. You may feel like that is what marriage or a relationship is for. But, God absolutely loves you and He wants you to live in His love. I didn’t practically know how to do that.
So let me lay out the practical application for you today.
I had been doing some work on finding the specific thought that gets me to feeling love. I used to think my husband would bring me a gift and that made me feel love. Or, if I walked into the house and it was completely cleaned that made me feel love. But in those situations I only felt love depending on how he showed up and acted. Love was temporary based on what he did. But we know that no one can make you feel anything, it is your thoughts that make you feel an emotion. So I started to slow it all down and realized the thought is, “He did that for me….” That thought right there makes me feel love in my body. So, I walk in the house, it is clean and I think, “He did that for me…” and I feel love run through my body. I love knowing this. Because now I use it all the time. He gets the groceries, and I think he did that for me. He turns off the lights, he did that for me. Now see, I can choose to feel love anytime I choose to think that thought right there.
So you might be thinking, “Angie, why are you talking to me about how you feel love from your husband…. I don’t have one of those.” But, it was in figuring out that thought with him, that has got me knowing how I feel love from God, “He did that for me…”
That sunset, He did that for me.
The cross, He did that for me.
That friend that has finally come into my life, He did that for me.
That extra $20 bill I found in my pocket, He did that for me.
That client that showed up out of the blue, He did that for me.
And whenever I think those things I feel love. See, He is constantly doing all of these things for me, but if I don’t stop and think on them, I miss the opportunity to receive God’s love. Which this is great news because some of you share that you feel distant from God’s love. You don’t feel God’s love, or you lack feeling love in general. So, in order to get the gift of God’s love you have to slow down and figure out what the thought is that generates the feeling of love for you. It may be very similar to mine. Once you know that thought think it on purpose, think it over and over. Find all the external reasons to add your love phrase to and feel God’s love deeply. And here is the icing on the cake. When you used to add this thought to a circumstance, “He did that to me.” you can now flip that and think, “He did that for me.”
Singleness, He did that for me.
Divorce, He did that for me.
Cancer, He did that for me.
That tough roommate, He did that for me.
If the above doesn’t feel right, just know you are not ready for that thought yet, and it is okay to not be there.
God loves you so stinkin’ much. We can’t even fathom the links He goes to, to show us that He loves us. But we can purposely think in a way to feel His love. Even when the circumstances don’t “feel” good we can choose to think about them in a way that feels like love. Satan would love for us to live in the pain and to think God doesn’t love us in all circumstances. But God’s love is certain, secure, unfailing, never-ending, constant.
Write down at the top of your paper the phrase What God has done for me and then fill the paper with as many thoughts as you can.
Take this gift this week in the midst of all the LOVE of Valentine’s Day and feel a different kind of true love on purpose.
Here’s to a love-filled week my friends,
Angie
