God's good work

I feel like God has been working in me lately, bringing me to a new place in my relationship with Him. It hasn't been easy.  I've questioned whether I still even had a relationship with him.  I felt distant.  I felt alone.  I felt loved, I felt overwhelmingly (and undeservedly) blessed.  This roller coaster of emotions often left me exhausted and perplexed.  What was my Lord doing?  Where was He?  

Now, as I come to some realizations, I find that He of course was with me all along.  (Something my head always knew even if my heart was questioning it.)

I once again have entered a new season in my life.....at some point a while ago I thought life seasons were always long.  Years, many years.  I'm realizing now they can be quite fleeting.  Chapters in our book of life with varying lengths.  God is bringing me to a new place of understanding both His love and how to share that love with others.  He is showing me my own tendency to judge others, to judge myself.  My tendency to place my faith in something other than Him.  To search for my hope and future some place else.  

Loving unconditionally as my Jesus loves is hard.  Filling myself with the Spirit is the only solution.  It is the source for that unconditional love.  Without the Spirit's love flowing into me, I will not have the capacity to love others.  

A few years back I concentrated greatly on living in the spiritual plane.  On being on this Earth but not of this Earth.  I was reminded in my Bible study this morning of the importance of setting my mind on the things of the Spirit and not the flesh.  Even when I am surrounded by things of the flesh, I have the ability, the choice, and as a Christ-follower, the responsibility to set my mind on things of the Spirit.  It is then that I find peace.  It is then that my hope is restored.  It is then that I am reminded of the undeniable love of my Father.  That He holds my whole world, my whole future, my happiness, my health in His hands.  

Heavenly Father, please help me to discipline my mind and my heart to focus on things of you and not on things of this world.  Thank you for your never ending love, grace, and mercy.  Amen. 

"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." Romans 8:5-6