Lara Love's Blog, page 31

How Are You Serving God & Others?

We are all called to love and serve God and others. But in a world in which more than ever we are taught to love and serve ourselves we may find ourselves sadly lacking when it comes to loving service to the Lord Jesus Christ and others.

The Lord does not teach us in the Bible to be self-loving, self-centered, self-seeking, and self-serving. In fact, Jesus teaches us to deny self, to take up our crosses, and to follow Him.

Jesus is our perfect role model when it comes to dying to self and living...

Feeling Hopeless?

When we put our hope in people, places, things, in our circumstances and in outcomes, in anything or anyone of this world including ourselves, we will always risk ending up disappointed, let down, discouraged, depressed, down, downhearted, etc. Even if we are filled with hope and satisfaction and happiness etc. starting out, we still risk being disappointed down the road. Why? Nothing and nobody in this life is perfect, and the world and our circumstances are ever changing. But I have good news ...

The Danger of Pride!

Our pride is not only sin against God. And our pride not only hurts others. But our pride prevents us from receiving the fullness of God’s love and other countless blessings. And our pride keeps us from receiving the fullness of others’ love, help, care, support, and goodness etc.

Pride is dangerous and destructive and can even be deadly. Let us humble ourselves continually before God almighty and get rid of any and all pride anytime pride rears its ugly head in our thoughts, words, and actions....

Arise and Go!

Over and again in the Bible God tells people to “Arise and go” whether with those exact words or other ones. What about you? What do you do when God leads you to arise and go somewhere or to someone or to some people to do something? Do you arise and go and fulfill the will of God?

In the Bible the wise ones obeyed God. They arose and went and fulfilled God’s will. The unwise ones stayed where they were or arose and went the other direction and faced the consequences of their rebellion against G...

Feeling Weak?

Sometimes in our suffering, trials, and tribulations and unbelievably hard circumstances we may feel indescribably weak.

The world teaches us this is a bad thing not a good thing, but I am here to tell you why this is a good thing not a bad thing.

When we humble ourselves and bring our weakness to God, when we cry out to Him in prayer, when we pour our hearts out to Him, when we surrender ourselves to Him, when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and live in obedience to Him, we will have streng...

A Physical Therapy Lesson

People get physical therapy for all sorts of reasons. Some extraordinarily big reasons. Some very small. When I contemplated it as a profession long ago, I did a little volunteering. On the extreme I recall a man who was horrifically burned in a fire. And a young woman who was shot by her boyfriend and left paralyzed. On the smaller end I have gone to physical therapy to strengthen my back for prevention purposes due to a medical diagnosis. One thing I believe holds true for it all.

The best phy...

My Very Special Seashell

When I was a girl I loved the beach and enjoyed finding shells especially one special kind which I rarely came upon. I stopped collecting shells as I grew up but decades later in my middle age found myself collecting shells again. This is when I found a very special seashell of that variety – with a message to go with it.

In the shelter of the interior of the big curve of the shell was a smaller shell that had found refuge there and was at perfect peace and rest and comfort and contentment in th...

Not the Life I Wanted

Virtually nothing about my adult life has turned out as I desired. My life has been gut-wrenchingly hard for many reasons the details of which do not so much matter. But I have huge encouragement to offer to anyone who can relate to life turning out very differently than desired.

I have received an unfathomable blessing in the midst of it all that far outweighs all the hardness of and disappointment concerning how my life has turned out.

I have a stunningly beautiful, richly intimate, beautifull...

My FREE BIRD Testimony!

“Help me be what you want me to be and do what you want me to do,” I began to pray when suddenly I stopped.

Wow. My mind flashed back about 40 years to when as a child already deeply in love with writing I wrote one day, “Be a free bird in life. Be what you want to be. Do what you want to do. And be yourself.”

Back then I did not believe in God so I figured we all should live for self according to our own wishes, ways, and wants.

Now decades later as a totally devoted follower of the Lord Jesus ...

When Your Life Feels Too Hard

When your life feels too hard, run to the Lord Jesus Christ and take shelter! Cry out to God in prayer! Pour out your heart to the Lord! Cry out, cry out, cry out! Cry your tears to Him! Take comfort in Him! Open your Bible and dive deep into God’s love, wisdom, and comfort within its pages! Rest in the Lord! Spend time in the presence of God almighty! Commune with Him! Hear His Holy Spirit speak to your heart! Feel His glorious presence! Take refuge in His hold! Lean upon Him! Find love, peace,...