Lara Love's Blog, page 329

Feeling Inadequate – DAILY INSPIRATION from lara love

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor. 12:9

Ever feel inadequate? Dictionary.com uses these as synonyms of inadequate. Inapt, incompetent, defective, imperfect, incomplete. Sometimes I feel so inadequate it’s a wonder I get up in the morning to face the day. Other times, I feel inadequate to less of an extreme. But inadequacy has been my sidekick for as long as I remember. Constant, grueling rejection through the years, coupled with feeling like...

God’s Thrift Shop Messenger

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

“Did I get in front of you?” I asked a kind-looking, burly man who had quietly joined the growing line of customers at a local thrift shop just after the holidays. Busy. Busier than I had ever seen the store in fact. I don’t know why I figured post-holiday shopping would mean less of a line, less crowds, less waiting, a...

Donations for Dogs, Homeless, Prisoner, Etc.

As the year wraps up, just a gentle, loving reminder that DONATIONS are always a true blessing for which I can never thank God enough for those Hesends to give of their hearts, love, prayers, time, support, encouragement, and, yes, financial donations. Just over the past few weeks, costs for the special needs & senior rescued will have totaled between $1000 and $1500. Additionally, my free Gospel tracts & devotionals go out regularly via streets ministry, to the homeless, to others in dire...

A Word to Die and Live By

“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42

The life I live now is not the one I wanted. Far from it. So far from what I desired for my adult life that it’s hard to recognize this life belongs to me at all. But then, the truth is that it doesn’t. My life is not mine, which is why it is nothing like the life I dreamed of for myself. My life is Christ’s. It is His alone. He my beloved asked me to be willing to lose my life (Mt....

The Victorious Life –

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:4-5

When a dear woman reached out to me and shared her aspiration to live the “victorious life,” for the first time in all the years hearing those words I stopped to think about it. Having come out from under, delivered by God’s grace alone to be most precise, the rampant false...

Suffering Loss? Lost Your Compass?

Suffering Loss? Lost Your Compass?

“…I am the way, the truth, and the life…” John 14:6

One night I was sitting with the Bible atop my little bed with one of my numerous dogs squished up right by my side thinking about a friend of mine who had recently lost someone very close to him and only a short while after learned another loved one had what appeared to be a terminal disease. In reflecting on what he was going through, and how committed I was in my heart to be there for him in any way I co...

Such Beauty as My Dog Lay Dying

“Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;…” Isaiah 33:17

“This life is hard, God,” I told the Lord as I sat on my bed beside my sweet dying dog Speckles. “But you are so beautiful.”

Quickly, I moved to my computer. I knew I had something vital to write. About the hardships of life. And God’s beauty.

See, it wasn’t so very long ago amid a decades-long history of trial upon trial, upon what for me has been extraordinarily hard though in the grand scheme of the world’s woes has in reality been...

A Word from God

A Word from God

“By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:2 /// “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;” 1 Cor. 15:1 /// “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Cor. 16:13 /// “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.” 2Co_1:24 /// “Stand...

update & prayer request

Hi Everyone,

My sweet dog Speckles whom I’ve had for years after she was rescued from euthanization at a rural Ohio shelter where she was left by a couple when they broke up was diagnosed with cancer less than 2 weeks ago and is going very rapidly downhill. While I would love immeasurablyto have her for much more time, I am electing to not do aggressive treatment but instead to focus on quality of life and leave her in the Lord’s hands. She is about 14, and to put her through extreme measures...

Time to Take Action?

Time to Take Action?

‘The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” Lamentations 3:25

“I will tell you what to do when it’s time to tell you what I want you to do.” When the Lord speaks to our hearts, He is so direct, isn’t He? He makes Himself so plain. So clear. One morning I sought the Lord. I wanted to know what He wanted me to do. So He told me.

“You don’t need to know right now,” He essentially told me next.

But wait. God. God? I should know now, shouldn’t...