Lara Love's Blog, page 69

A Reminder to Rejoice!

Wake-up calls can come in the form of an alarm clock or a hotel front desk clerk calling your hotel room early in the morning upon request to tell you it is time to WAKE UP! But God can give us spiritual wake-up calls in all sorts of ways – first and foremost right in the pages of the Bible. God gave me a wake-up call in the form of a single verse to rouse me out of my spiritual slumber concerning a certain very important matter. Rejoicing.

The Lord makes clear throughout the whole Bible that be...

When the Emotional Pain is Unbearable

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT EDITED. IT JUST POURED OUT OF ME. I FEEL STRONGLY COMPELLED TO PUBLISH IT IMMEDIATELY AS THOUGH SOMEONE DESPERATELY NEEDING COMFORT RIGHT NOW MIGHT BE BLESSED BY GOD THROUGH IT. PLEASE GIVE NO REGARD TO ANY EDITING ISSUES. PLEASE OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE LOVE OF GOD AS I PRAY HE WILL SPEAK THROUGH THIS TO YOUR HEART. IN HIS LOVE, LARA.

“The pain is unbearable, Lord,” I essentially prayed to God as I stood at the kitchen counter preparing dinner for my beloved special needs ...

Don’t Stop Praising God WHEN –

It seems so easy and joyous and feels good and seems totally right and justified and appropriate and makes sense to praise God when all in our lives is well and good and comfortable and easy and according to our desires and likes and loves and plans and agendas and feels so good and makes us happy. And well we absolutely should praise the Lord in these times! But we should NOT stop praising God when –

When what? When life is hard, we feel yucky, challenges abound, trials and tribulations come, n...

A Shocking Big Prayer

You may  not consider this a shocking prayer. But if you knew me in my earlier years of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ when I was first under outright false teaching then under sugar-coated, watered-down teaching and was pretty much clueless about being a totally devoted Jesus follower, you would consider this a shocking prayer as I do. See, it would never have crossed my then totally self-centered mind back then to pray like this.

But this prayer goes with the territory now of being totally...

Please Make the Sacrifice

When the Holy Spirit told me to “make the sacrifice” regarding something very significant in my life and ministry, I knew this topic is critical not just for me but for everyone desiring to live life to the fullest as a totally devoted follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just because we say we believe in and love the Lord does not mean we are totally devoted to Him. Total devotion requires forsaking all for Him He leads us to sacrifice in following His will for our lives.

I am afraid many as I di...

It Is Okay to Cry

“It is okay to cry,” the Holy Spirit spoke quietly, gently, tenderly to my heart. “I understand your sorrow.”

I am not big on crying like I was for years. Not because I don’t have plenty of reasons to cry along this life’s journey. I definitely do. But I just tend not to. I think in part because somewhere along the way probably like others who love Jesus I must have figured now that I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ I should be “strong” and “hold myself together” and “be there for others” and “...

When God Tells You to Give This Away

I had just finished dropping some stuff off at a local charity thrift shop when this message came strong on my heart. I had given away some clothing, a blanket, and a comforter someone had given me, a big bunch of clothes someone was giving away I was told I could look through to see if I wanted any for myself, and some special flooring I had received my money back for but had been told I could keep or give away. Bottom line, none of any of this was important to me. I wanted none of it for mysel...

A Big Danger in Serving God

The Lord makes abundantly clear in the Bible we are to love and serve Him with all our hearts, but there is a grave danger in serving God that I know well from personal experience and believe countless others have already fallen prey to or may be tempted to fall into in the future. So please consider this a very strong warning.

There can come a time in our journey following the Lord in which we end up focusing very much on serving the Lord but forget the most important of all is loving God.

We c...

Your Heart’s Cry

“I want to please you so badly,” I said silently and passionately to God.

What a long, long way God has brought me. He has made this change in me. I did not make it myself. He has transformed and is transforming me by His Holy Spirit. He is doing this through teaching me the Word and through an amazingly intimate personal relationship with Himself and much, much time spent alone with Him over the years. He has turned me from living purely and pitifully for self to yearning to be pure and pleasin...

But God I Don’t Want to

Can you relate to this? God tells you stuff He wants you to do first and foremost in the Bible and also at times when He speaks to your heart personally. But sometimes you just don’t want to do what you know good and well God has commanded you to do. So now what?

Can you relate to this? You don’t want to get uncomfortable. You don’t want to take a risk. You don’t want to get sweaty and dirty and have to make a sacrifice. You don’t want to get out of your comfort zone. Your calendar is already bo...