If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for. Between these two answers you can determine the identity of any person.
Many of us were taught lies like, “pain is weakness leaving the body,” or “what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.” The truth is that[emotional] pain is a need begging to be met. The longer a person lives in pain, the more likely it is that his or her heart will shut down. See, most of us don’t even know who we are, because we haven’t stopped long enough to say hello to ourselves or ask ourselves, “How can I help you?”
When you sense the first hint of unrest, ask yourself why you may be losing your peace. Ask yourself if you have stopped fully trusting in the Lord in some way or in some specific circumstance. When you trust Him completely, you will enjoy His peace.
When you’re filled with an awareness of God’s love toward you, it will change the way you live life. God is love. It’s in His nature to love constantly and unconditionally. He wants to show you His love, not just as knowledge, but in a way that you can experience. He wants to speak kind and loving words into your heart that change the way you think about yourself. When you experience that love, your motivation for how you live and work changes. In 1 Corinthians 13 we read that we can do all sorts of extraordinary, impactful, world-changing things, but only from a place of love.
We are too much haunted by ourselves, projecting the central shadow of self on everything around us. And then comes the Gospel to rescue us from this selfishness. Redemption is this, to forget self in God.