I loved this chapter…starting out with the description of Kelly’s front porch and the hodgepodge of funky furniture. Won’t you come join us on the sofa and share your favorite part?

The Fitting Room – Chapter 4 from Bloom (in)courage on Vimeo.

I can’t help but smile that I have read this through a second time and I feel like I am already seeing different things than I had the first time around. This sentence jumped out at me, “Just the reminder that I am beloved of God gave me the nurture and confidence to put the trifling would in its proper place and get on with my day…(p.56).

What would our lives look like if we walked in the knowledge that God’s love is unchanging, and that I am His beloved…always.

Maybe that comment your coworker made wouldn’t have stung as much, and maybe you wouldn’t be so disheartened by the disappointment of a friend. Agape is a shift in perspective; a game changer that should help us feel settled deep down in our bones, believing in the One to whom we belong. And as Kelly says, once we know this love we also feel inspired to wear His garments with joy instead of a sense of obligation.

Is this how you come to the Father? Or do you come, as Kelly says on page 60, “waiting to be leveled.” I know many times in my life I have been tempted to believe that His love for me was conditional, and knowing the state of my heart in those seasons, I fully expecting a punishment. Instead, He met me with His arms wide open, with nothing but the kind of love a Savior could lavish His daughter with.

It is so important that we heed Kelly’s advice about praying to see God’s love and understand it more fully (Mt 7:7-8). I agree with her when she says He delights in answering these. I also love that she says to “look for the sightings of His love in Scripture, and highlight the words that speak most powerfully to you.” (p.62)

What a fantastic idea! To pray that God’s love would be shown to you in a tangible, glorious way, and that you would become a “love-searcher” as you travel from page to page in Scripture. That is our prayer for you, ladies! That you will spend time there, and that you will pray in eager expectation of what our Lord will reveal to you about His love.

We sang this today out at the very last Deeper Still event, and it makes me teary every time…It’s a David Crowder song and the chorus, so simple, wrecks me every time:

“He loves me, oh how he loves me…”

I don’t know what it is, but the rhythm of the song and the rhythm of my heart collide and I allow myself to believe it in a new, precious way. That is our prayer for you this week..that you will sense His love in a tangible, beautiful, sacred way.

We’ll see y’all soon…keep in touch here so we know how to be praying for you all.

With love,

Angie, Jess and the (in)courage ladies

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