Love is the answer to every problem. Remember – God is love. He is definitely the answer to every problem.
He often uses His people to answer needs that others have.
We are His hands and feet – His agents – in this world.
If you are feeling down, useless, purposeless, then try reaching out to someone with your love. Better yet, pray and ask the Lord to fill you with His love, and then find out what they need. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you and lead you to give them what they really need.
One time when we were living in Kansas City after what felt like a major letdown (we had lost our house in Ohio and traveled to Arizona and nothing seemed to work for us), Gary was suffering from major depression. He couldn’t get a job in Kansas City. Not even blue collar jobs like grocery stores, warehouse jobs, etc. would open up for him. He felt useless, worthless and hopeless. I tried to build him up. I prayed for him, with him, over him and told him how the Lord was still with us, in spite of how things looked. But he would not be comforted.
I prayed for him in the Prayer Room at IHOP-KC. I could see in the spirit that the enemy was attacking him like a dragon. I could also see that I was using the Word and my faith to defend him from the enemy. Gary was in no condition or position to defend himself at that moment.
He was sitting at my side. At least he was reaching out to God, trying to get the help he needed.
But it was a very, very dark time for him.
The next day, we were in the Prayer Room again. A young man near me asked what they were talking about, and I told him that they were praying into a revival that was happening right then at Asbury College in Kentucky. We talked some more and really enjoyed talking to each other. We had to leave the Prayer Room, because they really don’t want people to have whole conversations in there. He told me he was from St. Louis and that his parents’ marriage was not very strong. He told me some of their issues and struggles, and that he was concerned about them. I brought Gary over and just gave him a short synopsis of what this young man had told me. Gary talked to him and then started praying for his parents. He prayed a powerful, heartfelt prayer for them. He really showed love and concern for them.
When he got done, the young man looked at him in shock and amazement. He said that he had never heard anyone pray like that before, and he didn’t think anyone had ever prayed for his parents like that before. He was beyond grateful.
And Gary started making a comeback. He came out from under that black cloud of depression. He felt so good about being able to help someone else and being able to speak love and life and hope into someone else’s life that he had a sense of purpose again.
He still struggled some after that, but I believe that was a major turning point for him.
I have seen that happen for him many times. When he is able to minister to others, it ministers to him, too, and takes his eyes off of his own situation.
When we show love to one another, even when we are not doing too great ourselves, there is a double blessing. We get blessed, and so do they!
Like “Oxygen that breathes satisfaction and happiness into our souls”. I like that comparison.
Don’t you?
For more wonderful nuggets of wisdom, might I suggest that you read Sally Clarkson’s book, “Own Your Life”. She has many words of wisdom that come from years of experience of walking with the Lord through homeschooling and raising four children and ministering to women for many years. She is well-seasoned.
I highly recommend all of her books. Her blog at SallyClarkson.com is also very good, and she has recently started a podcast that is just wonderful! You can find the podcast on her blog once a week.
And remember to do everything that you do out of love.
Please tell me about a time that God has used you to breathe life into someone who needed to feel God’s love for them.
Did you feel the breath come back into your own soul when you did it?
Inhale God’s love for you, and exhale His love upon someone else.
What a beautiful cycle.
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
