I returned home from a trip recently to find a huge rock in my foyer beside all the little shoes lined up by the front door.  “Oh the crazy things my kids do,” I thought. 

 I asked my girls about it and they said they found it in the  bushes and grandma said they could bring it home.  So they did.

I wondered why in the world they would want to carry a heavy, ugly rock home.

Today as I was writing out my Love Letter From God, I heard him ask me the same question.  Why?

“Why are you carrying all these heavy weights, my child?”

  “I told you I would carry them for you, so you can skip, as light as a feather beside me.” 

Matthew 28

28Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Today in the study guide, in our Love Letter to God we set our heavy stones down.  All of them.  Love’s arms are open wide, enough to take all our heavy stones, and still hold us in his arms at the same time.  We can unload all of them on him every morning, and walk away light as a feather, letting him carry everything for us.

  

1 Peter 5:7
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”

So do it girls!  Lay all your worries at his feet.  He is waiting.  He has his arms open wide in love.  You can’t embrace him with your arms if they are full of your heavy burdens.  Lay them down, and hold on to the One who is qualified to handle them. 

I pray that everyone reading these words stops, inhales a deep breath, and lets Jesus take their heaviest concern at the moment right now. Relax into his love. Doesn’t that feel better? Don’t pick the tension back up. Send him a quick prayer in the next breath if you’re tempted to. He’s got this! Praying we all live lightly with Him today! 

If you haven’t downloaded the study yet, it’s not to late!  Go here:  

Or email me at Adterry13@hotmail.com to arrange paying by mail and I’ll email the study back to you 🙂 

I finally got organized and put my study in a binder!  

 
  
You can purchase the study we are discussing here:  

Or you may send me an email at Adterry13@hotmail.com requesting to pay by mail and I will send back the study with my address!  Part of the proceeds are going directly to orphan care in Haiti!

Deuteronomy 7

6For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.

7“The LORD did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! 8Rather, it was simply that the LORD loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the LORD rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 9Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. 10But he does not hesitate to punish and destroy those who reject him. 11Therefore, you must obey all these commands, decrees, and regulations I am giving you today. 

Love letter to God: based on verse 9 above: 

  

Today we focused in on the fact that out of all the people in the whole wide world, God saw you.  He chose you.  If you are reading these words right now, that means he has put a desire in you to know him.  He chose you.  That is how wide and vast his love is.  He chose you, knowing every single thing about you.

He chose you to be his special treasure. (verse 6 above).  In 1 Peter 2:9 this verse is repeated by the apostle Peter.

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

This verse is our Love Letter from God: 

  

His love is so wide, it can call you out of a worldwide population and say, You.  I chose you.  To be my royal priesthood in the order of King Jesus.  I chose you to be Holy and without blemish because of my blood washing away your sins.  I chose you to be my special treasure. This God’s love. It is wide.  Praying you are getting to know him in wider ways!

Purchase the bible study we are discussing here:

Or email me to send a payment to my home address by snail mail, and I’ll email it directly to you!

How Wide is God’s Love?  Is it wide enough to cover all my sin?

Is it broad enough to encircle all my insecurities and idols?

Does it reach far enough around to hold on to me when I’m puffed up with pride?

Today we focused in on a passage that mentions the the latitudinal measurement of the earth, from the east to the west.

Psalm 103:12-18

12 He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
13 The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
14 For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
18 of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!

When I want to the Lord this morning and asked him to rid my heart of the things that were on his throne there I really thought about verse 12 the rest for the next few hours.  What does “as far as the east is from the west” really mean?

As I mediated on it, the Lord showed me a few things. For one, he couldn’t sit on his throne because something else was there already.  Have you ever sad down on a chair without looking and sat right top of something. Ouch. Not really the experience anyone, especially the King of Kings is expecting int he heart of his daughter.

So I asked him to help me take that thing off his throne chair!  I want him and him alone to be seated at the proper position in my heart.  King.  In charge. Calling the shots.  Me- coming before him and bowing, as a servant, ready to receive her orders.

So as I thought about the opposite directions of the east from the west, I thought about turning around, repenting, REFOCUSING 🙂 if you will.  I can’t keep going east with Jesus and go west on my own.  IT ITSN’T POSSIBLE.  Have you ever had a compass in the woods and gone both ways, east and west at the same time?  No!

His love is wide enough.  Wider than we can fathom.  We could go off wandering on our own every single morning.  Headed due west, all by ourselves.  But his love is wide enough.  He would walk all the way to California every  single time we strayed and bring us back home to North Carolina (best state there is:)!

And he would ask us before we started walking back to NC,

“Are you ready to come back with me? Good, now, leave that  heavy back sack of sin right there.  Just drop it on the ground.  I already paid your punishment for you to just leave it there. Doesn’t that feel better?  Now, come, follow me the road home.

Ya’ll should try that today.  Give him your heavy backpack in the West and head East with Jesus.

Praying for all my bible study girls!  Here is a little gift to help us all hide His word in our hearts this month:  heart shaped weekly memory verse cards for the passage we are memorizing together, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Print out 1 or a few copies and post them on your bathroom mirror, your car dashboard, your kitchen window, your computer screen.  Wherever!  His Word is transforming!

Download Here:  Love Letters from God Memory Verses

  Love Letter to God #1: 
You can purchase the bible study, “Love Letters from God” here:


Or email me at Adterry13@hotmail.com to pay by snail mail. 

***To be entered in Friday’s drawing for a surprise faith inspiring gift, post your study related post: any pic of your letters, any scriptures we’ve studied, a quote from the writing, and hashtag 2 tags: #lovelettersfromGod and #RefocusedBibleStudy. Post on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter. All 3 to get your name in 3 times 🙂 Spread God’s love!!!********

“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-7

This is agape love. The kind of love we are studying this month, God’s love.  It is so refreshing to learn about the love that all our hearts yearn for:  His kind of love.  What His love is and what it isn’t.

 I hope you enjoyed writing out the letters to and from God today in the study guide!  Here are copies of mine to inspire you!

Love letter to God:   
 

 Praying we all get to know the great width of His love this week!

 

 

  
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=QV6H9ENFNVGA6

Also, feel free to mail cash or check! Send an email to let me know. I’ll email you back my mailing address and the study! 

Adterry13@hotmail.com

 I have discovered a powerful truth in my life lately–the greater we understand how much God loves us, the more we are going to love Him in return.  It is that simple.

He led me to write “Love Letters From God.”

It’s a 4 week bible study based on the 4 dimensions of God’s love in Ephesians 3:18:

“May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should,

WEEK 1 -how WIDE,

WEEK 2- how LONG,

WEEK 3-how HIGH,

WEEK 4-how DEEP

GOD’S LOVE REALLY IS.

Click the buy button above to purchase it for $10.  It is 83 pages.  Each week has 5 days. Each day consists of passage questions, personal input from myself, a Love Letter from God, and a Love Letter to God.  The letters are personalized scripture that  you write out. Much like the “Write it Outs” from #Refocused.

This format gets you prayer journaling God’s Word everyday!  You are going to love it!

If buying the study prevents you from joining us for any reason, let me know and I will gift it to you.

I’m excited to also relay that a portion of the profits will go directly to orphan care in Haiti!

 

Once you buy your study, I’ll put your name in a drawing for a free journal bible I’m giving away. I’ll pick the winner Monday at 8:00am! 

Get your name in a second time for sharing the link I post on Facebook. 

A third time for Instagram. 

A fourth time for Twitter. 

Spread the LOVE! 

God’s Love! ❤️

Starting Monday, I’ll be blogging about it here, and discussing it on the Facebook Group.  I hope you’ll join us!