A Note of Encouragement
This is an alert for mushiness to follow! We had an amazing sermon yesterday. It was on seeing with God's eyes and even more so with His heart. It was powerful and challenging and I was moved to write the following letter to our pastor.
I have been very moved lately that God has and continues to do such amazing and big things in my life and it is my desire and heart to use them to glorfiy the Lord and proclaim boldly the power He uses in our daily lives. So I was prompted to share the letter here on my blog. This is one of the outlets I have to proclaim God's love and power and so I hope you are encouraged and that my gracious, precious and loving Father in heaven is glorified... PRAISE HIM.
Dear Greg,
I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated and related to your sermon yesterday. I also wanted to share something with you. Hopefully it will encourage you.
God opened my eyes and gave me clearer vision in February of 2007. It was a very dark time for me as Abby had unexpectantly started having seizures again just two months prior. Don had sent me “home” to stay a week with my parents for some “down time”. It was my hope that rest and the love of my family would help refresh and encourage me during such an uncertain and challenging time.
In addition to being emotionally spent from Abby’s illness and the rollercoaster it kept us on, it was no secret that my marriage was suffering as well. One of the main goals of my trip was to speak with one of my spiritual mentors and counselors who lived in Winchester. I met with him the second day I was there and started unloading my list of pains. He has such a heart for the Lord and such knowledge of His truths, just talking to him alone has often made me feel better in the past.
After laying it all out on the table, so to speak, he looked at me and simply said, “Dawn, in all this pain I see one glaring reality that is the heart of this turmoil… I feel that with your knowledge of God’s word and your faith that you “believe” God loves you and has forgiven you, but you do not “know” this… you can not “see” this in your life and it creates a constant turmoil in your spirit that is just wearing you out.” He spoke as if the Holy Spirit were telling me exactly what was wrong and I realized he’d nailed it. In tears I asked him what in the world I could do about it. He suggested that he would like to lay hands on me with two or more people who really loved me and pray for spiritual healing and for my eyes to be uncovered so I could see the love and grace God has for me.
The next day, my parents and I sat in his office for a few hours and prayed and prayed and cried and sobbed and prayed. Words were spoken, wounds were revealed and healing began. It was one of the most intimate experiences with the Holy Spirit I have ever had and it changed my life and was the TURNING point in my marriage. From that “session”, I was able to see my parent’s unconditional love for me for the FIRST time in my life. Upon seeing and “knowing” this love, I was able to comprehend and imagine God’s unconditional love for me. My past loves had always been performance based, conditional, and sometimes taken away.
On the plane ride home, I started asking God how I could use what He’d shown me in my marriage. And right there, that moment in my seat, He suddenly opened my eyes. In my marriage, I had always been able to see myself as one who was struggling to make it work, struggling to become closer to God and struggling to be obedient to God and just struggling in general… but I had NEVER seen my husband through that same filter. Satan had so filled me with lies that when I saw my husband, I saw someone who judged me, was out to damage me, waiting for me to disappointment him, control me… basically I saw an enemy. My eyes opened in such an instant that I started to cry as I saw him as God sees him. I saw a little boy, who carried his own hurts and pains through childhood and tried to figure out how to make it work. I saw a little boy who was struggling to be a man of God in a world full of distractions and lies. I saw a man trying to love a woman who pushed him away, didn’t trust him, didn’t respect him, and often didn’t like him. I was able to see the grace and forgiveness and love he had given me time and time again that I had been so flippant with and often destructive. I was humbled and convicted to the core that I had hurt him and failed with what God had trusted me to do. God chose this man for me because He trusted me to BE HIS LOVE to him. Christ lives inside me and when Christ wants to physically love Don, He does so through me.
I was so overcome with my own sin and blindness that I could hardly breathe… and I vowed to never lose sight of him, through God’s eyes. This “sight” in itself has given me a heart of compassion, love, tenderness and understanding for my husband that I have never had before in the 15 years we’ve been together. This sight is something I cling to with both hands and pray that God always blesses me with. Satan tries to come in with his lies and distractions and tries with all his might to cloud this vision. But my God is strong and HE has already won this battle and with His help and guidance and protection, my eyes will continue to see.
Thank you for your sermon. Thank you for your passion and your heart and the love you have for people. People have to know they are missing something before they can pray for God to deliver them from or to it. You gave clear sight to the fact that many of us are missing God’s eyes. I pray that many who heard your words will pray for God to give them eyes to see as He sees because with this, lives will be transformed.
IN His PRECIOUS and GRACIOUS Love,
Dawn Sullivan
This is an alert for mushiness to follow! We had an amazing sermon yesterday. It was on seeing with God's eyes and even more so with His heart. It was powerful and challenging and I was moved to write the following letter to our pastor.
I have been very moved lately that God has and continues to do such amazing and big things in my life and it is my desire and heart to use them to glorfiy the Lord and proclaim boldly the power He uses in our daily lives. So I was prompted to share the letter here on my blog. This is one of the outlets I have to proclaim God's love and power and so I hope you are encouraged and that my gracious, precious and loving Father in heaven is glorified... PRAISE HIM.
Dear Greg,
I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated and related to your sermon yesterday. I also wanted to share something with you. Hopefully it will encourage you.
God opened my eyes and gave me clearer vision in February of 2007. It was a very dark time for me as Abby had unexpectantly started having seizures again just two months prior. Don had sent me “home” to stay a week with my parents for some “down time”. It was my hope that rest and the love of my family would help refresh and encourage me during such an uncertain and challenging time.
In addition to being emotionally spent from Abby’s illness and the rollercoaster it kept us on, it was no secret that my marriage was suffering as well. One of the main goals of my trip was to speak with one of my spiritual mentors and counselors who lived in Winchester. I met with him the second day I was there and started unloading my list of pains. He has such a heart for the Lord and such knowledge of His truths, just talking to him alone has often made me feel better in the past.
After laying it all out on the table, so to speak, he looked at me and simply said, “Dawn, in all this pain I see one glaring reality that is the heart of this turmoil… I feel that with your knowledge of God’s word and your faith that you “believe” God loves you and has forgiven you, but you do not “know” this… you can not “see” this in your life and it creates a constant turmoil in your spirit that is just wearing you out.” He spoke as if the Holy Spirit were telling me exactly what was wrong and I realized he’d nailed it. In tears I asked him what in the world I could do about it. He suggested that he would like to lay hands on me with two or more people who really loved me and pray for spiritual healing and for my eyes to be uncovered so I could see the love and grace God has for me.
The next day, my parents and I sat in his office for a few hours and prayed and prayed and cried and sobbed and prayed. Words were spoken, wounds were revealed and healing began. It was one of the most intimate experiences with the Holy Spirit I have ever had and it changed my life and was the TURNING point in my marriage. From that “session”, I was able to see my parent’s unconditional love for me for the FIRST time in my life. Upon seeing and “knowing” this love, I was able to comprehend and imagine God’s unconditional love for me. My past loves had always been performance based, conditional, and sometimes taken away.
On the plane ride home, I started asking God how I could use what He’d shown me in my marriage. And right there, that moment in my seat, He suddenly opened my eyes. In my marriage, I had always been able to see myself as one who was struggling to make it work, struggling to become closer to God and struggling to be obedient to God and just struggling in general… but I had NEVER seen my husband through that same filter. Satan had so filled me with lies that when I saw my husband, I saw someone who judged me, was out to damage me, waiting for me to disappointment him, control me… basically I saw an enemy. My eyes opened in such an instant that I started to cry as I saw him as God sees him. I saw a little boy, who carried his own hurts and pains through childhood and tried to figure out how to make it work. I saw a little boy who was struggling to be a man of God in a world full of distractions and lies. I saw a man trying to love a woman who pushed him away, didn’t trust him, didn’t respect him, and often didn’t like him. I was able to see the grace and forgiveness and love he had given me time and time again that I had been so flippant with and often destructive. I was humbled and convicted to the core that I had hurt him and failed with what God had trusted me to do. God chose this man for me because He trusted me to BE HIS LOVE to him. Christ lives inside me and when Christ wants to physically love Don, He does so through me.
I was so overcome with my own sin and blindness that I could hardly breathe… and I vowed to never lose sight of him, through God’s eyes. This “sight” in itself has given me a heart of compassion, love, tenderness and understanding for my husband that I have never had before in the 15 years we’ve been together. This sight is something I cling to with both hands and pray that God always blesses me with. Satan tries to come in with his lies and distractions and tries with all his might to cloud this vision. But my God is strong and HE has already won this battle and with His help and guidance and protection, my eyes will continue to see.
Thank you for your sermon. Thank you for your passion and your heart and the love you have for people. People have to know they are missing something before they can pray for God to deliver them from or to it. You gave clear sight to the fact that many of us are missing God’s eyes. I pray that many who heard your words will pray for God to give them eyes to see as He sees because with this, lives will be transformed.
IN His PRECIOUS and GRACIOUS Love,
Dawn Sullivan
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