Faith Talks host: Hello, I’m Jana Faith.

And I’m Anna Faith.

And welcome to Episode 4 of Faith Talks.

Faith Talks host: For those of you who were with us last month, you know that we are on a series studying out the fruit of the Spirit.

So in the last podcast, we discussed joy, and I hope all of you were able to really think about that this past month and just spend some more time just in the presence of Jesus, getting your joy specifically from Him.

Faith Talks host: And today we’re excited to explore the topic of love.

Now, when you hear the word love, you might think of a lot of different things.

Maybe you think of hearts with Valentine’s Day or your favorite ice cream, or maybe a special person comes to your mind.

Now, I have a sister who’s about to get married in less than two months, and she thinks about love a lot.

And when I go in her room, she has hearts and chocolates and pictures of her special someone.

And love’s kind of one of those terms that’s used in a lot of different ways.

And maybe you feel like you really have received love, and maybe you feel like you haven’t.

Faith Talks host: But no matter who you are, all humans crave love.

And a lot of times we try to seek love from the relationships in our life, whether that be in our church, amongst our peers, with our friends, or maybe at home with your parents or your siblings.

Now, in light of Mother’s Day, a couple days ago, we’re going to be specifically focusing on the mother-daughter relationship when it comes to love.

Faith Talks host: So, we’d like to just share a few stories today that some of you might relate with.

First of all, we’re just going to share a brief paraphrase of a chapter from a book entitled Glenda’s Story, which just tells of a young girl who more than anything else just craved love, but didn’t seem to receive anything but cruelty from the relationships in her life.

Faith Talks host: Then we also have a special guest here with us today, my mother.

She’s going to share the story of her mom, my grandmother, whose parents passed away at an early age.

And because of this, she really had an absence of love in her life.

And then my mom’s going to share some of her testimony where she was in a home that she actually received love.

Faith Talks host: And I think it’s interesting because in each of these stories, although they’re quite different from each other, they all have the same source of where they eventually found that true love that really did satisfy.

And then after the three stories, we’re just going to hear more from Aunt Joanna here about how we can know and experience the love of Jesus.

Faith Talks host: So let’s begin first with Glenda’s story.

Now, Glenda in this part of her story, she’s in fifth grade and her father was very abusive.

He worked long hours, probably to escape being home where there was sure to be a fight.

And maybe another reason was just to avoid seeing his wife, who controlled their home.

She was a drinker.

She smoked all the time, nonstop.

And Glenda, growing up in this turbulent home, she somehow felt that it was all her fault.

Faith Talks host: And really because of this abuse, both physical and verbal, she never experienced that love in her home. and her parents didn’t love her and she didn’t really love them.

And it’s interesting though, even though she didn’t love them, she said more than anything else she longed to please her mother.

And so the story begins one night she was sitting awake in her bed just contemplating how she could please her.

What could I do to make mom love me?

Faith Talks host: What would make her happy?

Hmm, well, her birthday is coming up.

That’s right, it’s her 50th birthday.

Maybe I could throw her a surprise birthday party.

She would probably really love that.

And then just maybe she would love me.

But wait a minute.

Parties cost money.

And I don’t have any money.

Where can I get some?

That’s it, my lunch money.

Let’s see, when school starts, I’ll have 30 cents a day for lunch.

And by November 11th, I’ll have $14.

I can give a great party with all that money.

Dear God, help me to give a good party for Mother.

And make her stop drinking.

And oh, make her love me if you can.

Faith Talks host: Well, Glenda started skipping those lunches, and she mentions that she wasn’t even hungry, because the real hunger was that hunger for love in her heart.

Well, she went into action, preparing everything for the party, and soon the big day was there.

All of the guests were there, and Glenda was busy telling everybody to be quiet, be quiet, because her mom was coming, who was just about to arrive, and as the door opened, everyone shouted, Surprise!

Surprise!

The party was a smashing success.

Everyone had a great time playing games, eating cake, giving presents, and after they all left, Glinda eagerly awaited the words of praise and thanks she would sure would come from her mother.

As she stood there alone in the kitchen, her eyes met her mother’s gaze.

Just one kind word, and it will all be worth it.

Faith Talks host: But no, what was that across her face?

A flicker of anger?

How could this be?

How dare you?

Faith Talks host: What do you mean?

Didn’t you like it?

Aren’t you happy?

How could you invite all those people in this filthy house?

Filthy house?

What?

I know all about you.

You’re a sneaky, conniving girl.

Always scheming.

You’re trying to ruin me.

This can’t be happening.

I must be dreaming.

Go!

Well, Glenda ran to her room, threw herself on her bed, and thought, I give up.

I’ll just never be loved.

Faith Talks host: Now, this story we just shared is just one small incident in Glenda’s childhood, but as she shares at the end of the chapter, without these trials in her life, she would never have had a longing for Jesus.

Faith Talks host: And I thought it was good what she says at the end here.

All the time, God was drawing me to himself by peeling away one by one those objects of my longing that, if given, would have kept me from longing for him.

God was on my side.

Faith Talks host: Now, maybe some of you can relate with this story.

And the next one we will be sharing is about a girl, my grandmother, who didn’t experience love because of the absence of her mother.

And at this time, my mother is going to share this story.

Guest: Well, thank you.

It’s a real joy to spend this time with my daughter, Anna Faith, and my niece, Jana Faith, and to share their grandmother’s story, my mother’s story.

My mother was born on September 7, 1924. to a wealthy farmer and his wife in the small town of Moroa, Illinois.

And she was really greatly loved by her mother and her father as well.

Her father was 56 when she was born.

It was a second marriage.

His first wife had passed away.

And his wife was in her 30s.

So mom’s dad was already older.

But they loved her.

She had a wonderful time with her own mother, who was quite a homemaker.

She could sew, cook.

She sewed all of my mom’s clothes just beautifully.

She was loved in the town, and she knew the Lord, and really, life was good.

Mom really had a wonderful life until one day her mother was out milking the cow and had a stroke.

Of course, in those days, the medical help was not readily accessed there, and so several days later, she passed away, and right before she passed away, She told her children, she says, I want you to serve the Lord.

And she also mentioned something about my mom’s, she wanted to sow Terry, that’s my mom, her bloomers.

So just the love she had, even in her dying moment, she really cared for mom.

Well, mom was nine there, and she was very lonely.

And then her father began to go senile.

And by the age of 16, my mom, my mom, age 16, he passed away.

So she and her brother just had very lonely times together, the lack of love, the absence there, the lack of nurture.

Now, Mom lived in this small town, and thankfully she found the Lord as her Savior there in a small church there in the town.

It was a wicked town.

But the Lord protected her.

She was really respected by her peers, and she began to learn how to sew, took a class and took initiative, did well in school, took piano lessons.

And she had some godly older cousins that really steered her in the right direction, that got her to a college that was on fire for the Lord.

The students there, there was revival.

Mom was blessed.

There was a godly preacher there, Dr.

John R.

Rice.

He and his family reached out to Mom and really helped and guided her.

And through his ministry, the Sword of the Lord, where she worked as secretary, she met and married my father, and he was a pastor.

And then the five of us were born.

And as mom looked, really mom looked in her life, when she found Jesus, she found that she could trust and have a confidence in his love.

And she loved the Lord Jesus with all her heart because she really had not experienced deep love.

Her relatives were wealthy and many of them selfish.

She really did not experience the family love, but she loved Jesus.

And because of that, she believed that God could work all things together for good and do exceeding abundantly above.

And because of the lack of love in her home, my siblings and myself, we experienced just the lavishing of her love and the love of Jesus Christ through our mother because she wanted to give us what she never received.

And so she really transferred the Lord’s love to our hearts.

And what a blessing that’s been.

Faith Talks host: Mm-hmm.

And I think, too, just about the similarity of even the story you shared of Grandma and then Glenda.

Like, they both didn’t have that love in their lives.

Now, what would you say about those who maybe have experienced loving relationships?

They might feel like, what more do I need?

Guest: Right, right.

And that could be a temptation.

I know just thinking of the mom loved every detail of my life, my siblings, and that meant so much.

She directed us to the Lord, and I think I, being the baby, she had me when she was almost 42.

So she almost died when I was seven with a blood clot.

And then after eight years of cancer, she passed away when I was 23. know, we had spent a lot of time together, but she was gone.

And even in my own life, I recognized I needed Christ’s love.

And she had, I think in a Christian home like that, and where you’re experiencing love or loving relationships, it can enable you to understand Christ’s love.

But you also, on the other side, the side of caution could be is that you can become selfish, you can have expectations, you can weigh other people down because you’re looking to them And really true Christ sacrificial love, it’s sacrifice.

It’s no expectations, not expecting any, no thought of return, you know.

And so we can be thankful for loving relationships, but we actually can go deeper in those relationships if we let Jesus fill our hearts.

Because really, everyone has a hole in their heart that needs to be filled with Jesus Christ.

And so we all need that personal relationship with him.

And so it doesn’t really matter the stories.

We’ve told various stories here.

God’s writing a story.

He’s working things together for good.

Those of you who have been hurt, he wants to come in and heal.

Those of you who haven’t received love, he wants you to know his love.

Those of you that have experienced love, he wants you to go deeper so that you can be free from self, and his love can channel through you.

And Satan can’t win in any of this.

Satan wants to win, but he can’t.

And we don’t have to believe his lies.

We can believe that God is working things together for good, your story, and he is doing exceeding abundantly above.

Faith Talks host: That’s really good.

Now, how would you say that we can experience the love of Christ personally, just on a personal level, even from the different backgrounds that we all have been?

Right, right.

Well, I had maybe already mentioned,

Guest: But in 1 John 4, it’s just a wonderful, I encourage you young ladies to read 1 John 4.

It’s just a great love chapter.

But it starts experiencing Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross and then dwelling in him.

So I’m just going to read just real briefly here a couple of verses in 1 John 4, verse 9.

And this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

So he becomes our very life and salvation.

Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us.

Then in verse 16, and we have known and believe the love that God hath to us.

God is love.

And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.

Verse 19, we love him because he first loved us.

And Jana, your father, Dr.

Jim, has really focused in on how we need to revel and dwell in Christ’s love.

He’s crazy about us.

He said that in one of his messages.

And that’s true.

Faith Talks host: One passage I really have been blessed by is that Psalm 139, just I have loved thee with an everlasting love.

Just how personal that is.

That God, whoever you are out there, God loves you specifically and individually.

Guest: You know Elizabeth Elliot, those five missionaries that were killed by the Alka Indians and the wife of Jim Elliott, she used to come on her broadcast, and I just loved it.

She would say, you are loved with an everlasting love, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

And it was just such a comfort.

And you knew that she had experienced that because she had lost her husband, and she found the love of Christ to fill her heart.

Faith Talks host: It’s interesting.

You mentioned the Glenda story.

She actually wrote a foreword for that book, but she knew Glenda, and they were friends.

So anyway, that was good.

Okay.

So coming towards the end here, I know you had mentioned before you had an acrostic for love.

Yeah.

And what that meant.

Do you mind just sharing that?

Just how we can practically dwell in the Savior’s love?

What does that look like?

Guest: Yes.

Okay.

Well, the first one, L, is listen to his voice.

And that’s really in his word.

We have to spend time with him in his word.

His word, the Bible, is God’s love letter to us.

And it’s a loving relationship, and he wants to talk to us through his words.

I think of Psalm 4610, be still and know that I am God.

Psalm 91.1, my mother loved that.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 119.97, oh, how I love thy law, it’s my meditation day and night.

Also in Psalm 119, verse 133, order my steps in thy word.

So it’s really listening.

And then he listens to us.

So it’s again, it’s a relationship.

And really, you can’t know someone unless you listen to them first.

It’s a two way.

We listen to him, then he listens to us.

And I love Jeremiah 33, 3.

And your great grandmother loved that verse. but call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.

So we have to listen.

Then we come to O, obey his word, James 1.22, be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves.

Do you know when you really love someone, it’s not hard to obey them because you love them.

I remember my parents, I so loved them.

They were so real and they, I wanted when they, well, I had to be worked on a little bit first, but because of their love for me, and they wanted me to love the Lord, I naturally responded in wanting to obey their heart.

And so when you really love someone, you’re going to obey.

And that is the way it should be with the Lord.

Then the vision, he has a vision, following his vision for our lives.

He has a plan.

He’s writing, ladies.

He’s writing a beautiful story in your life.

And my mother loved Proverbs 3, 5 and 6.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding.

In all thy ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.

He will lead you step by step.

He’ll take everything that’s positive and all the trials you’ve been through, embrace those, and he’s going to work them together for good.

He’s going to heal.

He’s going to work and you can trust him.

And Psalm 1611 is also good.

Thou wilt show me the path of life.

In thy presence is fullness of joy at thy right hand.

There are pleasures forevermore.

And then we come to the last one, E, enabled by his spirit.

So it’s really that 0100 that Dr.

Jim has shared with you and then the book.

And Galatians 5, ladies, it’s just a great passage.

Verse 16, be filled with the spirit. 18, walk on the spirit, which leads then to the fruit of the spirit is love.

So just simply ask.

You have the Spirit in you when you know Christ is your Savior, but ask Him to fill you and then depend upon His power, and that’s faith.

And I just think of this in closing, 1 John 4, 8, that he that loveth not knoweth not God.

And really the ultimate goal of sacrificial love is not about us.

My mom used to say, don’t worry about yourself.

Love your children.

Love your husband.

Love others.

It’s to channel Christ’s love to others, and it comes from knowing him.

And I’ve really been thinking about that.

If I don’t love, I don’t know my God.

And so I really encourage you ladies to know your God so that you can love.

Faith Talks host: Good.

Well, as we wrap up today, let’s review that acrostic.

So I’m going to say the letter and then try to think of the word.

So L is?

Listen.

Good.

Okay.

So listen.

Listen to his voice.

O is for obeying.

Obeying.

And I think of the song, how does that one go?

And you spell it.

Oh, yeah.

Obedience is the very best way.

Yes.

So you can think of that song for the O.

And then V.

Vision.

Yes.

And the last one, E.

Enablement.

So in these next couple days, we just want to dare you to accept a love challenge.

And this is a love challenge to write a letter to God, sharing your heart with Him.

And the first thing I would encourage you to do is, just like we read in the story, I was really encouraged reading Glenda’s story, just how she would pour out her heart to the Lord in her prayers.

Just telling Him everything she was going through, things she was longing for.

Just she poured out her heart before the Lord.

And I would encourage you to do that in your letter.

Faith Talks host: Another thing you could do is just thank God for the love you have or even haven’t received, because as Glenda shared also in that, that it’s bringing you closer to Jesus, whether you have loved or you haven’t been loved.

Guest: And then it even, I think it’s good to include just telling the Lord, Lord, I want to obey you.

Now, maybe you struggle with obedience.

Well, talk to him about it.

Talk to him about everything, every struggle and tell him, Lord, I want to obey.

I’m willing to obey.

Would you work in my heart?

And then fill me with your spirit.

I want to depend upon you alone.

Faith Talks host: And you know, to really believe that God loves you takes faith.

So remember this week, as you dwell in Christ’s love, faith talks and faith walks.