Loving Freely is a resource developed by Dan Crain, Pastor, Consultant and Connector for REMERGE.
Loving Freely unpacks the need for us to examine ourselves in order to truly know how to love and serve others as the beloved children of God. The process is spelled out through the Loving Freely Process and able to be lived into with the Loving Freely Seven.
It is a five hour training introducing those who help others to receive help themselves.
Loving Freely Daily Practice of Seven
Why: All throughout the day we have experiences with others where our false selves are always longing for one of the four triggers and we need to allow Christ’s Spirit to search us to bring us back to our Island of Peace as God’s beloved child. This is to be done twice a day, mid-morning and afternoon for seven minutes in conjunction with the scripture you are reading for the day with the intended goal of loving others freely as God’s beloved child.
1) Spend a minute in silence in Christ’s presence meditating on our original glory.
Become aware of His Spirit in you and around you and that you are “Christ’s home”. Reflect on the words of Iranaeus; “The glory of God is man fully alive.”
Center yourself upon being God’s beloved child, focusing on the glory of God, how expansive He is in the universe, how glorious God is, but yet how He loves us so much and believes that we are his beloved. Meditate on the fact that we are created for glory, despite the shame we are carrying.
2) Realize how deceitful the heart is when driven by the false self.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.” (Jeremiah. 17:9)
We cannot save ourselves! We are powerless to this addiction and need Christ.
3) What trigger has pulled you away from your Island of Peace in Christ?
Was it your need for affirmation or approval, the need to control, the longing for safety or security, or to be separate (be your own god), when you were loving the “other”?
The reality is that Christ knows our anxious thoughts. He knows what we’re thinking and experiencing. The questions then becomes, do we know our anxious thoughts? Can we name them and bring them to Christ and allow him to change us? Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139)
4) How is that trigger connected to your core lie from your family of origin?
Allow Christ’s Spirit to lead and guide you into your past, understanding that “The kindness of God leads us to repentance.” (Romans 1)
What specific wound from your past can you trace to one of the four triggers?
What do you think is at the root of what’s happening inside?
5) What do you need to name and confess to Christ in order to be reminded of your belovedness in Christ?
Being able to name and confess our sin allows us to agree with God about what’s happening inside of us, but also to be reminded of our truth of who God has created us to be as His beloved child.
Christ is always pruning us, and this involves the stripping away of the false self.
What are you hiding?
What are you trying to prove?
6) How was Christ serving you through the “other”?
“What bothers us about others will lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.” (Yung)
Living into a dignified interdependent relationship is a lot of work, as we are always prone to give and never receive. Yet, Paul’s words from Philippians 4:19 is, “And my God will meet all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Christ meets our deepest needs and is always serving us through others.
7) The God who wastes nothing.
Give yourself grace today knowing that your heart will wander again, but rest in the fact that God has made a commitment to redeem all things.
God is writing a story upon our lives and we surrender the need to get it right.
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