<\/p>\n
Rooted deep in us is the need to \u2018be ourselves\u2019 \u2013as God sees us. Yet for so many Christians, it\u2019s an ongoing struggle<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We are all different and have different struggles, but some struggles are common to all humanity. Ever since God sent Adam and Eve out of the garden, our souls have longed for Eden. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our hearts still grieve for what we lost when Adam sinned. Yet even before we felt our loss, God provided the answer. How is it, then, that even the most mature and seasoned Christian can miss it? It is 37 years since I fully gave my life to the Lord and received the Holy Spirit. I have earnestly sought the Lord and determined to serve Him throughout those years. However, strangely it has only been in recent months (aged 51) that people have started to tell me that I look different and that I have changed. It is wonderful that I have changed, but why has it taken so long? What was it that I just wasn\u2019t \u2018getting\u2019 in all my long years as a Christian?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rooted deep in us is the need to \u2018be ourselves\u2019 \u2013as God sees us. Yet for so many Christians, it\u2019s an ongoing struggle We are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[29],"tags":[56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":960,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Shulamite woman<\/h3>\n