I am a hopeless romantic. As a naive young woman, I fiendishly chased after the idea of "love". In reality, I was actually chasing studly young men wearing muscle cars like tight t-shirts. lol... At the time, nobody bothered to tell me that chased things flee...and so years passed of this fruitless searching leaving me a pathetic hopeless wretch.
Then at age 27, my change came. I got radically saved in a gloriously fiery Baptist church in Texas. There a new and startling kind of love was revealed. A super abounding extraordinary kind of love! Love without limit, eternal in it's nature and truly unconditional...it was the Love of God. Hallelujah!
I was smitten. I loved everything about this new love ... it was heavenly... uncommon...unlimited beyond measuring...everlasting and Wow it was mine for the taking...
That should have been the beginning of a beautiful relationship... but not so fast. Off I went doing what I always did... setting myself up to earn His love. Every time the church door opened, I was present. I gave money.... typed bulletins..worked in the nursery...made curtains...tended the tape table...went soul winning...rose early to pray...danced...sang...ushered...made uniforms...attended conferences... became an encourager...fed the hungry...visited the sick....walked talked breathed church!
I should have won an award for best Christian woman ever! At one church I actually did win "New Member of the Year..... a small consolation prize for all my effort..Don't get me wrong. All of these things are good in the right setting... but I was still depressed, desperate and quite often in condemnation often wondering if God loved me.
Finally exhausted, I stopped everything. I was missing something, but what?! Finally heard this...God is love. To get His love, I had to get to know Him because He IS love...wherever He is love is. Isn't that beautiful?
A wonderful pastor once said, " it's not so much about your love for Him, but rather His love for you".
I had the right idea. But my methodology was all wrong. He already loved me. He always has and always will! His love pours forth like Niagara Falls each and every day. All I had to do was stand under it. Receive it..
Someone once said that there' s a God shaped place inside each of us. I think that's true. We are all empty vessels waiting to be filled. We don't have to clamor for it. He wants us to have it. We simply have to receive...receive...receive!
1 John 4:16 says.. God IS love. He's the only source. Romantic warm and fuzzy earthly affection has it's place. But real, sustaining, eternal, unconditional love? That is a heavenly commodity... there is no other source..
Goodbye desperation.... hello True Love.
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