Love, Love, Love. We all want to be loved, don't we?
I mean, who doesn't? Even the grouchiest, meanest, most cold-hearted person needs love. Yes, not even wants. NEEDS. Love is one of the most essential ingredients for growth.
It's like planting a sunflower seed and wanting it to grow. In order for it to move from the seed stage to a fully bloomed flower, it needs love. And what does this love entail? You have to care for it, water it, make sure it has enough sunlight and make sure it's in the proper environment for it to develop. It will take time and patience, but you don't give up on it because you know that it will one day blossom into something beautiful.
That's basically God's love for us. He takes care of us, ensuring that we're safe, cared for and that we feel His love. Even when we're not aware of it, God's love is working in our lives. Many of us tend to neglect and forget about it though. It's easier to grumble when things aren't going the way we planned and praise Him only when success comes our way. And not only do we forget to acknowledge His love, we go and look for it in other places.
A lot of us yearn for the love of others, whether it be our friends, family, spouses or partners. We feel that their love will make us whole, fill a void within us; a void that technically, only God can fill. God did make humanity with the hope that we would love and care for one another. But when we misplace the love meant for God and try to gain it from other things, that's where things can go wrong.
Source: Hassan Selah
We hear all this talk about the love of God; you've probably heard it so many times that you can't even keep count anymore. But there's a difference between hearing about it and actually knowing God's love. Knowing God's love involves actually experiencing it, and to experience it, we have to spend time with God. It's like being in a relationship with someone you intend to marry and spend the rest of your life with. You can't expect to fall in love with them if you don't spend any quality time with each other and communicate with them. There's no way an ounce of love would form between you.
That's how it is with God; He loves us with so much love that we probably won't ever be able to match it. But what He wants is for us to acknowledge it and reciprocate it with all our hearts, souls and minds; our entire being should yearn for Him more than anything else. And we can only do that by getting to know Him for ourselves.
You're probably thinking that it's not as simple as it seems. No matter how much you want to draw closer to God, life seems to get in the way and completely diverts your attention from Him. We try to 'fit' God into our schedules when really, our schedules should revolve around Him.
One of the things I'm learning this year is that, if I really want to spend time with God, I can. And it's through the little acts. Mini conversations with Him throughout the day, listening to His word, appreciating all that He's blessed me with and what He protects me from, and even just talking to Him about my worries and fears; and trust me, I have A LOT. But talking to God brings about this peace and calmness I need to overcome my challenges. He reassures me and strengthens me during the hard times, and celebrates with me during the good.
And that's true love. Having someone who can share in your troubles, and build you up in the face of your trials, not just being with you in the good times. God is essentially your Ultimate Ride or Die. He basically died for us, in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ. If that isn't the Ultimate display of Love, I don't know what is.
We tend to look for love in other places but won't we don't realise is that God's love can completely satisfy. And it's only when you really know His love that you can learn to love yourself and love others. I've recently been watching the Relationship Goals series by Pastor Mike Todd on YouTube and one of the things he talked about was the two Greatest commandments.
The first was to Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37-39) and the second was to love your neighbour as yourself. The order is actually to love God, love yourself and then love your neighbour. How you love God will determine how you see and love yourself, before determining how you treat and love others.
God is the Ultimate Source of Love and we as His children not only receive it, but are able to draw from this Ultimate Source and serve as a channel for others to experience it also. His love is the type of love we're expected to show to everyone we encounter. Not just our friends and family, but the poor, needy, unfortunate, and those around us that we don't normally take notice of. There's always someone going through something that we might not know about. People tend to mask their true emotions when around others; it's not until we go down to that personal level with them that we realise their challenges.
God's love doesn't discriminate and neither should we. I know some of us say that we don't judge others but we don't realise that we do it unconsciously at times. Even if it's not as serious as outright judging someone on what they're wearing, we pass comments in our minds and treat them a certain way based on something we think about them.
But let's ask God for strength to always see the good in people and not the evil. Let's treat others the way God would treat them, because as His children, we are basically the reflection of Him on earth. How you treat someone will affect their perception about God. So don't give God a bad name just because of your bad attitude. If you love someone, you'd want to make them proud. So why don't we try our hardest to make God proud in everything we do?
So after all this, what exactly is God's love? Well, it's a love that is patient, caring, kind, forgiving, sacrificial, one that does not judge but treats everyone as equals and one that does good even when faced with all the evil in the world. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us all about this love.
I feel like God's love is just such a broad topic that we could go on and on about. But what I want us all to know today is that:
1. God is the only one that can satisfy your need for love.
2. We need to acknowledge His love and love Him in return with all our souls, hearts and minds.
3. With the love we've received from God, we need to show the same love to every person we encounter, not just those we are familiar with.
Love makes the world go round, so let's continue to show God's love to every person we encounter.
What are your thoughts on today's topic? Feel free to leave a comment below or email/message me on social media. Love you guys xx
Stay blessed and stay a blessing.
