Steadfast Love

I love Jesus. Living this love is hard. The hard part is not the commandments, requirements, or rules that most people believe are necessary to be a lover of God. The hard part for me is receiving His love. That's where we often fail. God's love for us is so perfect, so complete, so unyielding, so steadfast that it doesn't require a response from us. It just is. My response and ability to love God is out of a desire within me to know Him...truly know Him. I don't want to know about Him. I don't want to know Him through other people. I don't want Him to be a friend of a friend. I want to be so close to Him in being, in understanding, in knowledge, in love that people do not consider me without Him coming to mind. But even this is difficult. Why? Because I am human, and I fall short. I'm not making any excuses for my shortcomings. I'm stating fact. I'm not yet perfect, but His love for me never fails. I do not understand how He can love me so perfectly even when I mess up and disappoint, but He does. It is not in me to understand, but it's completely Him to be God, and God is love. So simple, yet so hard to receive. For those of us who choose not to receive His love, His love still does not fail. There is nothing any of us can do to deter God from loving us. His hand is always extended to us, and His passion for us remains a burning flame. Why is it so hard for people to go to Him? It's the issue of man: we consider ourselves unlovable and are filled with shame. God defies all we have come to accept and know to be true. My advice: trade your truth for His and allow Him to make you whole. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, we all need to be renewed by His love. This is not just for unbelievers, but for everyone under the sun. God loves you. Receive His love. You can smack His hand away if you want, but I urge you to seek Him while He can still be found. His love remains, but our chances at receiving it are fleeting. Receive it while you can. My heart in all this: to make Him known that you may be transformed by His love.

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love Him, because He first loved us." - 1 John 4:9-10, 19