We all want to be loved, but can we identify love when we see it? Or better yet, can we receive love when it is being given? We know that God loves us; but we have yet to receive it. You see, you can believe that someone has something for you but until you stretch out your hands to receive it, you will never truly possess it, even though it’s yours. In Christ we have access to most fulfilling relationship imaginable. Think about it, you get to be loved by the One who is Love. It’s amazing to think about but it so easy for us to take it for granted.
Being in a relationship with the Lord and not receiving His love for us, is a lot like being married, living with your husband but operating as a single woman. Imagine for example, being at home with your husband…he plans a romantic evening but you decide to go out with your girls instead. There he is expressing his love for you, but you refuse it. This is what we do when we have a need or are hurting and we choose to handle it like someone who has no relationship with the Father. But despite our hesitations, He continues to extend His love toward us. So how do we receive it? Take it.
The love of God is expressed through His Word and manifested in and through us by His Spirit. If we are to begin receiving this love, we have to first believe what He said. When we find ourselves in a place of helplessness we can unknowingly become numb to the impressions of the Spirit of God. This happens because what we see and feel overpowers the truth. Therefore we have to focus beyond what we see and what we feel to receive what is true. And the truth is that,
You are hurting but, “He heals the brokenhearted” (Psalm 147:3). You are afraid but, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7). You don’t feel like God loves you but,” This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
The only way to receive the love God has for you is to take it. And there are obstacles every day that try to prevent us from taking what belongs to us. But His love is not something we feel it is something that we know is true regardless of how we feel. There is simplicity in the love of God that surpasses our human understanding. Yet our human experiences give us insight into just how simple it is to be loved. Consider a child; all they know is that their parents love them. They don’t know how, they don’t know it’s definition, they don’t know what the word love translates to in the Hebrew or the Greek, all they know is that they are loved and whatever they need will be provided. Now consider our Father; He said that He loved us; He proved that He loved us; we simply have to keep believing it. Declare each day, God I receive your love for me, thank you for loving me, thank you for sending your Son to die for my sins, thank you for sending your Spirit to live in my heart, thank you for loving me first.
You see life can be noisy and that noise can overpower us at times but the Spirit of God within us will quiet that noise and sooth our hearts with the truth of God’s love. Let Him love you!
“I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
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