In all honesty, we know how little genuine love we bring to God even in moments of what is supposed to be worship, how feebly and selectively we love our neighbor.  The love God demands can only be the gift of God.  Yet He cannot give us that gift so long as bitterness and resentment have slammed shut the door of the heart.

Forgiveness is the precondition to love.

God loves you simply because He has chosen to do so.

He loves you when you don't feel lovely.

He loves you when no one else loves you.

Others may abandon you, divorce you, and ignore you, but God will love you.  Always. No matter what.

 

God's love for you is so individual, Jesus told us He even has the hairs of your head numbered.  Well, since that's true, surely He knows every little thing about each one of us and wants us to ask for His help with every little thing.  But He does insist that we ask.  Having had the courage and audacity to give us free will, God respects that always and forever.  He will not crash the door of our hearts.

 

The Bible is God's love letter to you.  When you receive letters from someone you love, you don't just read them once and never look at them again.  You pore over them time after time, drinking in the very essence of that person, looking between the lines for any and every possible message.  God's love letters to you are full of messages.  They say, "This is how much I love you."

 

Does bumping into certain people leave you brittle, breakable, and fruitless?  If so, your love may be grounded in the wrong soil.  It may be rooted in their love (which is fickle) or in your resolve to love (which is frail).  John urges us to "rely on the love God has for us" (1 John 4:16, NIV).  He alone is the power source.

 

Spending time with God as I "walk" with Him meets needs that are in the deepest part of me. . . And in some way I don't understand, I believe walking with me satisfies His heart.  It brings Him pleasure to be loved and enjoyed and known just for Who He is.  He is enthralled with the beauty of your character and mine as increasingly it reflects His own, and He rejoices over you and me.

 

God made us, and He wants us to rejoice in our being.  Delighting in our personhood is not the same as inflating our egos.  Big egos are a result of fluffing ourselves out of insecurity. When we live in gratitude for our won lives and our gifts, then and only then can we freely love others.

 

"It is kindness in a person, not beauty that wins our love."

~~Anonymous