Don’t the movies make love look so easy? I find myself watching those sappy films and I start to believe that true love is that simple and effortless. The problem is I look at how I love others in my life, and it starts to become a little more difficult and messy. I can say I love you quickly with my mouth, but when my full heart is tested then I often come up short. I struggle in loving my neighbor, my family, and most importantly loving God with my entire heart.
(Guest Author: Lauren Irlbeck…. read about Lauren under the “Guest Author” page at the top)
God has been asking me to love with reckless abandonment. This goes against every bone inside of me. I am starting to see that love is far from being simple and easy. When I give my entire heart to someone the ability to guard and protect my heart from future hurts and disappointments is gone. It’s easy to live a life loving sparingly, because it becomes more comfortable to go into protection/survival mode.
I was living in constant fear of rejection from the hidden places that I perceived as too ugly to love. My greatest fear if wounded deeply, I would never fully heal. Finally, I’m letting God into those secret places, where fear and shame has been broken off and restored to beauty.
As I have given up control of my heart, which at the beginning was the scariest thing I have ever done. I am able to receive Gods love not guarded with suspicion, but open with excitement. God is showing me that it’s through daily giving Him those small pieces of my heart, which will result in the ability to begin to love others out of His redeeming love.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
The first step in this process was gaining enough faith that I trusted God’s message of what was being promised for my life. Declaring what the Lord had done for me in the past reminded and gave me hope. Faith and hope built up allowed for me to begin to let go of my fears and let me love God by giving myself to Him.
I encourage you to spend time with God so that your faith and hope can become your foundation to result in love. I’m finally beginning to believe that “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine” (Song of Songs 6:3.)
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Recommended Reads-
– The Book of Hosea in the Bible
– Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
– Crazy Love by Francis Chan
– The Book of Song of Solomon in the Bible
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Discussion Questions:
– How do you view love?
– Do you show love easily, only to pull away when its hard and scary? How does this effect your love for God?
– Are all your relationships shallow and on the surface?
– Is your relationship with God shallow and on the surface?
– Does fear and shame keep you from loving yourself, others, and especially God with your whole heart?
– Do you ever allow yourself to love MORE and DEEPER than your thoughts and fears of rejection? Which thing controls you: love or fear?
1 John 4:18-19 (English Standard Version)
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”
What Do You Think? Leave Your Thoughts.