A Place Where Love Flourishes

Prior to a saving knowledge of Christ I don’t ever remember a time when love was free. It always cost something. It took bits and pieces of me but never seemed to give back. I do realize that my vision looking back is blurred and somewhat exaggerated in trying to remember the details. All I really know, what I remember, from the age of seven or eight, is that love came at a price. A costly price.

There are moments, here and there, that I can catch a glimpse of a love that flourished freely. Love was poured out and accepted. It was sought and freely given.  And perhaps had it not been for those moments I would have despaired completely.  It would be those moments I would try to get back to. I would try hard to remember the faces, the people and they way they made me feel. I would try to remember those places where love flourished. A place where it didn’t  matter what I did or did not do but I was just loved.

I got married not knowing what love was or even if I loved my husband. To me love had always been selfish and self seeking. On one hand I wanted to keep love at arms length and on the other I longed for love. It made for a hard marriage. But he showed me a love that gave unconditionally. He was patient as I learned love and grew to love my husband. I grew in my understanding of love. Love is a choice I was told. We can choose to love regardless of our emotions.  It was in God’s grace that I was able to embrace that truth. In His strength I would chose love. I learned to love. I do love.

I also learned another deeper truth. A freeing truth. I am loved. I am loved deeply. Not just by my husband, family and others, but by the God of the universe. He, the One who created heaven and earth, loves me. Oh how He loves me! He loves me unconditionally. He loves me even though I am broken. He loves me in spite of the total depravity of my heart.

The cost of this love? Nothing. His love cost me nothing, and yet, it cost God His Son. His Son would choose to die for me, not because I deserved for someone to pay the punishment for my sin, but because the Father’s love was so great and so vast that He wanted to die so that I could have a relationship with Him. Jesus died so that I might know and experience the eternal love of the Father. (Rom 5:8; Eph 2:4-5) What an amazing act of love!

Dear sister I do not know where you are today. Perhaps you are like me and can often have moments of feeling unloved or even unlovable. Perhaps you have walked a hard road where love came at a costly price, where love was not given but earned. I understand. I have been there. I know the hurt and pain of that kind of love.

So today I encourage you to drink deeply of this truth, He pours His grace and love over you. God loves you with an everlasting love. A love that knows no bounds. Accept His love for you. Embrace it. Believe it even though it might be scary and you may not fully understand. Ask His Spirit to help you. Surrender the past hurt, the pain, to Him and allow His love to heal you. I promise that He will meet you my sweet sister in Christ. Trust that His love is for you. All you have to do is believe it, accept it and walk in the freedom of it.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Eph 3:16-19