God's love for me.

Last week Wednesday as a ministry we were given the opportunity to go speak at a local high school.  The girls and guys split up to talk about different topics.  Seeing that it was the day after Valentines Day we thought we would talk about love....God's love for us. :) I'd like to share with you what I shared with those girls:

"As I was preparing what to say to you this morning I decided to look up the definition of love.  Did you know that it isn’t until the second example of the fourth reference that it mentions anything about God?  Isn’t that a little sad?  Our God, the one who ultimately created this thing called love isn’t even referenced until almost the second paragraph of this word's definition.  So basically, when you go to look up love in the dictionary you will find 3 long definitions that talk about affection for one another, attraction, tenderness, admiration, assurance, enthusiasm, devotion, loyalty…and then FINALLY under definition four point B you have – a person’s adoration of God.  Adoration? Is that all we have to describe the biggest gift that’s been given to us of all times by our almighty God and Father?

 I will say I think love is tricky.  I feel as though we have to fully understand it in order to fully appreciate and accept it.  And I think before we try and love someone else or accept someone else’s love we have to be able to accept God’s love and to be confident in our relationship with him and really know how much he truly does love us.  

Loving myself is something that I personally struggled with for a really long time, and still today its something I continue to work on.  But I remember when I first came into realization that I didn’t at all love myself…I remember thinking “ How am I ever going to really love another person if I can’t even figure out how to love myself?”  Before I could love myself I needed to understand how much  God loved me.  So I prayed about just that.  I prayed that God would show me how much he loved me and that I would see myself just as he did.  That I would love myself.

One day as I was reading the ever so popular love verse in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, you know “love is patient, love is kind” the one you always hear at weddings and such.  However, instead of focusing on the word love, I replaced it with God.  Because God is love.  And I wanted to focus solemnly on the love between God and I.  I will read it to you that way, and as I do I want you to  just think about Him loving you.  “God is patient, God is kind.  He does not envy, he does not boast, he is not prideful.  He is not rude, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no record of wrongs.  God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  He always protects, he always trusts, he always hopes, and he always preserves.  God never fails.” Now doesn’t that make you feel so warm and treasured on the inside?   God loves us more than we can ever fathom or imagine and sometimes the hardest part is to simply be able to accept that love.  But once we do, we will never want to let it go, for he will shine so brightly through us and then we can love others from the love that’s within us.  So I just encourage you today to spend time with God and allow him to show you how much he loves you, I promise you won’t regret it."

As these girls stared blankly back at me waiting for the bell to ring so they could be freed, I wondered which one of these girls needed to hear just this?  There's no better feeling than being in a rough patch in life and all the sudden out of the blue you feel like God is speaking to you through something or somebody.  I think THAT is the ultimate feeling of being loved.  So I wonder, was it one, two, five or none?  I will never know but I can only pray that it was every single one.