One of the most eye-opening experiences of my life was the moment I understood God’s love not only for me but for mankind. That’s when the doors were opened and God’s love washed over me like a raging flood of water softening my heart to the true nature of God.
I’ve always known that God loves me since I was a child. I learned early in church “Jesus loves me. Yes I know. For the Bible tells me so.” Through my child-like mind I reasoned that if God came to earth as the man Jesus then God loved me just like Jesus did. It was just as simple as that. No one since has been able to convince me otherwise.
We are told to come to God as a child. I’ve discovered to just believe in Him as a child believes. A child believes their parents before the world starts to corrupt their thinking, disillusioning them through deception.
As teens or even as pre-teens, we slowly start believing that our parents don’t really love us; that they are mean and uncaring. When in fact they do love us more than anyone in this world. That’s why they can be harsh with us out of frustration that we don’t understand that what they are doing or telling us is for our own good. It isn’t until we become adults that we start saying and demonstrating the same thing they did and realize how right they were.
I think we all can recall that feeling… that moment when we were shocked to hear words come out of our mouth that our parents said which were immediately followed by “I sound just like my mother.” It’s a kind of horror that goes through our body until we think about what we said and truly believe she had been right.
Like I said earlier, I always believed that God loved me. However, I didn’t really believe that He loved me as much as He loved overs. It was an overwhelming experience when I discovered that God loved me just as much as He loved anyone else. I was no exception.
I have a feeling that maybe what I felt that day was the Holy Spirit finally being able to get through to my heart that had been partially hardened through time by accepting some of the wrong beliefs of others. Once He could get through to my heart, it opened my eyes to a new revelation of God that unfortunately many will never experience.
Now when I hear a message about God involving His love and what He has done and provided for me, I once again am overwhelmed and receive new insight into God.
I also have a feeling that He reveals this to us slowing. Otherwise, we most surely would instantly die if He revealed all of His love for us at one time. It would be too much for our physical body to experience.
Having experienced the knowledge about God’s love to the extent that I now know, it has changed my understanding about so many things. Creation is no longer merely words written. The first few chapters of Genesis are some of my most favorite chapters of the Bible since I see the love God poured out through the creation of our world and our lives. It changes everything once we grasp how much He loves us.
God has provided everything we will ever need to have a successful, fruitful, and happy life until we are joined with Him in heaven. Who has ever done that for anyone? No one. Just God. Mankind tries to steal what God has freely given to us.
God is love. The Bible repeats and shows us this from cover to cover. That’s why it is so important for us to love others whether we believe they deserve it or not. By loving others we know that we are a child of His. When we don’t, we know that we are lost souls.
However, it’s important for us to know what love is. Love isn’t acceptance. Love isn’t always agreeing with each other. Love isn’t tolerance. Love can even involve hatred towards the behavior of others. But we must separate the person from their behavior. Love doesn’t mean we allow everyone into our lives on a personal basis or even into our country.
There is a thing called “tough love.” Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone is to reject them out of love by letting them know their behavior is unacceptable. Allowing their bad behavior to corrupt our children is wrong and is a sign that we don’t really love our children like we ought to. Accepting other’s wrong behavior or wrong ideas is hatred towards that person. It shows that we don’t really love them. If we loved them we would help them out of their destructive lifestyle and let them know that what they are doing is unhealthy for them as well as for society.
The most loving thing we can show to other people is God’s love for them. We can’t change a person but God can. Love is the answer to all the world’s problems. But first we have to understand what love is and it’s importance. God is waiting for you. He desires to show you His love. He desires to show you the truth so that He can bless you beyond anything this world has to offer.
I’m not sure what your trigger will be to soften your heart enabling you to receive the understanding of His love. I believe for me it was when I confessed Romans 12:1 with my whole heart and began living it on a daily basis. It was the day I sincerely turned my life over to Him to use me as a living sacrifice to work through me to help others. It’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
There’s no turning back now. I have experienced a high like no other. Joy like no other joy. Peace and most importantly love like no one other than God can give.
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