I've been starting and stopping some writing that has to do with my life for months now. While writing I realized that most of my life I longed to be in love. This longing brought me loads of trouble. But I think that longing is a God thing. Great stories are often romances (or at least have a romance within them).
We want to be loved. But we have a need to love too. I'm reading a book by Beth Moore right now called Audacious. It's a book about boldly loving Jesus. She brings up the story of Jesus asking Peter three times if Peter loves Him. The third time Jesus asks Peter says sadly, "Lord you know all things; You know that I love you."
How would you feel if Jesus asked you three times if you loved him? How would I feel? Would we feel sad, mad or frustrated from answering the same question three times? Would we feel exposed, embarrassed, ashamed that our answer might be no?
"What (I) need now is love, sweet love/ It's the only thing that (I) have just too little of."
Do you truly love Jesus? Do you boldly love Jesus? Or do we just respect Him without love?
Love Jesus. That's God's will for you and me. To love His Son. If You don't feel love for Jesus, ask God to open up that heart of yours. He'll flood it full of love for His Son. Today I read "Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns" in Jeremiah 4:3.
In Matthew 13 Jesus calls "the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of riches" thorns. Those thorns will work against us. They will harden our hearts to Jesus and His Word. They will make our love for Him grow cold. And when our love for Jesus is cold our souls shrivel up and eventually feel dead. He's the reason for everything.
Colossians 1:17 says, "He is before all things and in Him all things hold together."
That means we're held together by Christ Jesus. You are held together by Him. I am held together by Him. How can we not love Him?