1John 4:7-11 (NLT), “7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.”
Do you believe God loves you? Do you feel His love, or are you not too sure about it? Love is something all of us crave, and many of us don’t realize that it’s not the love of or from another person or even ourselves that we’re yearning for. We’re yearning to experience the love of God at the deepest level possible. We were created to seek His love through an intimate relationship with Him. To the extent that we don’t do this, we’ll experience a deep sense of being out of place—of not feeling fulfilled or having a sense of purpose. Disappointments in life may cause us to feel so displaced that we close ourselves off to love. It worsens when our minds become filled with dark and sad thoughts. God’s love is always there, but without faith we can’t reach out and grab it. Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to live this way.
The passage in 1John 4 tells us that love comes from God. This means He is the Source of it, and if we’re feeling as though we’re not loved, our first step should be to seek God for the love connection we’re missing. Some of us behave very oddly about this. We understand that love is a spiritual thing, because you can’t touch it or hold it in your hand. You can’t create love or stop the momentum of its power. The only thing that you and I can do is be conduits of it. Love must flow to, by, with, and through us from the Source of it; this Source is God.
It is a power too great for any human to manipulate, yet, many people somehow try to separate the spiritual reality of love from the Spiritual Source of its power. It can’t be done. Galatians 5:6(NLT) tells us, “For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love.” It is impossible to love without faith in God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 5:6 tells us that the most important thing is faith expressing itself in love. Faith is the believing substance that allows us to reach out and grab God’s love with both hands.
Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do all things through Christ, because he is our strength, yet, we look to other human beings to make us whole. We want the man to fill up our empty spaces, and no human can do this. We’re born into a sinful world with sin in our bodies. This means that many of us start out with some emptiness inside. Some of it comes from poor or no parental guidance, and it can also be deepened by devastation and trauma in life. We’re works-in-progress and all of us have some area of our lives that is preventing us from loving God the way we should. He wants to help us, because our empty spaces need to be filled with His love, so that we can then give and receive love freely.
God’s love is real and lasting. It never fails, and when it is expressed through faith, amazing things happen! We must believe wholeheartedly in the love that only God can give and not behave as if our cups can be filled by anyone other than Him. James 1:17 tells us every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above. Colossians 1:17 tells us that Christ is before all things, and he holds all things together. Having faith in God’s unconditional, limitless love for us through Jesus Christ will fill us to the brim with real love. Then we will attract a quality person and build a relationship based on the strength and wholeness of Christ, instead of hopelessly trying to use a person to fill a void. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Real Love is What You’re Missing ” written by Kim Times, edited by Reverend Fran Mack for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2019. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.