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What if God {is} in fact LOVE

Originally published Friday, 14 November 2014.

What if the Bible really is God’s Word? What if the Bible was penned divinely by God through man?

I believe it is.

What if God really IS LOVE.

The Bible says: God IS Love (1 John 4:8)

Not God is the best at love, not God loves a lot, not God gives love, not God wants you to know He loves you.

NO, it says GOD is LOVE.

Do you ever just sit and think about what that means?

What if that place deep deep inside each one of us, that place we incessantly try to fill with everything from spouses, friends, dogs, children, chocolate (all good things, well I am not really a dog person) but what if we let that space be filled by the One who actually made us. The One who knit us together in our mother’s womb, the One who even put that longing in us?

What if we opened up our hearts a little more and let more of Love Himself in? Would it make our relationships better? Would we love those around us more?

I don’t know, I am just asking the question.

Years ago a therapist of mine gave me this:

Receiving and Giving

I am a novice when it comes to receiving.

Giving has become my expertise

But giving alone without getting

Becomes soon a fatal disease

 

If the intake valve is not opened

There’s no way to maintain a supply

There comes a point in the cycle of life

When the out-going stream runs dry

 

Straining out love from a vacuum

Is like drinking from the heart of a stone

Try as we may, at the end of the day,

We’re exhausted, frustrated, alone.

 

“Better to give than receive,” we are taught.

Yet another truth I’ve learned just by living:

Only the soul with the grace to receive,

Excels in the fine art of giving.

 

The Rev. Dr. James A Forbes Jr.

Senior Pastor, The Riverside Church, NYC

Copyright 1995, New York City

 

I had to peal it off my refrigerator to type it up. It’s been hanging on up there for the past 6 years. She knew! She knew I had trouble receiving love. I didn’t know that until years later, but she knew. I didn’t know God then and neither did she, but God knew I needed to understand this about myself. SO I ended up with this little poem, which was pretty impactful at the time.

I have come a long way since then, but I am often reminded I need to sit and soak up the LOVE of God before I can really function in any manner for anyone else.

I do forget sometimes (kind of a lot to be honest) and then I find myself running low on tolerance for people, traffic or just life in general. I am quickly reminded that I need to be loved on by the One who loves and adores me most. The One who created the Universe, the One who came down and rescued me. Ahhhhhhh… YES…..

He loves me! He loves you!

It sounds cliché, but the fact of the matter is, it’s 100% TRUE..

It is life changing to let that love in, to humble ourselves to receive His gift of salvation and then to receive His love every single second of every single day… To sit with Love Himself.

Be loved on by your creator, He is good and He loves you. And He does know the world around you is not how it was suppose to be, but that does not change His love for you!

Lately we have been talking more about LOVE (from the single chic) on my blog www.PuttingthePencilDown.com come join!! 

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