1 Samuel 16:7||NIV
My Love Story
When I met my husband for the first time it was not love at first sight. Well, at least from my side of the story it wasn’t. But if you were to ask him how we met and fell in love from his perspective, it was. We both agree however, that neither one of us were looking for love when we met. Here’s the gist of it: we met by accident while he was looking for someone else. He offered to drive me home and I turned him down. But he insisted and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I finally agreed and thanked him for the ride. That was the end of the story for me. Unknowingly though, I had him at thank you.
After that day he began to come around quite a bit. He would find reasons to come by, dropping hints that I was not picking up. I thought he was just being nice, but his heart was somewhere else. And while he was pursuing me, I was blinded to his chase. I was closed off to the idea of love. And closed off to the weird way he treated me. He would do things like open the door for me which was {awk’-ward}. He would do things like look me in the eye when he was talking to me. {So weird}. He would buy me gifts and flowers. He wanted to be around me and spend as much time with me as he could. But my heart was closed off to the idea of a relationship like this. I didn’t feel worthy to be loved. Because my idea of love was based on the outward things. It was distorted.
Thankfully though, his affections for me where unchanged by the way I felt about myself. It didn’t stop him from pursuing me. He kept coming around. He was relentless.
And though the love that we have for each other in human terms or what we watch on the big screen is not the same as God’s love, though it cannot be compared, though it cannot even come close, though it cannot even be measured--understandably, God is crazy about you. His love and affections do not change for us no matter how we feel about Him. I recently heard an evangelist say, “God’s love for you hasn’t grown any stronger.” I don’t know about you, but that is difficult to grasp. Because I fail at that kind of love. But just because I don’t understand it, just because I fail at it, doesn’t make it untrue. You and I cannot change His love. He remains the same.
Lamentations 3:22a || ESV
It never ceases. His love is relentless.
Not only is His love unchanging, there is nothing we can do to achieve His love. It is only received. Despite how you feel, God cannot love you any more for the good things you do, or the beauty you have, or the successes you’ve achieved, or anything that you have to offer. Likewise, He doesn’t love you any less for what you haven’t done, or the beauty you don’t think you have, or your failures, or anything that you think you don’t have to offer. He is love. And He loves you. Like, crazy love. It was always a love story. From the very beginning He had you in mind. He has always been pursuing you.
I’ll never forget in Josh’s pursuit of my heart, he drove me out to the country one day. He parked the car and got out a little box. Talk about awkward! I hadn’t even said yes to be his girlfriend and he was pulling out a ring box. Well, thankfully it wasn’t to ask me to marry him. He was simply giving me a gift. As he opened the box he told me that I had his heart. And this left me with a choice to respond to his gift.
And Jesus does the same for you. You have His heart. You always have. You always will. And His love that will not change; that cannot grow any stronger for you, requires you to respond. Your response will not change His love for you. It can’t. But if you receive His gift, His love will change you from the inside out. It is a free gift that will free you...to love.
How do you respond?