I’d rather keep it simple, keep it real
Yes, I’m done with all the things that make it
Difficult to know
You love me
You like me
And I am Yours
Simply Put – Fred Hammond
Do you remember when you first discovered God? That moment (or moments) that you can recall, when God stopped being an abstract idea, and He became to you just what you needed?
That moment when God was no longer the eye in the sky, but He was more intimately your friend? Your father? Your confidante? Your healer? Do you remember when you first fell in love with Christ?
Have you experienced that moment yet?
Some people fall in love with God at first sight. Their initial encounter is so powerful, so potent, that they grab on to God’s love so tight, they could never dream of letting go. They can tell you day and time down to the very second they welcomed Jesus into their heart.
Then there are some of us who grew to love Him. We hung around where He was. We saw how He treated other people. We watched as He loved on others. We observed how He healed wounds old and new. We paid attention when He sought out the least of us, just so they wouldn’t feel alone. We started spending time with Him on our own and discovered that He is actually really cool. That He’s so kind, so caring, so attentive to our every need. He answers prayers we whispered quietly and loved us into better versions of ourselves. We may not have been looking for God, but when He knocked on the door of our hearts we enthusiastically let Him in. He becomes our everything.
We wake up in the morning so that we can meet Him. We can’t stop talking about Him. We gush about how good He is. We brag about how He loves on us. We want the whole world to know that we found a Savior and that He’s sweet, we know.
We jump at every opportunity to spend time with Him, we can’t get enough of God. We love to be in His presence. We want to be around people who love Him like we do, because they get it. No one had to convince us to read our Bible, we wanted to. No one had to remind us to pray, we craved conversation with our Savior. We knew that He knew, that He understood and that He was there to help, guide and comfort us whenever we needed Him.
Then life happens and disaster strikes.
We lose our job. A major life change doesn’t go as expected. Someone we love passes away. We are somehow convinced that God has forsaken us.
Or even more subtly, we go to Sunday brunch with friends one Sunday, and the next Sunday we’re out of town on business. We forget to read our Bible because we have a major project to finish at work. We haven’t been praying because we’re worried about getting this promotion. Our favorite television show is on, but we’ll read our Bible after…and never quite get to after because we fall asleep halfway through. We’re so busy being mom, teacher, wife, sister, friend, cousin, auntie, brother, uncle, dad, boss, that we don’t have time to talk to God.
We fall out of love because we fall out of the habits of love.
When you love someone, you love them even when they get on your nerves. You love them even when you hate what they’ve done to you. You love them enough to talk through whatever rough patch you’re going through so that, even though at this moment you’re not seeing eye to eye, there’s hope to move past this thing. You love them enough to want to fix whatever’s broken and to create a stronger bond in spite of.
God surely loves us enough, but do we love Him like that?
Do we love Him enough to talk to Him when we feel He’s disappointed us? He will help and heal you because He wants you close to Him.
Because He loves you.
He likes you
And you belong to Him.
Psalm 51:12 says, “Restore unto me the joy of salvation; and uphold me with the free spirit.” (KJV)
Kirk Franklin beautifully wrote:
Come back to your first love (first love, first love)
Come back home, back where you belong
Come (to your) first love
God misses you when you’re not around, because He loves you. He longs for a deeper relationship with you. I John 4:19 says, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
I encourage you today to fall back in love with Jesus. Or continue to fall deeply in love with Him.
I promise there’s no sweeter love.
