God So Loved

I usually read through 1 Corinthians 13 a lot because, well, I'm in love with love. The romantic kind. The friend kind. The God kind. All the kinds. When I read it I'm usually studying to try and understand what love should look like. Trying to understand how I can be better at loving others. Better love my man. Better love my kids. Better love my friends and family. Better love a stranger even. They deserve that. People need to be loved well. But yesterday God directed me to read it with something else in mind.

I dug in as usual looking at the list of things love is and should show.... patience, kindness, hope, endures all things, sacrifice, so on...... when all of a sudden I could feel God speaking. He said, "this is not just HOW YOU love this is how you ARE LOVED."

Whoa. What? That's huge.

I always wanted to show this kind of love. And I know I am loved too. But I never really let it sink in fully that THIS is how I am loved. By Him. By the man He brought me. By my family and my good friends. People love me like this. And if they don't, they should. I deserve and should have the same kind of love I so badly want to give to them. And according to the Big Man, I have that.

Whoa.

Why had I missed this? Why had I expected less for myself than what God says love should be? Why did I not think others should and can love me the same way? Especially from Him and the man He gave me as my person.

This IS how I am loved..... I have it. Already. Its mine right 👏 flippen 👏 now 👏....

Whoa.

Maybe that's not a big revelation to you. Maybe you already have it, knew it, and are shaking your head at me for not knowing this already. But for me, someone who spent her whole life feeling unlovable, working for love, and striving to keep it.... this free gift of 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love is huge. Its freeing. Its beautiful. And I'm in awe.

God did this. He gave me this. I am so thankful. And He is so good yall ❤

But here's the thing..... You're loved like this too. And its not just some pretty thing to say or to make you feel good. You're actually genuinely, deeply, and fiercely loved by God. He goes out of His way to love you. He makes divine appointments in your life to tell you so. And He always wants to show you how far His love can go. This passage in 1 Corinthians isn't just about how we love, its about how we are loved. And that love never runs out.

I pray you receive that love. And if you can't ask God to help you. He will. And you'll be forever changed.