made for love

God made us for relationship, with Him and with other people.  God made us for love, to be the recipients of His love, to give love back to Him, and to share His love with other people.  He designed us with our own emotions, love being one of them.  The Bible says that God is love.  (I John 4:16)  So simple, but the devil has made love so complicated for us humans.

The devil lies to us about everything, but especially about love and relationships...

• If you love, you will get hurt.
• You are the only one who can protect your heart from being hurt.
• You should only love people who love you back.
• Love is not worth it.
• You are imperfect and not worthy of love.
• You are an inconvenience.  (This is the big lie that the devil used on me...and I believed it.)
• Saying "I love you" is too risky.
• and on and on and on...

Only God's love is unconditional.  He loved us and sent Jesus to earth out of love before we were even born.  We humans are imperfect and our human emotion of love is sometimes fickle.  We hurt each other.  Those wounds are painful and in an effort to protect ourselves, we form tough, fibrous scar tissue over them.  Scar tissue holds us together, but it limits our growth and our ability to love.  We withdraw from really connecting with people, afraid that our scars will be seen, and fearful that our wounds will be torn open again.  

We simply need the love of Jesus.  His love can gently remove the scar tissue layer by layer.  His love can heal the injuries underneath.  I speak from experience.  I am finally allowing the love of Jesus to soften and remove the tough tissue around my heart that has been there "protecting" me for years.  If you are ready for Jesus to love you and heal you, just tell Him.  I promise that He will hear and respond!  I am praying for you!

Truthfully, that scar tissue kept me from what God has called me (and all of us) to do...love.  It kept me from receiving God's perfect love and letting it flow through me to the people around me.  It limited my relationships with God and people since I was always fearful of being hurt and rejected.  And now that the scars and the wounds are healing, I feel like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes in one day.  My capacity for love is growing.  God is teaching me to be filled by His perfect love, and not to look to people to fill me up.  God is teaching me to love people more like He does...unconditionally and without expectation and extravagantly!

February is the month in which human love is celebrated.  But, every day should be a day to celebrate the best kind of love...God's love!  We were made for love!