God is love & loves us!

Dear friend,

I have learned something recently that has changed my view on Christianity immensely!  I have learned recently that being a Christian (fully) means that you love God (w/ all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength), and by loving God (especially through the 5 love languages I'll write about in another entry), you end up loving others due to an overflow of your love for God.  Trust me, loving God first makes loving others WAY easier than trying to love others first.

"We love because God first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

"For You (God) created my inmost being; You (God) knit me together in my mother's womb." - Psalm 139:13

God love us from even before He created us in our mother's tummies.  Isn't that crazy, yet exciting and comforting?!  God loves us SO stinking much, but it's hard to see and understand that love sometimes because we confuse good, healthy, right love with the kind of love this world has come up with. (That makes me get a bad taste in my mouth).

This world tells us that love is someone doing what you want them to do when you want them to do it no matter if it's what is best for you or not.  Whatever you think is right is right, and if someone thinks any different, they're wrong.

Honey, I'm hear to tell you that THAT is not love.  And I'm not looking down on you if that's what you thought love was.  I have been and continue to go to this place that you might be at right now.

I love Disney.  I really, really do.  But many of the movies and TV shows I have watched growing up supported this instance view of love, and influenced me more than I even realize(d).

Actual love is the love God gives us.  It's love that looks out for what is BEST for us, not just what we want as of right now.  I am a witness for looking and seeing how time after time, I asked and prayed for things, and that thing didn't happen, and I was upset and mad at God for not giving me what I wanted.  But then months later, I looked back and saw what God was saving me from.  I didn't/couldn't see it in the moment, but am now SO grateful God didn't give me what I wanted then because His plan was SO much better than what I could have come up with or imagined.

After having this happen to me over and over, I have begun maturing my faith with Christ, and am able to trust Him even when He doesn't give me what I want in the moment.  I know I can't see something right now that He can see (because He's God), and I trust His perfect plan and guidance.  

Now, do I sometimes get caught up in the "If you love me, you'll do this" mess?  Absolutely.  Even though I do find myself asking God for selfish things and try to manipulate Him into giving them to me, I am trying for there to be more time inbetween the times this actually happens.  That is growth.  It's not going to change overnight.  But we must persevere.

"...perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us."  - Romans 5:4-5

Don't loose heart either when you don't get what you want, and also when you realize you haven't really been trusting God.  God is a God of forgiveness.  

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." - Romans 5:8

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but THAT is true love.  That even though God knew we would be selfish, go against Him, love other things (including ourselves) more than we love Him, that even though He knew all of that would be reality, He still gave us His everything because He loves us that much, even though we don't give Him that kind of love back.

Our God is love.  Don't confuse it with what this world calls love.  I encourage you to read 1 John to learn more about how God is love.  1 John is different from (regular) John.  1 John is a book closer to the end of the New Testament in the Bible.  it's really close to Revelation (the last book in the Bible).

Never forget, God loves you (more than you know) and I do too!

Blessings, Hope, and Love,

Maria