Without the love with which He first loved us, we would have no ability to love. The ability to love and the desire to be loved is one of the ways that we are made in the image of God/ Whether we believe in God or don't, whether we surrender to His lordship or insist on our own way, our natural ability to love our parents, our children, our romantic partner, our best friends and even our pets do not come from some innate evolved goodness in humanity. That ability exists because God, who is the very essence of love, made us in His image, designed from the beginning to love, to be loved and to increase through love.
Love is at the core of everything. It is the highest common denominator of humanity regardless of race, creed, sex, etc. It is when love has been twisted, turned only inward or eliminated from expression that the curse that keeps us and this world from being what we and it were created to be truly begins to be clearly seen. Then we see the anger, fear, hatred, selfishness, abuse, darkness and destruction that reign when love does not. This can be on a personal level or envelope societies as a whole. One day this misery will indeed come very close to dominating every inch of this planet, and if the Lord waits longer to return than that point, we will surely destroy ourselves. So the need for love is as much a part of who we are as the DNA that controls our physique. It is as natural to seek to be loved as it is to seek oxygen.
But do we really seek oxygen? No. Unless it is absent, we don't even think about it. We simply take it in and take it for granted that as we go about our day we can breathe naturally without fear of not having enough air. It is only when we get in a situation where the oxygen is threatened or absent that we begin to think about how we can get more. We are so aware that oxygen is all around us that we do not even think about oxygen.
We can do the same with love. I'm not talking about taking it for granted or becoming so aware of its presence that we do not think of it at all, although that would not be as bad as going about unaware of it as we all too often do now. I am talking about being so aware and comfortable with the truth that we have the love of God, aware that Daddy loves us, in a real and personal and protective and transformative way. In every way that we need love, like oxygen, we have it in the love of the One who created us and is love. We can become so comfortable in that truth and aware of Him and His presence and His love for us, that we go through our day with no need or desire to pursue love. We do not have any need or thought to seek the love or approval of anyone, because we have it as surely as we have the oxygen our body needs. And that frees us up from the pursuit of love, or the pursuit of something to replace love, to the act of spending our day in communion and fellowship with Daddy, being a beacon of love, joy, peace, freedom, His power, His glory and His way of life to those we encounter. We can pursue the pleasure of loving outward, as Jesus did and does, so that we can give love to those who are spiritually asthmatic and do not realize that they can have the same easy breath of love as we do. We can show them Jesus instead of the needy, broken, people we were and are without Him.
Lord, help me to be aware of Your great love for me today, so that I do not feel the need to try to earn or seek Your love but simply to walk in it. Help me to walk so fully in the awareness of Your love that I do not need to seek the love and approval of people but instead can be an instrument of Your peace by being a distributor of Your love. Help me be a demonstration of the peace that comes from not having to struggle for or seek love and approval, but by grace and with the gift of faith accept the greatest love that is freely given, so that others who are still sick, broken and captive may see the way to freedom found in You. Amen.
Peace Prayer Of Saint Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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