Are You in Love?
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16 // “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;” Luke 10:27
Nothing like shopping up and down the aisles of a super-Walmart store in the U.S. to have a complete stranger in the midst of a little conversation drop the big question on me. “Are you in love?” she asked.
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “I’m in love with the Lord Jesus Christ!” I said jubilantly just like a school girl madly in love. After all, I am madly in love – with the Lord!
I am sure this didn’t surprise the woman. We had already talked briefly about the Lord, as I continually gush at the mouth about Him and don’t often get far in a conversation without talking about God. I believe what surprised her is what came next.
“No, I mean, are you in love? With someone on earth? You need to love God, but you need to have someone special on earth to love also!” she said emphatically.
“Oh no, oh no!” I declared. “God has given me love for all people. But I don’t need anyone special to love on earth. I am madly and passionately in love with the Lord!” My boundless love and exceeding passion for Him, expressed unabashedly in the midst of the aisle, was enough to make clear I already have my someone special. My eternal love, my forever God!
Given my decades-long obsession with finding men, falling in love with men, being indescribably obsessed with men, and falling totally apart and contemplating suicide when I was rejected by them, nobody is more surprised by what God has done with my heart than I am. For the Lord has made my heart and life entirely His. Never lonely. TOTALLY satisfied!
There is a message in this for all of us. Whether God has blessed us with a significant other on this earth or not, with a boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancé, or spouse, there is nothing more beautiful, joyful, blessed, magnificent, amazing, awesome, fulfilling, life-giving, life-changing, and forever than the love God has for us and the love we are commanded to have for Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. All human love is imperfect, falls short, fails, and comes to an end at one time or another, no matter how great that love is, but the Lord’s love is forever.
I am sorry it took me decades to come to know the Lord’s love, but I hope God might use my story to help others to know if you are making any love in your life higher than the love from and for the Lord God almighty through Jesus the Christ, you are not only breaking God’s greatest command. You are missing the infinite blessedness of the most glorious love of all. His! Are you in love?