As hard as it is to believe I am in love with a something that I cannot see, fully understand, or feel all the time. I am in love with my Creator, God, Rescuer, Pursuer, Comforter, Father, and Husband. I feel comfortable saying He is all these roles for me because He tells me He is through the bible.
You may be wondering, "How can you be in love with a God that you cannot actually see?" I would have to answer that question with three things. The first would be that I make the decision everyday to place my faith in Him, and all the bible says He is. I choose to believe and set my heart on His promises to Israel and other people who were inspired by God to write the bible. The reason why I use the words choose and decide is because I do not wake up each morning with the emotions that portray I believe in a God who loves me unconditionally. If my emotions were always in align with what I say I believe in then I would always be without negative thoughts and feelings. The issue lies within me being human.
I have tried to give my heart to other things, but time after time those things kept leaving me empty, hurt, and wanting more. So I with much effort try to stop looking for love in the wrong places, and continually place my heart in a place where it is not about me. I have placed my faith in the hope that God thousands of years ago sent his son to die on the cross with me in mind even though I am undeserving. As 1 John 4:19 says, "We love him, because He first loved us." His grace- the gift I do not deserve causes me to in response be able to love Him since I cannot make Him love me less. In return, I do not want to purposely go against Him since He has done and still does for me and for all of us.
The second reason why I am able to love an invisible God is because the truth is I need hope. I am so weak that I cannot live life without hope in something more than what this world has to offer. I am weak in the sense that I do not have the confidence, abilities, and strength to live a life that is fully centered around me. I believe that faith is placing hope in what we do not see. Just because I cannot visibly see God face to face, I do think that if anybody really wanted to they could experience His fingerprints of His works through miracles, nature, births, anatomy of our bodies, our uniqueness, etc. We just have to seek Him with our entire hearts, and we will find Him like the bible says we will.
The third reason why I am able to love God even with such visible pain in life is my individual story. In my life, I have experienced a lot different things that have pointed me to believing that there is something else that is holding everything together, and I do not think it is just energy or something impersonal. The events in my life have pointed me to fall on my knees to the belief that there is a God who thought of all us before anything was made. He thought of us with specific purposes in mind. He even gave us the free will to be able to choose to love, misuse, or reject Him. God went to the extent of sending His Son to come without any demands of respect or worship...to save us by carrying all the heaviness, dirtiness, and separations of our past, present, and future sins on Himself on a cross. You may be wondering what I mean by sin. Sin is anything that is out of God's character and commandments in the bible. I used to think that His commandments was something I wanted to avoid, but once I came to the realization that they were made for my best interest my mindset began to change. I am thankful that He did not leave me to live life without guidance because any parent who loves their kids will help them to learn what is the best way to live. We are so overly blessed to have the opportunity to call ourselves God's children if we choose to believe, obey, and put Him in charge.
Jesus died with arms out, making His heart so visibly exposed and vulnerable for us, which is so beautiful. Arms out and heart opened. His Son Jesus died as a sacrifice and exchange for us. If nothing fully satisfies my yearnings here on earth, and I feel deep down inside that I was made for more...why would I keep chasing after those things with the expectancy of getting different results? Instead, I desire to get to know God, and build as deep of a relationship that I can since I will be spending forever with Him. Again, yes, I deserve death (separation of God), but because of what Jesus has done, not me, I get to look forward to Heaven (getting to be and know God fully). Heaven is something I look forward to because it will be a time where the bible describes there to be no more tears but instead the true and FULL presence of God. Woo hoo! I can only imagine what that will be like :)
Psalm 40 really reflects the point in my life where I felt for the first time that God was real and worth following:
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
I hope that this post finds you well, and that you feel encouraged to know that my life has been a lot more stable and sweeter since I started pursuing a relationship with God. I pray that you will search Him with your entire heart, so you can experience the goodness of Him while living your life.
"When you think life is long you live for small things, but when you think life is short you commit to living for things that matter."
You may be wondering, "How can you be in love with a God that you cannot actually see?" I would have to answer that question with three things. The first would be that I make the decision everyday to place my faith in Him, and all the bible says He is. I choose to believe and set my heart on His promises to Israel and other people who were inspired by God to write the bible. The reason why I use the words choose and decide is because I do not wake up each morning with the emotions that portray I believe in a God who loves me unconditionally. If my emotions were always in align with what I say I believe in then I would always be without negative thoughts and feelings. The issue lies within me being human.
I have tried to give my heart to other things, but time after time those things kept leaving me empty, hurt, and wanting more. So I with much effort try to stop looking for love in the wrong places, and continually place my heart in a place where it is not about me. I have placed my faith in the hope that God thousands of years ago sent his son to die on the cross with me in mind even though I am undeserving. As 1 John 4:19 says, "We love him, because He first loved us." His grace- the gift I do not deserve causes me to in response be able to love Him since I cannot make Him love me less. In return, I do not want to purposely go against Him since He has done and still does for me and for all of us.
The second reason why I am able to love an invisible God is because the truth is I need hope. I am so weak that I cannot live life without hope in something more than what this world has to offer. I am weak in the sense that I do not have the confidence, abilities, and strength to live a life that is fully centered around me. I believe that faith is placing hope in what we do not see. Just because I cannot visibly see God face to face, I do think that if anybody really wanted to they could experience His fingerprints of His works through miracles, nature, births, anatomy of our bodies, our uniqueness, etc. We just have to seek Him with our entire hearts, and we will find Him like the bible says we will.
The third reason why I am able to love God even with such visible pain in life is my individual story. In my life, I have experienced a lot different things that have pointed me to believing that there is something else that is holding everything together, and I do not think it is just energy or something impersonal. The events in my life have pointed me to fall on my knees to the belief that there is a God who thought of all us before anything was made. He thought of us with specific purposes in mind. He even gave us the free will to be able to choose to love, misuse, or reject Him. God went to the extent of sending His Son to come without any demands of respect or worship...to save us by carrying all the heaviness, dirtiness, and separations of our past, present, and future sins on Himself on a cross. You may be wondering what I mean by sin. Sin is anything that is out of God's character and commandments in the bible. I used to think that His commandments was something I wanted to avoid, but once I came to the realization that they were made for my best interest my mindset began to change. I am thankful that He did not leave me to live life without guidance because any parent who loves their kids will help them to learn what is the best way to live. We are so overly blessed to have the opportunity to call ourselves God's children if we choose to believe, obey, and put Him in charge.
Jesus died with arms out, making His heart so visibly exposed and vulnerable for us, which is so beautiful. Arms out and heart opened. His Son Jesus died as a sacrifice and exchange for us. If nothing fully satisfies my yearnings here on earth, and I feel deep down inside that I was made for more...why would I keep chasing after those things with the expectancy of getting different results? Instead, I desire to get to know God, and build as deep of a relationship that I can since I will be spending forever with Him. Again, yes, I deserve death (separation of God), but because of what Jesus has done, not me, I get to look forward to Heaven (getting to be and know God fully). Heaven is something I look forward to because it will be a time where the bible describes there to be no more tears but instead the true and FULL presence of God. Woo hoo! I can only imagine what that will be like :)
Psalm 40 really reflects the point in my life where I felt for the first time that God was real and worth following:
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
4 Blessed is the man who makes
the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after a lie!
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
yet they are more than can be told.
I hope that this post finds you well, and that you feel encouraged to know that my life has been a lot more stable and sweeter since I started pursuing a relationship with God. I pray that you will search Him with your entire heart, so you can experience the goodness of Him while living your life.
"When you think life is long you live for small things, but when you think life is short you commit to living for things that matter."