When Relationships Fail, We are Still Loved by God
Sitting down in a chair, she leans over to rest her elbows on the table and covers her face with her hands. She inhales deep and holds her breath. As she exhales slowly, she hopes that somehow calmness will overtake the pain from the lump she feels forming in the back of her throat. Too weak to hold out hope any longer for the calm to come, the tears break free and stream down her face.
Many nights that was me, after hanging up the phone with my Mom after hearing her say those words God Loves You So Much. Why? Why me? There’s so many people out there that have so much more to offer Him than I did. Besides, we were only on speaking terms when I was desperate and He was my only way out. I didn’t want Him to do anything for me that I could handle myself because I thought I could control the outcome. Doing things His way in the past ended up being painful and almost more than I could bear. Instead of waiting for God to restore my joy, I searched for things that I thought would bring me joy. It’s funny now how I had more faith in people making me happy “forever” until my relationships would come to an abrupt halt and of course, end up being painful and almost more than I could bear and then those words…God Loves You So Much. With the pain they brought comfort as well, because I knew that He did indeed love me as shown by the life I had experienced when He was literally almost all I had.
He doesn’t want me to live my life with guilt and shame, anger and bitterness. He wants me to live life to it’s fullest because that’s what gives Him glory, that’s why He made us and that’s why He loves us. Sometimes we can’t see the good because we’ve let things get in the way to distract us and keep us from seeing. We’re already martyrs for Jesus, why do we insist on martyring ourselves? It could be so that in the day we are persecuted for our faith, we will have endurance to stand and not faint. There has to be a time that we get past that if we truly are going to be able to have that endurance and be more effective in what He’s called us to do.
It’s not about being a Christian full-time or part-time, it’s about being a Believer and living our lives as one. Our whole lives, not just the part of our lives when it’s convenient. When we start living the life of a Believer, we have to have the mind of a Believer. It’s easy to think that there is something wrong in our lives that we’ve overlooked and it’s keeping us from receiving His promises and blessings for us. Not only does the Holy Spirit pray for us when we don’t know how to pray, but Jesus intercedes for us as well. All we have to do is believe, believe we are called according to His purpose and ALL things will work together for good.
I think that sometimes we wait for Door Number 2 to open. We’re afraid to walk through Door Number 1 that is already open for us because all we see it leading to is a brick wall. Even if there is just a brick wall on the other side of that door, there might just be a ladder attached to it. We have to believe or we’ll never finish and sometimes never begin the job that He has called us to do.
When we sit there and wonder what’s the point. God has a plan, we can fight it all day long, but God has a plan. When we accept Him in our lives, we start a new life. When we make His will our will, we start learning how to live every day not seeing our problems as trouble, but seeing them as lessons that we are eager to learn and happy because He is teaching us. With or without God in our life, we all will have problems. Without God in our lives, we rely on ourselves or our friends for hope that things will get better. While people will come and go, God will fill us with His Holy Spirit so that He is with us all the time.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. (1 John 4)
Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy, or boast and it is not proud, rude or self-seeking. Love is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13)
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4)
God Loves You So Much.
