“will you dare to be loved as I long to love you, or will you insist on being loved as you feel you ought to be loved?”
Love drives our emotions. Its expression, or the lack there of, is what either moves us forward or keeps us in a state of despair and longing. When love is expressed, it can move us from depression to joy, from anger to forgiveness, from negative to positive. It’s when love isn’t expressed that we fall, and yet in the fullness of love expressed, we rise.
We live in a time where people’s emotions have been dulled and suppressed by overexposure to comparison and surface level connection where we can disconnect through the click of a button. Looking no further than social media, we can easily witness the result of unexpressed love as people are left craving to feel again.
Years ago as I walked through the doors of a church, I was feeling this weight of wanting to feel something, and it was the expression of love in people wrapped in worship, eyes closed in abandon, praising God, that won me to Jesus. Had I not experienced the emotion felt in that moment, I would have left that little church just as empty as I came. That love being expressed changed my life as I witnessed people fully surrendering and letting God love them. It helped me to realize that I am loved.
Practically, how do we bring the love of Christ into our expressions and our actions? Here’s a few things I have learned:
- Get connected to Godly relationships. Yes, step out of your comfort zone and let others get to know you.
- Serve others. When we shift our thoughts off of ourselves and our problems, God has a way of filling us with hope and happiness.
- Give. Generosity is an outward expression of love that changes the lives of others that we may never know. When we give, we make room for God to step in and fill the emptiness inside us.
- Daily devotion. We cannot express love or receive it unless we know what it looks like. We have to allow God to love us by spending time in his word, in prayer, and in worship. Remember, it was this one thing that allowed me to experience the love of Christ exhibited in others that saved me.
- Watch, listen, and read what is wholesome, uplifting, and life-giving. I am cautious about what I allow into my mind and spirit. The equation is simple: garbage in equals garbage out and life in equals life out.
I am a living breathing example of a life changed by love expressed in God’s people. What was dead inside me, what was angry and filled with hate for myself and others, what was sad and lonely, unloved, and abandoned became a life of joy, happiness, abundance, peace, and emotional well being. Because of Jesus’ love expressed in others, my life and the legacy of my family is moving forward. Won’t you make the choice to let God love you today and bring to life the expression of his love in you?
“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you.
Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.”–Psalm 14:8
