When you want to find love, God is Love.
She sat alone on the playground bench, her little body slumped, her feet dangling, and her brown curls covering her face. I wondered what had caused my usually perky little student to feel so down.
“Nobody wants to be my friend.”
Then she glanced towards the swings, where her best friend was swinging and laughing…with someone else.
At first her problem seemed insignificant. But before I brushed her off with a trite It’ll be okay, I remembered moments from my past when I felt the same way she did…unloved.
Maybe you’ve felt that way, too, at times.
A best friend moves away.
You’re left off the guest list.
Someone you care about continually hurts you.
Those closest to your heart live hundreds of miles from your home.
Or the person you trust the most betrays you in the worst way.
We seek loving relationships, but sometimes they’re hiding. And we ache for love, so we turn to God, because the Bible tells us “God is love.”
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
I John 4:7-12 (ESV)
Accepting God’s Love
God is the Initiator. He loved us first—you and me with all our bad habits, bad attitudes, bad hair days and all.
God is the Sacrifice. God the Son sacrificed himself for our sins.
He is Steadfast Lover. His love is unconditional and everlasting.
God is love…a love that reaches for us, sacrifices for us, and consistently cares for us. Since it is in God’s nature to love, he will never do anything unloving.
And once we allow those truths to become the framework on which we hang our hope, we’re free to reach out to others in love.
Sharing God’s Love
Yet even when we know and believe God loves us, sometimes we still feel empty and alone. We want that warm hug, that affirming smile, that soothing voice, but, God is, well….invisible.
Years ago, after a divorce, I found myself in that lonely place. Sunday afternoons were the worst. In church on Sunday mornings, I rejoiced in God’s love, but afterwards my church friends scurried home to their families. Feelings of isolation would descend during my solitary walk to the parking lot. At home, I’d sit in my bedroom and cry out to the Lord. Then, on many occasions, the phone would ring.
“I was just thinking of you and wondering how you’re doing.”
Someone had responded to the Lord’s prompting and called to check on me. And then…I would feel God’s love.
“If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” I John 4:12 (ESV)
Loving others perfects God’s love in us.
The Greek word used for “perfect” is teleioō. It literally means complete or accomplish.
The Lord doesn’t pour his love on us just so we can become stagnant puddles of affection. He means for that love to flow into others like a mighty river. God’s love for us is complete when we share it with others.
But what if the ones we love are far away? Or what if others reject our offers of friendship?
If you find yourself in that lonely place, don’t give up. Like that rushing river, you may need to change course and forge new relationships. Keep reaching out. Remember God loves you, and then look for someone else who needs a friend.
That was my advice to the little girl on the bench, and that’s good advice advice for you and me on the days when we need to feel connected and accepted.
Father, I believe that you are love, and that your love abides in me. Help me to fully experience that love by reaching out to others. Help me to step out of my comfort zone and extend a hand, for you’ve designed us for relationships. Your love abides in the hearts of your children, and you intend for it to flow through us to one another.
God loves you all the time, whether you feel it or not. If want to experience God’s love, first, meditate on I John 4 and believe the truth in God’s word. Then, reach out to someone with a phone call, a kind word, a letter, or a text. That’s where you’ll find love. God will be in the middle of that relationship because…
God is love.