Several years ago, I was out on a run, praying and bearing my hurt before the Lord.
My heart was aching from the many interactions I had with several different people I trusted.
I felt like Cinderella, ready for the ball after working so hard to overcome so much pushback from life only to have those closest to me rip everything to shreds, leaving me broken and in tears.
One would think God would emphasize what “they” did as He comforted my wounded soul, but what the Holy Spirit gently whispered to my heart instead brought me to my knees:
He said, “My children don’t understand what unconditional love truly is until they’ve learned to walk in love through the heartache and betrayals life brings. My precious one, I’ve called you to become like me.”
I broke.
Those words sunk deep in my heart, and I could feel the Holy Spirit doing something powerful inside of me.
1 Corinthians started to play in my mind: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, 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.”
I started to think about how the fruit of the Holy Spirit lines up with the true definition of love and how His fruit flowing from our lives is the evidence of what a follower of Jesus looks like: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Passages started to flood my mind from different books of the Bible fitting together like a mosaic masterpiece, making the most beautiful image of God’s heart.
The goal of our instruction is love.
We are vessels of the living God, the hands and feet of Jesus, made in His image…
And His image is love.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live in Him and He in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
1 1 John 4:11-17 (NLT)
This morning, in the quiet of my home, I was wrestling out more hurt I’ve endured.
And He said to me, “Don’t lose sight of the goal — to become like Me, to become love.”
Pray with me:
Father, I can’t accomplish the goal of becoming love without you. I need you. I need your grace. Work in and through me — touch and heal the trauma stored in my mind and the physical responses to the pain I’ve endured. Jesus, You are a Healer. I put my full trust in You. I trust Your faithfulness. I trust in Your perfect love. Today, I am surrendering all my hurt to you. I forgive those who have wronged and hurt me and release each one into your loving hands. I’m asking You, Holy Spirit, to have your way in and through me. Reveal every wrong thought and barrier in my mind that is preventing me from becoming love. Here I am — mold and shape me into who You’ve created me to be — a vessel and the image of Your unconditional love so that others can encounter You through me — I want to live like Jesus in this world; His hands and feet. In Your holy name, I pray, amen.
