Eight months ago I became “Gigi” to Hallie Claire Jones. At eight months, Hallie is learning to grasp Cheerios. She sees them. She wants them. But she isn’t always successful at grasping them.
We are so like Hallie. We see God’s love. We want God’s love. But we aren’t always successful at grasping it.
But we can learn.
Did you know it takes 20 seconds for a thought to become ingrained in our minds? So if we repeatedly listen to the lie that says God couldn’t–God wouldn’t, God shouldn’t–possibly love me, is it any wonder we struggle to embrace His love?
We wrap our fingers around the lie, not the love.
But…
If we think about God’s love for 20 seconds, we begin the process of wrapping our fingers around the love.
And we release the lie.
3. Listen to What God Says, Not What Anyone Else Says (including yourself)
No doubt, Hallie will eventually learn to grasp Cheerios with ease, and it will become second nature for her. But for now, she’s still learning. She has to focus. She has to try, and try again. She must listen to the voice of her parents assuring her she’ll soon learn how to grasp.
If she doesn’t listen to her parent’s voice, she might get discouraged. She might give up. She might come to believe the grasp is beyond her reach. But it’s not.
We must listen to our heavenly parent’s voice, too.
It’s easy to listen to the voice of the world, the voice of the enemy, or even the voice in our own head, whispering lies like, “You aren’t good enough for God to love you,” or “This circumstance is happening because God doesn’t love you.” But that’s not what God says.
“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)
My friend, God loves you. God loves me. It’s time we stopped letting the truth slip through our fingers.
It’s time to wrap all five fingers around God’s great love. And grasp it.
You are loved (you really are!),
Donna
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
Lord God, Please open my heart so that I can grasp how very much you love me. Help me accept the fact that Jesus died for me because He loves me. Help me remember that when it would have been so easy for Jesus to focus on His own needs before His crucifixion, He focused on mine. God, thank you for loving me. Thank you that you loved me long before I loved you. I need your love and I receive your love. Help me live–really live–in the reality of your great love for me. Amen.
Next Steps:
- Pray that God would open your heart so you can understand how deeply He loves you.
- Listen to what God says about His love for you. Refuse to listen to the voice of lies; listen to the voice of love.
- Meditate (think about, mull over, ponder, praise, thank) about the truth that God loves you. Say it out loud. Write it down. Spend 20 seconds allowing yourself to receive the love of God. Wrap your hands around His love and don’t let go.
- If a relationship with God is new to you, or if you’ve felt distant from God recently, you might want to read Donna’s book, Seek: A Woman’s Guide to Meeting God.
