“Just Be Loved”

“Just be loved”.

I am someone who strives a lot.

 I strive to get good grades in school. I strive to be a good friend. I strive to be a good daughter. And unfortunately, I have found myself striving to be a “perfect” Christian.

A few months ago, The Lord completely transformed my life by allowing me to realize the freedom that comes from Jesus’ death on the cross. I am no longer under the law, but I am washed clean by the blood. There is nothing I can do to earn this freedom. It is free and oh so freeing!

So when the issue of striving came up again in my spiritual life, I got a little aggravated. I thought that I already dealt with this in Cambodia and was over the problem completely.

The Lord reminded me that this life with Him is a process, and there are more layers to my striving issue that need to be dealt with.

The entirety of my Christian life I have woken up every morning and read my Bible. Growing up, I was taught that you must read your Bible and pray every day. I took that as, I must read my Bible and pray every single morning or I was a horrible Christian. It sounds completely crazy now, but that is how my brain worked.

So when I sat down one morning to do my daily reading and God told me to close my Bible, I was confused. I was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee, and The Lord asked me to just sit with Him and talk to Him about whatever I wanted. My mind immediately went back to home, where my most favorite thing to do is sit with my best friend, Maddie, on my living room couch with a cup of coffee and talk about anything and everything.

God revealed to me that yes, He is a Holy and Almighty and Sovereign God, but He also wants to be my friend. He wants to sit on the couch with me and just talk. I can talk about whatever I want, ask Him questions, tell Him how I am feeling about certain situations, and He will respond and do the same.

Something I am just learning to walk in is God’s love for me.

I have always thought that love is something that needs to be earned. It can’t just freely be given. That doesn’t make sense. But that’s exactly what His love is: free. We can’t do anything to be loved more or less.

Spending three hours reading my Bible won’t make God love me more than if I spent 3 minutes reading my Bible. And sometimes He asks you to shut your Bible and just sit in His presence.

The whole race thus far, I have been asking The Lord to help me to love others better. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that love for others is an overflow of the love Christ bestows on us. If I am striving to receive God’s love, then I am totally missing His love completely. And if I am striving to get more of God’s love, then won’t I expect others to strive to receive my love as well?

I picture an empty coffee mug trying to pour coffee out. It simply can’t pour anything out, because there was nothing in it in the first place. But if I allow the Lord to freely fill my cup, then I can’t help but to pour out onto others.

My prayer every morning is for the Lord to open my eyes to see His love around me. For Him to fill my cup so I can overflow onto everyone around me.

Because believe it or not, we were created to be loved and that’s it. Everything else we do as Christians, is an overflow of the love that God has for us. I’m not saying that everyone should stop reading their Bible’s and doing good things, but I’m saying to learn to be loved by The Father first, and then all those things will come as an overflow.

I don’t know if there is anyone else who finds themselves striving for things that they don’t need to be striving for. But I ask that you just rest at the Lord’s feet and let Him lavish His love on you.

“Just be loved.”