revelation at 12.30am...

So last night/this morning, at 12.30am ish, this is what happened...

I was reading my devotional note things, and the question was asked: "Did God create us that we might love Him or that He might love us?" Seemed profound, so I posted it as my Facebook status, and as I did, it mulled around in my mind a bit. I thought maybe it was just one of those rhetorical questions to make you think, but then 1 John 4:19 came to mind: "We love because He first loved us". This made me stop and think...

So if we love, because He loves us, then we can't have been created to love Him, because our love is as a result of His love. Our purpose is to be loved by God. We love not out of duty, but in response to His love. This is probably why performance doesn't work. We can't earn God's love or approval or the joy that comes from being loved by Him. If our purpose was simply to love God and He'd love us in return if we got it right, then we'd get nowhere and have little joy or freedom or motivation, which is honestly the place that many people have ended up in as a result of this mindset that our purpose in life is to love God.

It's is such a subtle difference, but what if our purpose is simply to be loved by God and to let Him love us, and out of that flows the fulfillment, joy and freedom long for... It's something we cannot earn, rather need to learn to receive, and freely receiving, we freely give. Being loved so completely leaves little room or even thought of doing anything other than loving others as fully, that they too may experience His great love and the fulfillment and pure joy that comes.

This absolutely blows my mind! We were made to receive love, which is why we so often go looking for it in all the wrong places and aren't satisfied. Only His love will satisfy, because it is His love that we were made to receive and live in and live off of. His love is complete and perfect. He is love. His very nature, His character, His being... love personified, exemplified and crucified. It makes so much sense when you look at how screwed up the world is, and that the root of all of it is this very issue: we need God's love.

We were made to be loved by Him, and the only response possible when faced with such love is to respond in kind. I don't know if you've ever had a revelation or life-changing encounter with God's love, but if you had, you wouldn't be the same. You'd know what it's like to have to tell others, to share it, because it is just too wonderful to keep all to yourself. It's the kind of love that wants to be passed on and shared, because then it grows and flourishes and so many more people get blessed. It's one of those weird things about the Kingdom:  you only really get to keep what you give away. Part of the blessing of giving is seeing someone else experience what you got to experience, and encouraging them to share it too. It's contagious :)

I pray that God will completely blow your mind with a new and greater revelation of His love... that His love would become so real and overwhelming and huge that you can't help up have to want to share it, because you wan't contain it. Loving God who is Love, let Your love rain down on us, and help us to accept and receive Your love which You long so much to express. Thank You for Your love, and that we cannot earn it, only receive it and share it and love You back by doing so. Amen!