I don't know about you, but sometimes I have a hard time telling the Lord that I love Him. Thanking Him is no problem, because I know He's done so much for me.
But telling Him I love Him? I'm a bit afraid to do that. Maybe because it seems so bold. My "love" is so feeble and selfish and imperfect compared to His. In the face of everything He's done and does - of how wonderful and special He is - to call my weak response "love" seems a stretch at best, an insult at worst.
Yet...John says, "We love Him because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19) And interestingly enough, that comes right after this verse: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment [some versions use the word 'punishment']. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love."
You know something, though? The more I think about it, I guess maybe it's okay to feel that tension, after all. Of course I don't love God perfectly (it's good to recognize that). But He's not surprised by that. As a friend once put it, God knew what He was getting when He chose us to be His children. And because He knows who I am...because He knows my human-ness through and through...because it's His grace that brought me here in the first place...
...He accepts me, imperfect love and all. And I don't have to be afraid to tell Him.
We love Him, because He first loved us.
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