Live a Life of Love

I got rejected by a girl that I had kinda liked today. Got the line of "nothing more then friends" and I felt the all too familar punch in the stomach that goes with the territory. Needless to say this is not the first girl who has ever given me this "just friends" line. I got a little bummed at this news. So I started listening to sufjan steven's version of the hymn Come Thou Font. I just was struck by my favorite stanza of the song that goes:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.



With each girl I like, I'm allowing my heart to wander and dictate the life I'm demanding from God. Like a little kid who wants all the candy in the candy shop right now, that's what my heart is doing. Romans 5:8 is a favorite verse of mine for the simple fact it spells out just how much God is on our side. While we all were still in our sin, God sent His only son Jesus to die and raise again to give all us the life we did not deserve. That is how God once and for all showed His love to all of mankind and to me. For the first time I was not mad at God for the rejection of a girl. Why did I blame God? In my insanity I felt like God was just being mean to me about withholding a relationship. Yes, God is withholding a relationship from me but it is not because He is mean. The reason is that I'm no where near ready for the gift that He wants to give me at the right time. He wants me to be content in His love first and foremost. God keeps pointing me to the death and reserrection of Jesus and whispering, "Be content in that first. That's my ultimate demonstration of how dedicated my love is. Now make your love like that." Paul later writes in Ephesians 5:1-2, "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." That is life that I want and am praying to have the strength to be like. "Live a life of love" is where I'm allowing God to take my life. I'm glad this rejection happened to snap me back into another bit of reality. To God be the glory, forever and ever. amen




When You could just be silent
And leave us here to die
Still, You sent Your Son for us
You are on our side
~Bethany Dillon