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Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37 (NLT)

If you have not heard this song, I highly recommend you listen to “Reckless Love,” by Cory Asbury. This song shouts how God will literally go to the ends of the earth for us, how He loved us before we were born, and how His love is not based on emotions.

Here’s a little sample:

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain, You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

WOW! That is powerful! We are literally worth everything to Him.

Isn’t this what everyone wants? Do you know it is estimated that there are over 100 million love songs?! (The Harvard Crimson)  So many people are searching for love and what it means to be fully loved. Yet God offers His unrequited love to us and so many of us barely even consider that real love according to our definition of what love really is.

Why is that?

Because we have reduced love to a feeling.

But love is not a feeling. Love is a commitment. Love is a choice. Love is….

“…patient and  kind, …not jealous, or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way, it is not irritable and keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.” (I Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT).

Do you know anyone who embodies all of the above characteristics? No, because it’s impossible. This is the very definition of Who God is. God is Love.

If you struggle with what real love is, you are not alone. Even King Solomon struggled with what love is.

AFTER God had appeared to Solomon TWICE, AFTER Solomon had built the Lord’s temple, AFTER he had built his own beautiful palace, AFTER God gave Solomon victory after victory in battles and a peaceful kingdom, AFTER God gave Solomon all the wisdom and wealth a person could attain, AFTER God promised a member of his family would always reign in Israel, Solomon was not content and wanted to feel love.

1 Kings 11 begins with, “Now King Solomon LOVED many foreign women…The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods. YET Solomon insisted on LOVING them anyway.” (1 Kings 11:1-2NLT, emphasis mine).

Solomon was fooled by the feeling, the notion, the euphoria of what love is. If Solomon could be fooled, we can be too.

Love is a God who gave His most precious gift, His Son, to us. Why? So that we would never have to be apart from Him. That is love.

Love is a God who will chase us, find us, and never leave us, no matter what has happened or what choices we have made. That is love.

Love is a God who promises that He can ‘redeem the years the locusts have eaten,’ whether because of our choices or someone else’s choices. That is love.

Love is a God who promises, even in this fallen world, that if we honor Him with our lives, we will receive crowns in Heaven. That is love.

Love is a God who never shames or condemns us, even when we willingly decide to walk against His best for us. His arms extend to us as He dusts us off, helps us stand again, and walks with us. That is love.

Love is designing us, knowing us, and loving us before we were born. Then never wavering from that. That is love.

Love is knowing the very worst thing we have ever done and continuing to love us in spite of it. That is love.

Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking we need a feeling or a moment in this life when we have been showered with the ultimate love of the perfect Being.

Our earthly relationships are just a bonus. We are already loved with a “Reckless Love.”

Embrace it and let His love be enough. Believe it, receive it, and bask in it.

“Father, help us live like we are loved by the King of Kings, oh, because WE ARE!

For His Glory

Terrie Tollerson (www.TerrieTollerson.com)
TRBC Women’s Life