Choosing

What hinders love?

Is it not truly knowing what love is?

When Christ rose from the grave, the victory was complete, His love had won.  Christ, He is Love, and He won - for all eternity.

What did He win?  What was His prize?  It was us - you and me.

Now the choice is ours.  We get to choose that love.  But why do we shy away?  Why don't we trust?  Why don't we believe?  I suppose the answer is simple - we live in a fallen world where the examples we see of love are incomplete, tainted by lack.  The examples we see typically fall short.

Maybe it's in the wanting.  Are we truly wanted? 
Christ died out of love, but does He truly want me? In our hearts we think, if He really knows who I am, how can He want me?

In our heart, do we really believe that He wants us, that He LOVES us? 

 

Or do we believe that He is going to allow us to slip into heaven on a technicality?  Others will get to be close - they get to sit in His lap with His arms wrapped about them.  They get the house being prepare, the full package.  Others have truly hit the mark, but we get to slip in.

Many times what we feel and truth are two very different things.

There are lines from a couple of songs that really stick with me, they speak to my heart and I hear them being whispered to me.

‘Cause I loved you before you knew what was love
I saw it all, and still I chose the cross
You were the one that I was thinking of
When I rose from the grave

-"Out of Hiding" by Stephanie Gretzinger and Amanda Cook

Then there is Misty Edwards', "I Knew What I was Getting Into"

I knew what I
was getting into when I called you.
I knew what I was getting into when I said your name, but I said it just the same. I knew what I was getting into and I still want you.
Being wanted. Being chosen. Singers sing about it. Writers write about it. But is it true? And more so, do we believe it?

Maybe that is the thing that hinders love in our lives, truly believing that we are not only loved, but wanted.

So I turn from song lyrics to God's Word.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 tells us that: "As for us, we can’t help but thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are always thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation—a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your belief in the truth."

1 Peter 2:9 tells us:  ^"But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light."

These are verses that talk about us - those that have chosen salvation.  It says that we are chosen.
The word chosen means -  to prefer or decide something (someone), to desire.

These verses tell us that we are wanted, desired, preferred.

 

There are so many times when we feel unworthy.  There are so many times when regret whispers in our ear.  So many times when we don't think we can hit the mark or even make it onto the board.  That is when we remember the Truth that is Love.  Remember that we have been chosen.  Remember that His desire is for us.

God's desire is for me.  I am wanted.

It's in the listening.  Listen to Love.  Listen to Truth.  Listen to the One who has saved your soul, the one who knows it all and has chosen you.  He wants me. He wants you.