I'm in Love!

My bladder woke me up last night. When I crawled back into bed I was marveling at how things have changed in my life. Not anything to do with my bladder, but that I wake up talking to God, go to sleep talking to God, and spend my days with my thoughts in communion with God.

It hasn't always been like this. Probably around 12 years ago, when both my husband and my girlfriend would say they talk to God all the time, I didn't get that at all. How was that even possible? For me, if I remembered to "do my devotions" I would think about God. Many times I wouldn't even think to carve out that time in my day to focus on God and therefore, wouldn't even think about Him...for days. So, this concept of talking to God all the time didn't compute.

This was my experience even though early in my life I had known that God loved me, and by faith had received God's gift of love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ's death and resurrection. I had devoted my life to follow Him and walk in love and obedience... and was walking on that journey. But talking to God all the time - being mindful of Him throughout my day? Hmmm...that simply was not my reality.

As I pondered this, I wondered how this change came about. Like, how could there be such a change without any effort on my part or anything that I could pin-point and say "these are the 7 steps to intimacy with God." I had no answer.

So, I asked God. And He responded, "You're in love!"

I'm in love! Yes...that's it! And as I lay in my bed I basked in that love as I have so many times. Just felt it envelope me like the blankets around me. I'm in love... I'm in love.

A line from a song we sing in church has been in my heart and mind for months now. "I am loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing." And I sing, and I smile, and I know it's true.

You know why I'm in love? Because I KNOW that God loves me. It's not simply a statement, fact, or a plaque - GOD LOVES YOU. It's knowing God LOVES me.

This knowing the love of God has been a definite theme with me lately. It's been the prayer for myself, my family, the women with whom I serve, and the women we interact with. It's our prayer for you, the women (and men) who join us at Soul Kitchen.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19

To my writer sisters: Child of God, Satisfied, Sweet Freedom, Pilgrim's Heart

This is what I see in you. You're in love! This is what I hear as you write. I sometimes can almost hear you breathlessly saying the words that you write. It's because you're in love with Jesus. The words you write aren't idle words - you're not trying to say something smart or spiritual. You love Him and His words are life to you.

Thank you for loving Jesus. Thank you for sharing that passionate love and committment with me and all of us who read this blog. May we together grow in really knowing the love that God has for us. May we know it so well that the doubts are gone...so there's no more trying to figure it out, "he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me..." We simply and fully know that when the last petal is plucked from the daisy, it's He loves me! In fact, every petal of every flower and all of creation declares, "He loves me!" May we so fully know it and may we so totally love him back.