Ever wondered if you are lovable? Or, maybe like me, you’ve questioned what it takes for others to really love you.
Because we use the term love for everything from possessions and food to our favorite sports teams and celebrities.
We love ice-cream, brands, songs, books, and our favorite movies.
How to Define Love
Honestly, I use love to describe my affections for cinnamon rolls, pasta, Chai tea lattes, boots, the Hallmark Channel, and sunsets. And that’s only a few of my loves.
Still, we struggle to define love—a feeling, an emotion? In hard moments, we lose the loving feeling.
And abandonment extinguishes the emotion. Like when my dad vanished from my life for a few years.
Yet, culture woos us with a love that fades when hearts break. My heart broke after friendships dissolved and family members died including a baby in utero. I lost hope in love.
Shiny Things and People
So, for a portion of my life, I wondered, Am I lovable?
Inside chatter tried to convince me otherwise. Internal voices mocked true love. Only the lovely, the best, the deserving—basically, the cream of the crop—meet the standards.
I assumed love thrived only in shiny things and people.
How can we secure love without prerequisites? A kissing-tear-wiping-make-it-better-kind-of-love.
There’s good news and God news. Although less outwardly frilly, a timeless love exists that’s unfailing and undying.
No matter what others say or do. I am loved. You are loved.
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, came to earth and died for us on Calvary’s cross. Why? Because God loves us, this we know, for the Bible tells us so.
His love is a sure love…never lost, only found.
And it gives us hope in a guaranteed pledge of love that’s never eliminated from our lives.
No matter what the end results report of our experiences with other types of love. The writer of Lamentations reminds us of hope in God’s steadfast love.
This I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. Lamentations 3:21-22 ESV
God’s love is loyal, unwavering, unconditional, dependable, and never ceases…ever.
Now, insert your name in John 3:16,
For God so loved ________ that he gave his only Son, that if I believe in him, I should not perish but have eternal life.
As we celebrate love this month, remember, God loves you!
