February 15 – At times you won't feel it, but it's there

As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love.  If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. (John 15:9-19 HCSB)

Have you ever imagined the relationship that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have with each other?  It’s hard to picture one God, in three persons.  I suppose the closest analogy would be our individual lives being made up of body, soul and spirit – three aspects of us comprising one whole being.  But even that doesn’t come close to the immensity and complexity of who God is.  He is One God, but each person of the trinity is a person unto Himself.  We can’t easily wrap our minds around it, but we have to know by faith that it is, just as the Bible says.  

So in this beautiful unity of the three persons of God, picture what kind of love there exists between the Father and the Son.  It must be perfect, infinitely abundant, joyful, deep, unbreakable – pretty much every strong and good adjective you can attach to it would be true.  And then we are told that just as the Father has loved Jesus, so Jesus has love for us.  As complex and pure and powerful and tenderhearted as the Father’s love for Jesus is, we can count on that kind of love being sent out towards us every moment of every day. 

We usually don’t feel in awe of His love.  We may acknowledge that He loves us, but many of the choices we make are actually based on a deep-seated feeling that He isn’t listening. or that He doesn’t really care.  We’ll rush into a decision out of desperation, or we’ll try to force our point on someone because we’re afraid that if we don’t convince them, no one will.  We may say something dishonest on our job, ignoring twinges of guilt while reasoning that the cost of telling the truth seems much worse than the secret guilt of telling a lie.  All of these foolish choices begin at a root level, and that root is the doubt that God really does love us.  He loves us so much that He’ll come through in tough times. 

The times of trusting in Him, handing over the controls and allowing Him to do what He wants, are the times when His love manifests in full power, rescuing us, standing up for us, fighting for us, and enveloping us with His presence.  But letting Him lead usually entails shutting up the complaining noises in our heads that want us to take matters into our own hands, to take back the reins of our lives.  The times when we need His help the most, are the times we need to let go of our anxieties and trust Him the most. Yet how often do we block Him and make a mess of things instead?  If we only believed how amazing His love was, we would never want to step out of His will.      

Jesus tells us, “If you keep My commands you will remain in My love,” just as He does with the Father.  At times you won’t feel His love, but it’s there.  Obey Him, even when you don’t feel Him, and He’ll come through. You’ll see His love manifest in it’s beautiful, deep, joyful and tenderhearted way.  That’s His promise.  Just trust.