THE NEED FOR LOVE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn Your commands.

May those who fear You rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in Your word. I know, Lord, that Your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant. Let Your compassion come to me that I may live, for Your law is my delight.

May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on Your precepts.

May those who fear You turn to me, those who understand Your statutes.

May I wholeheartedly follow Your decrees, that I may not be put to shame.

Psalm 119:73-80

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Innately, we all yearn to be loved. It’s one of those absolute facts that’s hard to explain except for the truth that we were designed and crafted by God, the Master Creator whose essence is love.

Yes, from the moment we emerge from the womb, we seek the security and comfort that comes from one who cares for us out of love and compassion. This urge continues through our childhood years as our parents love us and raise us up into adulthood, the point where we branch out on our own and seek someone to love and share our lives with, someone who can fill the love gap left by our parents.

Life leads us toward seeking consolation and love. When we’re in need, we look for someone who loves and cares and can provide. When we’re in distress, we search for someone to love us and bring us a sense of comfort and relief. When we’re alone, we hunger for a companion, someone to share love with.

This is why we need the Lord in our life. Because we all yearn for love and the Lord IS love personified. We don’t need to look far for love and compassion. The Lord is ever with us to provide it and it is not just any love. Look at the words of the psalmist from the 119th Psalm:

May Your unfailing love be my comfort, according to Your promise to Your servant. Let Your compassion come to me that I may live, for Your law is my delight.

The love of the Lord never fails. Unlike the love that we will find in flawed men and women, the Lord’s love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:13). It never fails to meet us where we are and bring us to a place of peace and reassurance. When the love of the Lord wraps its arms around us, we are taken back to the days when we could do nothing for ourselves and our mothers and fathers took care of our every need out of love. This is what our Heavenly Father does for us in adulthood if we just allow Him to do so.

So what are we waiting for?

I hear so many people testify that they feel alone or unloved in their worldly relationships. So many people are longing for a love that will never falter, a love that is perfect for them. They go on an insatiable quest for a soul mate, so often looking in all the wrong places because the One who IS love and longs for their soul is right there for them. All they need to do is seek Him.

Friends, how long will it take for us to just turn to the Lord and His love that is unfailing and fully satisfying? My prayer is that everyone looking for love will turn to the Lord today and find it.

And just in case you think this all ends with one finding the Lord and His love, think again. For as famous broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, “Here’s the rest of the story.”

For the beauty of turning to receive the unfailing love of the Lord is that we will start to embody that same love within our hearts. With the Lord as our soul mate, our soul becomes connected to His and thus our actions toward others begin to display His love. In other words, others start to see the Lord through us.

Again, look to the psalmist’s words:

May those who fear You turn to me, those who understand Your statutes. May those who fear You rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in Your word.

When we let the love of the Lord take root within us so that our actions become a reflection of His, we will begin to exhibit other characteristics of the Lord that are byproducts of His love, by products like grace and mercy and forgiveness and empathy. People are drawn to us because they see something that they don’t see in others. We will stand out from those who live for the world for no one connected to the world can ever live and love like the Lord. And we welcome people to enter into a relationship with us because we want them to find the Lord in their lives.  

Given all this, can you see that sometimes the first glimpse of the Lord people get is through seeing Him alive and well inside you and me? And when they do see the Lord, they come to a place of rejoicing for they begin to experience Him and the unfailing love they have been looking for.

Yes, we all are born with a need for love. Thanks be to God that He is always ready to deliver it to us in a way that never fails anytime we need it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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