Abide

It’s a call to go deeper…deeper into His love. It’s a divine invitation, an invitation I can accept or reject. An invitation I can make room for or an invitation that can be crowded out by the busyness of my life. It’s an invitation to experience more of the sweetness of His love. An invitation to forget the striving and just be. An invitation to leave the rush and just rest, an invitation to soak in His goodness and beauty, an invitation to let His love wash over the hurt and discontent of my own life. An invitation for greater healing, greater freedom, but most importantly, greater intimacy.

I love that God woos us, that He invites us into a divine romance with Him, that He has loved us with an everlasting love and draws us with His unfailing kindness (Jeremiah 31:3)

Sometimes I forget how beautiful God is. Sometimes I forget the sweetness of His presence, the intensity of His love. I’m preoccupied with life and I forget the invitation to come deeper, to draw away from the busyness and bask in the joy of loving and being loved.

It’s one thing to read that God loves us, but to truly know this love we must believe it is ours. Will we receive that love? Hannah W. Smith in her book ‘The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life’ says that “love may be lavished upon us by another without measure, but until we believe that we are loved, it never really becomes ours”. (Read that again!) 🙂 We must believe that God’s love has been freely given to us if we’re going to truly receive it!

I’ve been through a season of Winter where I questioned God’s nearness and love, where I craved the intimacy and presence of His Spirit, where God felt distant and His voice seemed silent. But my God never left me. He has spoken into those deep places of pain and revealed His presence and love. And on the other side is an invitation to step into Spring, to go deeper. A wooing back to that first love…moments where we linger in the sweetness of loving Him and being in His love. Those moments change us. They wash over pain, uproot bitterness and fill us with joy. They fill us with our true identity, our true self. They go beyond us to reach others with that same love we have received. They break the lies of the past, they speak truth into today and vision into the future.

And we can look back on our winter and know that God has carried us out into Spring to flourish. “Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?” (Song of Songs 8:5)

He invites us all. He invites you! He calls you to deeper, to leave behind the pain of yesterday and step into a fresh understanding of His love. Come! Come deeper. God is waiting for you, waiting to pour out more of Himself, more of His freedom, more joy. Believe it is yours and come receive it. Leave the busyness and step into the sweetness. Let Him whisper over your tired heart your true name, “Beloved”.

Blessings!

Tammy