Gods love for us is fierce and powerful.
Gods love never stops coming towards us just like the waves of the ocean never stop rolling onto the beach.
It is the character of the ocean for the waves to keep rolling onto the beach, and it is the character of God to keep loving.
God created us with a desire to be connected to him.
He created us with a need for companionship. The word of God says ‘Man is not meant to live alone’ but our relationship of highest importance should be our relationship with God the father.
Because he is our creator and our hearts have a natural pull towards him – like magnets that are drawn together.
Something unexpected happens when we turn away from God, our source of origin.
Adam and Eve were the first to turn away from Gods love.
For a time, they lived in perfect union with God but eventually they began to doubt his unconditional love and more sadly, they began to doubt their worthiness of his love. Their turning would have happened gradually over time but in the end, they chose to face the shadows rather than the light.
You see, if you turn away from Gods light, which is Gods love, effectively you are turning into the shadows.
1 John 1:7Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
7 We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean.
It’s in the shadows where doubt and disillusion sets in. Where the created stops believing that they are utterly loved by the creator and eventually they stop believing that they are created at all.
We can liken our relationship with God to the power of Magnetic force.
Magnetic force is the attraction or repulsion that arises between electrically charged particles because of their motion. God is always in motion towards us and we are either in motion towards him or away from him.
The more that we deny our creator and his love, the more we are repelled by the one who is the very origin of our being.
God never changes. He is a constant force of love. A mighty source of love.
If we turn back to this source of love, the magnetic pull will immediately captivate us.
The more we seek him, the more we know him, the closer we get, the stronger the pull.
But because of the distractions in this life, it is often really hard to find our way back to God. Hurt, rejection and betrayal are emotions that we are all too familiar with and they make it hard for us to turn full front into the light. They make it hard for us to trust Gods love.
Most times, we need help and a little encouragement to turn back towards Gods love.
It’s also not just a matter of one turn and it’s all done. There are so many emotional obstacles for us to over come. Every little decision we make impacts on the way that we turn, even if it is ever so slightly. Most of us have many turns throughout our lives.
That is why it is so important to get connected with other believers. There are so many different churches out there, so there should be a fit for almost everyone. And connecting does not have to even mean church. It could be an intimate ‘forum’ that is grounded on Christian beliefs and principals. Or a small worship or prayer group.
Hebrews 10:24-25Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Help Each Other Be Strong
24 We should think about each other to see how we can encourage each other to show love and do good works. 25 We must not quit meeting together, as some are doing. No, we need to keep on encouraging each other. This becomes more and more important as you see the Day getting closer.
The fundamental truth is that we need community – to be encouraged by each other’s journey with God. When we are struggling, others can come alongside us and pray with us and help us find us to get back on our own journey with God.
We are all on a journey.
Sometimes we are weak and sometimes we are strong but together we encourage one another to keep on keeping on.
I was so encouraged by a young man’s testimony that I heard a few Sundays ago, that I just have to share it.
“Everything seemed to be going wrong for him. His business was falling apart. His health was dragging him down. He couldn’t sleep and he couldn’t get up in the morning. Sometimes, he couldn’t even walk because the stress had caused such severe pain in his back. Emotionally, he was a mess.
How could he find the strength to keep living. How could he find hope and purpose and freedom from all these stresses and strains that crowded his life.
With apprehension, he joined a small church community. In this community, he received a sincere welcome. He received love, prayer and endless blessings. He also came to understand that he needed to place his trust in God alone. He was given incredible support from the other men in the church and soon he was able to take his eyes off his problems and fix them on the Lord.
Now, he stands in a place of security and confidence. His stress has disappeared and his back ache and insomnia no longer debilitated him. Even though at first his circumstances never changed, his heart did. His heart found it’s home, and that changed everything.
With the help and support of others everything else started to fall into place. He is now in a financially secure position and living a life full of hope and purpose. Joy has become his every day companion.
That is how turning to God can change your life entirely. God can take something that feels like nothing and turn it into something spectacular. After all, what is better than a life filled with love and hope and purpose and joy.
Sometimes we just look for fulfillment in the wrong places.
Once we have made the decision to turn to God, once we have begun the turning process, the gentle pull of God’s love is irresistible.
Soon and very soon, we will find ourselves in Gods arms of love.