So many of us have been desperately hurt by the ones that we love and the ones that that we thought love us. But Humans are beings that are imperfect. Beings that are fallible. Beings that have suffered hurt themselves and that have a tendency to hurt others, on purpose or not.
If we want to experience true love – pure, unconditional, perfect, beautiful, everlasting love – there is only one place we will EVER find it. In the one that IS Love. That one is GOD.
This past weekend, the Lord reminded me of the fierce intensity of his love for us. He is jealous for us and he continues to pursue us with an insatiable passion until we are ready to stop, to turn around and face him, and to throw the door of our hearts wide open so that we can receive this love. So this week started with him calling me back to this place of ‘Experiencing His Love’ by waking me at 5am each morning to meet with him. (This is not a good time for me and each morning I would try desperately to cling to just another 15 minutes of sleep, but when your heart is racing and your eyes keep flying open, you get that certain assurance that God means business.) And once I am up, I am wide awake and so excited about our time together – I am even prepared to go with it for as long as it takes (which says a huge amount because I am by no means a morning person – not by an stretch of 
imagination.)
This morning, I completed writing the most beautiful, inspired, love letter from God. And although it is extremely personal, it made me want to do some research on how other people have experienced God’s love. I found a very inspiring testimony from a girl called Stephanie Pauline. I have included the link below, in case you would like to read her whole story but in short, this was her experience.
“Brought up in a Christian home, she gave her life to the Lord as little child. Her family attended church regularly and everything looked squeeky clean from the outside, but on the inside, they had a secret which would not stay hidden forever. Her father enjoyed his alcohol a bit too much, and in her early teens her family life began to completely unravel. When her mom packed up and left, she felt that God had just left her too. Her dad took to drinking even more and soon she lost all ability to cope as a teenager. She dropped out of school, moved in with a boyfriend and began living a life of pure survival – which included robbery, dugging, drug dealing and whatever else went with that. Then she fell pregnant, and this changed everything. Like a magnifying glass, it brought her focus right back to her life, to God’s love and the miracle of birth. She saw her little baby as Gods way of invading her life and reminding her of his great Love. She had to get her life back on track and rediscover God’s amazing, all forgiving and unconditional love which has helped her every step of the way. Now, she takes any opportunity to help others see God more clearly in their lives.
http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/amazing/stephanie-pauline-011411.aspx
Unfortunately many people have the completely wrong impression of God’s love. They think that it is conditional and based on performance. But if that were the case, absolutely no-one would qualify. Gods love is free because the very essence of his character is to love. And it is based on grace. (which means that we are getting something that we do not deserve). All we need to do is believe. Believe in God. Believe in Jesus. Believe in this love.
I love the way that Jerry Bridges said it …“God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.”
Here are a few scriptures to confirm it …
1 John 10 … This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
1 John 12 …No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us and His love is brought to full expression in us.
1 John 16 (second part) … God is Love and all who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.