WHERE LOVE RESIDES

We know God loves us. He blesses us daily in infinite and unfathomable ways. We have evidence of His love: creation, His gifts, our talents, our family and friends, Jesus’ sacrifice for our redemption.

But do we feel His love in a personal way?

We love God in return. We love Him for who He is and all He’s done. We love Jesus for his example and his teachings and sacrifice. We love the Holy Spirit who we acknowledge as our companion, our guide, our counselor and friend.

But do we feel love for the three persons of the Trinity in a personal way?

Showing our love isn’t the question. We can show our love by giving ourselves, our worries, our blessings, our sacrifices, our lives over to Him. The simple trust and obedience at the heart of Christianity is the purest way to show our love. We can also show our love by loving others in His name, serving others, sharing the Gospel, being His hands and feet in this world.

No, showing our love isn’t the question. The question is, do we feel His love and our love for Him? For me, the key to understanding how I feel God’s love and my love for Him has to do with how God created us and where love resides.

 

I love chocolate. That love starts on my taste buds, moves down to my stomach and zaps north, creating neurons stored inside my brain. (Okay, you scientists, please re-explain this for us!) 

I love a walk on the beach. That love starts with my vision of the endless horizon, the smell of the seaweed on the shore, the taste of salt spray on my lips, the rhythmic sound of the waves crashing to the shore and back, the feel of wet sand squishing between my toes. That love ends up stored inside my memory.  

  

My love for my children, my husband, my friends and family starts with commitment, expands with experiences and time spent together and develops into relationships. That love ends up stored someplace deep inside my heart.

But my love for God didn't start on my tongue or my vision or even in my heart. God placed a love for Him and a desire to know and love him more, within my very soul.

My love for God can grow as a result of a developing relationship with Him but it was always there because He placed it there when He chose me. My love for God is part of who I am.  

Love for my children and love for my God both develop because of experience and relationship. But they reside in different parts of me.

My love for people is heart love.

My love for my God is soul love.

We say we have a “heart” for this or that. We say we “love” this person or that thing. But what do we say about our soul? Our soul is more than what we like, what we do and who we interact with. Our soul is who God made us to be.

Once we are past our love for children or friends or country; once we have exhausted our desire for blessings and things and success and joy; beyond all that stands our ingrained longing to know and love God. He placed it in our souls before we were born. That love remains in our souls throughout eternity. To know and love God is our ultimate desire.

After we are gone from this world, after our earthly bodies have crumbled into dust, after everyone we love has died, our soul is what will remain. Our heart will be no more. But if we love God, have accepted Jesus’ salvation and have allowed the Holy Spirit into our lives, then who we ultimately are—our soul—will spend eternity loving God.

God speaks the language of love perfectly because He speaks to our soul. If we are quiet; if we allow our hearts and our minds to listen, our soul can hear him whisper.

And our soul can respond.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to feel our soul love for you. Bring it out of the deepest part of us and into the light where we can praise you for it. Show us more of you so that we can worship and praise you more. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Have you accessed this soul love for God? How do you describe it?