God is cool.

In my life group we are reading through the "Experiencing God" bible study. Since I'm going to be out of town for our next meeting, I read ahead to week three so I wouldn't fall behind. The bible verse for the section was Matthew 22:37 which is "And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Because I've heard this verse countless times in my life, I was thinking “oh yeah I got this." So in my “so what?" mindset I wasn't prepared for what the Lord was about to reveal to me. It’s funny how that happens, we get so confident in our bible knowledge that we forget the Bible is full of life and truth (and totally has the ability to rock your world completely) God opened up my eyes to see this verse in a new way last night. 

The book talks about "Seven realities of Experiencing God" which are basically statements that summarize how to respond to God's initiative in our lives. As I was reading, he was talking about the second reality which is “God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal” and I got to thinking. God pursues a continuing LOVE relationship with me that is REAL and PERSONAL. That is huge! A couple of months back when I was dating (or whatever you call it) I remember praying and saying out loud “Father, I desire a relationship that is two sided, full of love and steady.” At the time I was tired of feeling like I was the only one who was really into the "thing" I was in so I began to pray for something different. I was tired of putting in effort to something when I never really got a whole lot back. After reading the spiritual reality and Matthew 22:37 I thought about those prayers. I looked back in my journal and began to read the few entries and prayers that I had written that were along the lines of this. I immediately began to tear up because God was showing me where I was wrong. God is pursuing a continuing (steady) love relationship (of course, I was thinking romance in the moment but God was thinking about our relationship) with me that is real and personal. This hit me hard. I had missed it for so long. I was ignoring that fact that God was pursuing me out of love through the entire time. I then thought about how frustrated God had to be with me for feeling like He was the only one involved in our love relationship and that I was the one who wasn't totally involved because I didn't see it. 

God's word is real and true! It never fails to bring you back to reality. It never fails to realize where you're at. This is where I am and that's okay. There's no better place to be. I’m renewed by His constant love. I'm focused on His heart. I'm involved in His pursuit. This just goes to show that we can read things a hundred times sometimes before it really sinks in. God is cool and I'm grateful for these moments with the Holy Spirit and I'm keeping my mind still and my heart open for what He's got next. I hope you'll join too!