He loves me!

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves...

In the midst of prepping for my message tomorrow I was blessed. I have literally spent hours alone in my room reading and praying and writing, then erasing and starting all over again. I thought I knew what I wanted to say - the message I wanted to get across... but that's the problem for all those hours, it was the message I wanted to share. I realized this through writing - journaling and debriefing - I didn't know where I was going so I just went on a tangent. Then it hit me. Instead of Him loving me how about I love Him?!?! So, you may think the title of this post and the song lyrics are misplaced if I want to talk about my love for Him, not His love for me. But its HIS love that makes me capable of loving Him.

I'm using portions of Psalm 139 as the text. Verses 17 and 18 say,
How precious to me are your thoughts O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I'm still with you.Then I started to think about what those thoughts might be... I came up with a list:

* When we'll spend time together next

* The last time we spent quality time together

* What I said to Him in our last conversation

* The things He tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen or respond

* Whether or not I show Him that I love Him

* The last love gift I gave Him

* What the future holds for us together

* How much He loves me

Yikes, I don't know about you but to me that is a scary list to think about my Lord answering. He is the Lover of my soul but do I really give Him enough of me? Do I love Him with 100% of what I am. Do I take enough time to show Him that I do? Does my love for Him overflow and affect the rest of my day? Do I walk, talk, and act differently? Do I have a smile on my face because of Him? Can my thoughts about Him each day be numbered? Whoa... that's a lot to think about. I know for sure this has given me the desire to refocus and re-prioritize.

On a different note, I also want to love others with the love that He has given me. As a social worker - someone with a passion for curing social injustices, for ministering to the needy and vulnerable... how easy is it for me to love the unlovable? Sure, my definition of unlovable is probably different than yours... and that's okay. This is just a personal conviction I need to work on...