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April, 2006 Bible Mini-Study
You Are My Beloved
“I have loved you with an everlasting love,
I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3
Marilyn, you are my beloved. This is the truth God wants me to absorb and celebrate in an increasing way. When you substitute your name for mine in this statement, how deeply do you believe it and how greatly are you acting on this truth in your life?
In the Old Testament, God revealed His desire for us to be His bride -- the most intimate of relationships. (Jeremiah 2:2, Hosea 2:19-20, Isaiah 54:5) David tried to describe what this meant to him, “How great is your love toward me. Your love is better than life!” (Psalm 86:1, 63:3)
Unfortunately most people in Old Testament times misunderstood God’s love. They thought they had to earn it through obedience and blood sacrifices. It was necessary for Jesus to come to reveal God’s unconditional love for all. The Old Testament references to the Hebrew people as the bride of God prepared the way for the New Testament understanding as the church (all Christian believers) as the bride of Christ. Jesus often referred to Himself as the bridegroom. He is the divine bridegroom who seeks His bride in love. Jesus is wooing us in order that we will believe without doubt that we are God’s beloveds.
Some of us think we know God’s love because we know how to be religious. Jesus said to some Jews who thought they knew all about being religious, “I know that you do not have the love of God in yours hearts.” (John 5:42) We can know about God (have an intellectual understanding of Him) without ever experiencing the intimacy of His tender love.
There are several stumbling blocks that keep me from experiencing the fullness of God’s love. The first is when I am harboring negative feelings connected to some past hurt. From time to time God reveals to me my need for emotional healing. I have learned that I do not mature emotionally where I have been hurt. I have closed down and the love of God cannot help me in that area of my personality. But, as I am able to accept my woundedness and release the associated negative feelings to Him (such as guilt, anger, shame or fear); He heals me of the scars that have been shaping the harmful ways I look at life.
The second is that I tend to be a ‘do-er’ and a perfectionist. Far too many times I slip back into thinking I need to perform well to deserve God’s love. Perfectionists strive to do everything perfectly because, like many people, they feel they must pay a price for anything worth having. It is my belief in Christ’s unconditional love that has helped me to depend less and less on achievement to feel worthy. Everything necessary for me to be God’s beloved was accomplished on the cross. Jesus paid the penalty for my failures and sin. I am worthy of God’s love not because of who I am, but because of what Jesus has done.
Can you believe that if you were the only person on earth, God would send His Son to die so that you would be forgiven of all your wrongdoing and live in love with Him?
Can you enter your name and believe the following sentence? For God so loves___________ that He gave His one and only Son. (John 3:16)
The third way I block God’s love is through my self-defeating attitude in difficult circumstances. My anxiety about the future causes me to react like a snail crawling back into its shell, thinking I am protecting myself. But this is when I need to be most open to receiving the love of my heavenly Father — to believe He loves me enough to be with me in my situation, protecting me, giving me His wisdom and bringing about good
When I view my past, my present or my future in faulty ways, I am closed to the fullness of God’s love, the most precious gift of life. But, thanks be to God, He has not left me alone to struggle with my weaknesses. He has given me His Holy Spirit to help me. God pours His love into me through His Spirit and helps me to live as God’s beloved. (Romans 5:5)
How can we come to the place where we are so filled with God’s love that we can feel a quiet assurance even in difficult circumstances — where our relationships and circumstances are transformed because we know we are worthy and loved? It begins with trust. Trust is the foundation of love. Our lives are to be a series of events where we entrust our problems into God’s care. This is how we give Him opportunities to show us the greatness of His love and faithfulness. We may begin by trusting Him with insignificant things, but it is through experiencing His faithfulness in small things that we are then able to trust Him with larger things.
I have shared with you the three major stumbling blocks in my life that keep me from fully living as God’s beloved. There is another threat that relentlessly pursues all of us: the seduction of the world. Rather than enjoying the reality of God’s love and the presence of His kingdom within us, we allow ourselves to become distracted by busyness or entertainment. Some of us feel empty or even insecure if our lives are not a whirlpool of activity. We are trading the love of God for a frenetic existence.
God wants us to turn away from the world back to Him. The apostle John appeals to us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world . . . if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (I John 2:15) This does not mean we cannot appreciate the beautiful things in the world, but we are not to allow anything to become more important to us than our desire to grow in love with God through Jesus Christ.
Each time we feel the pull of the world, we can turn back to God and ask Him to help us live in His love. I am most receptive to God’s love in times of worship and prayer. I often pray, “Thank you, Heavenly Father, that I am your beloved. Multiply your love in me so I may honor you and so others may know your love through me.” Then I sit quietly, receiving His blessing.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19
Thoughts to Ponder
What are the things that keep you from fully believing or receiving God’s love for you? How can you become more open to receiving this amazing gift?
Suggestion for Prayer-Listening
Heavenly Father, is there any activity or goal in my life that has become more important than receiving and living in your love?
Suggestion for Meditation
Insert your name in the blank and meditate slowly on the following assurance of God’s love.
I love you______________ with a perfect love. I hold you close to my heart. There is no sin that I have not paid the price for, no negative circumstance in your life that cannot be redeemed and transformed.
Everything in your life is under my protection and care. You can trust me for this for I am faithful. I am in the process of doing all that needs to be done for you. I will bring it about in the right time for my Father’s glory. There is no moment in which my love for you wavers.
The most important thing is that you love me and that you allow me to love you. Rest more deeply in my love that you may be made whole and holy.