Love lessons can be tough lessons. You can love wrong, and you can love the wrong person. Hear me out; it’s not that we don’t know how to pour (love); we just pour (love) in the wrong places.
If you have ever been brokenhearted, I challenge you to take all that love, affection, and attention, give it to Jesus, and cast it all at His feet. The way you love, want to love, or be loved, love Jesus that way—Commune with Jesus.
Commune is sharing one’s intimate feelings or thoughts in close spiritual contact.
I’ve learned that “man” (woman/man) will never be able to satisfy your innermost desires to be loved completely; only God can love like that. We are human and flawed. We will hurt people, disappoint people, break promises, and fail people. But God never will. To love is to be vulnerable. Loving without the protection and boundaries of the Father makes way for distress, pain, and disappointment.
Proverbs 4:23 says, above all else, guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. What flows from our heart defines our life.
Guard is defined as to watch over it to protect or control against damage or harm. I don’t care what happens in life, keep your heart safe from harm and danger. The issues of life may be family problems, romantic issues, relationship traumas, money issues, work conflicts, or even health challenges.
However, I am God’s first! You are God’s first! before you belong to anyone else. I have learned the hard way that I do not do well without Jesus. I do not make good decisions without Jesus. I do not respond well without Jesus. I do not love myself well without Jesus. I do not love others well without Jesus. I once told someone, “I miss you,” and they didn’t respond as I thought. I immediately felt it when God pricked my heart. That was correction. That was me pouring aimlessly again without regard to my heart.
Loving through Jesus is love with protection and boundaries. Loving through Jesus filters what we fill our hearts with. Loving through Jesus filters what gets in and what gets out. One of my dad’s favorite quotes was, “Give God your heart, and He can rule both soul and body.” Do not give your heart to anyone. Do not love anyone or anything with all your heart. The only one that you should love like that is God. God is your first, purest form of love, the healthiest love.
Jeremiah 29:13 says you will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart.
Matthew 6:33 says but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.
Unfortunately, a lot of us bypass God, putting our hearts on a fishing line in hopes of catching what we are looking for. Yes, you may catch something or someone, but it won’t be God’s best for you. When our hearts have been beaten and bruised, here we come, dragging it back to God, asking Him to mend it. And He does because He first loved us.
The only one we should be chasing with our whole hearts is God. Everything else is a by-product of God’s love.
By-product is defined as a thing or person that is the result of an action or process.
God is the source, and everything else is the resource. When we love through Jesus, everything we desire in this life is a by-product and will be added to our lives. That goes for your family, husband, wife, children, career, etc.
Loving through Jesus shields us from the disaster of brokenness, disappointment, and despair. It shields us from pain, worry, and distress. I’m not saying you won’t ever experience pain, but when God filters it, it gives you the strength to love again the right way. Psalm 34:18 says God is close to the brokenhearted and those crushed in spirit. God can mend and heal all brokenness if we let Him.
So, for those learning to love and for those who have loved and whose hearts have been broken, I encourage you to love God like that first. You’ve tried it your way; now try it God’s way. Let God love you and teach you how to love yourself too. Then, God can teach you how to make better choices with your heart in everything you do. Let God be the love of your life and let God sit on the throne of your heart. That kind of love is God’s best to you!
Blessings flow!