Crazy idea, right? At least I thought so! This blog is for my girls specifically, but I’d love to get guys feed back as well! A few weeks ago I gave a talk on modesty and purity to a group of wonderful teen and pre teen girls. During the talk I briefly mentioned something about how before they found husbands and boyfriends, my prayer for them was to fall in love with Jesus first. Well what does falling in love with Jesus entail exactly?
I think I was around 15 when I first heard of the concept of falling in love with Jesus. I was very skeptical at first. Jesus was God, not some guy for you have a crush on. But it sounded good to want to love Jesus first before I truly loved a guy so I started praying that it would happen for me.
Ok, well what does that look like? I knew you could have a deep Philo (brotherly love) for the Lord, but an Eros (romantic) love? Nah! I didn’t really like emotional stuff and much preferred knowing the Lord on an intellectual level. I wasn’t at all convinced until it happened to me! I knew there were scriptures about the Lord being my husband, and that was cool and all, but um, I sorta wanted a man with skin on. You know?
It’s possible for even skeptics to fall in love! For each of you, it’s going to look different. We don’t all fall for the same type of guys; neither will you fall for the same things about the Lord. I like dark, clean-cut guys with a sense of humor; my friend goes for the skateboarding, or slightly disheveled, artsy types. So it’s like with the Lord (well I have no idea if he’s clean cut or artsy) but you know what I mean! I think I first started falling in Love with the Lord, when I realized what a unique sense of humor He had (aside from the fact that He created me). His faithfulness to me also draws me to Him. What is it for you? What character trait do you love about the Lord?
So where does the Eros (romantic) love come in? It comes in when I see the most beautiful waterfall and my heart skips a beat, as I thank Him for it. Or when I’m praying and telling the Lord, I just need a re assurance of His love and I drive around the corner and there is the biggest sand dune I have ever seen and the words from Psalms pop into my head – ‘How great are Your thoughts to me oh God, how great is the sum of them, if I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand…” It’s all about the personal relationship with Him. If you let the Lord, He will literally woo (romance) you to Himself.
Love is the feeling, which bubbles up in your heart as you worship, or the restless, unease you feel when you haven’t spent time with Him. It’s the need to carve out time for “Date nights with Jesus” in my schedule.
Girls, I didn’t understand what love meant in human romantic relationships until the Lord, showed me what it meant by falling in love with Him first! It’s a lot easier to recognize “true love” when you’ve been taught how to love by the Creator of true love! Do I still want a man with skin on? Absolutely! But now that I know what love means, I’m a whole lot more ‘picky’ and the waiting is so much easier.
Don’t hold out for a perfect man. They don’t exist; they are just as much of sinners as we are! But hold out for a man that loves Jesus more than you do and will try his best to love you the same way the Lord loves you!
God created men and woman to complement each other, not complete each other. Our culture has that mixed up! Asking a guy to complete you and fill that need in your life to be unquestionably, accepted and loved, is a lot of pressure for guys! & Very unfair of us to ask them to fill an area of our heart that only the Lord can!
If you’re already in a relationship, you know relationships take work. Well so does a relationship with the Lord. It must be cultivated. He will woo you, but you in turn must respond and spend the time getting to know Him. The awesome part about falling in love with Jesus is, there is always another side or depth of Him to experience and know. You’ll never be bored! Once you experience His love, you can then love other people completely in return!
May you know what it feels like to fall in love with Jesus, before you fall in love with a man!
3 comments:
Katie, this is awesome stuff! Even good for a married woman to hear and apply!
I always felt the same way - that a young woman needs to have Jesus be her #1 relationship before she moves on to 'men with skin'. Otherwise she will always look to earthly men for fullfillment that can only come from God.
I think part of what it looks like to be 'in love' with Jesus is that you take everything to Him. Just like when a couple is dating or engaged and they talk for hours every chance they get, filling each other in on the smallest details of their daily lives - Jesus cares about that stuff, too, and sharing it with Him can help us get God's perspective on even the little things in our lives.
I loved your examples, too, of what it 'feels' like to be in love with Jesus - the sand dune - YES!
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Thank you for this post Katie!! It was such a blessing to me and just what I needed to hear!:)
I too have fallen deeply, deeply in love with Jesus Christ - you are right He does have a great sense of humor! Jesus "wooed me and I let myself be wooed". I thought I had lost the love of my life only to realize that I finally found the one TRUE love of my life.
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