Love is forgiveness, mercy, acceptance, grace – all really different words for God.
- In this it appears that all religions are the same. They give God a name and then establish the rules that we must follow if we are to gain his favor and affection.
- This is why a lot of us see all religions as different ways of getting to the same thing.
We’re face-to-face with a dilemma – we can’t earn love, we can’t buy love, and we can’t live without it.
- We know in the pit of our stomachs that if love is conditional, it can’t really be love at all.
- We also know that if love is unconditional, we are neither the sources nor the instigators of such love, which again is a part of our conflict.
- We want what we do not give.
- We long for what we seem incapable of producing.
Religion exists not because God loves too little, but because we need love so much.
- In the end all religions misrepresent God. They either dictate requirements for love or simply become a requiem for love.
- I think many of us have rightly given up on god on this basis alone.
- We’ve been told that god is a reluctant lover and that his standards must be met before there can be any talk of love.
- This is lunacy.
Love exists because god is love. Our souls will never find satisfaction until our hearts have found this love that we so desperately yearn for.
Re-source: Reconnect
You will spend your life working through relationships trying to understand your need for love, your inadequacies in love, your desperation for love, and all the time you might miss the signs that your heart is giving you, that you’re searching for God.
- All God wants is for us is that we live in healthy, loving relationships.
If God is love, those who know God best would love people most.
- It is absolutely critical that when we live in an intimate relationship with God, we are able to love ourselves and become passionate about loving others.
- When we are disconnected from God, we find ourselves increasingly empty of love.
There is no substitute for warmth, affection, and intimacy. The truth is, we were designed for relationship.
- And when our relationships don’t work, they affect how we see God, how we relate to God, and even whether we will believe in Him.
Why is it so hard to move form “me” to “us”?
- It’s time to recognize the opposite of “me” isn’t “you,” but “we.”
God made us for relationships, and we only begin to experience life fully when we move toward healthy relationships and healthy community.
- Your soul will never be satisfied with anything less.
- When we are estranged from God, we drift from love.
- Without God we lose our source of love but not our need for love.
While our brains may deny it, our hearts know it: love is proof of God.
craving and resource from “Soul Cravings” by Erwin Raphael McManus
