Silas
Beloved of All
Your desire to love again after being hurt and hiding for so long is a good and honest longing, and God understands the fear that has kept you guarded. Wanting not just romance but real trust and reconnection with people is a reflection of the way He made you.
Scripture says that love comes from God, and everyone who loves in this deeper way is born of God and knows God, because God is love. There are different kinds of love. One kind is physical and largely self seeking, wanting to get something for oneself. Another kind is friendship love, the affection we have for family and friends, which is often reciprocal, we love because we are loved in return. But the love you are describing, the love that can heal fear and bring you back into fellowship with others, is a different kind altogether. It is a giving, selfless, divine love. It is the love God pours into our hearts. It does not take advantage, it gives. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and that same giving love is what He wants to form in you.
A long season of hurt brings tormenting fear, and fear makes us hide. The Bible says there is no fear in this divine love, because perfect love casts out fear. Fear brings torment, and the one who lives in fear has not yet been made complete in love. When you know how fully God loves you, fear begins to lose its grip. His love made complete in you gives confidence, not dread, about the present or the future or even the judgment to come. That confidence comes from knowing you dwell in Him and He dwells in you, that because of Jesus Christ you have been received as His child and your sins have been washed away through the cross. The cross is how God has shown His love, not that we first loved Him, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins. His love for you is not caused by you and it cannot be bought or earned. It cannot be quenched. It simply flows to you to be received.
We love because He first loved us. As you come to understand and abide in His love for you, a response grows in your own heart, and that same love begins to flow outward to others. Love for brothers and sisters in Christ and love for your neighbor becomes the natural fruit of having received His love. You do not have to force yourself to trust everyone at once. You can begin by resting in the truth that God loves you completely, that He watches over you as His child, and that whatever He allows in your life passes through His love for you.
If worry and fear have made it hard to sleep or to open your heart, bring that honestly to Him. Ask Him to make His love more real to you day by day, to teach you to trust Him with all your heart rather than leaning on your own understanding or on past wounds, and to acknowledge Him in all your ways so He can direct your steps and gently lead you back into healthy connection with others. He is not asking you to pretend the hurt did not happen, but to let His perfect love slowly cast out the fear that the hurt left behind.
Praying for you that you will experience the beauty and security of His love, that you will know you are fully loved and fully kept in Christ, and that out of that security you will find fresh courage to love and trust and relink with others in a way that is safe and life giving. May you live in that love, walk in that love, and abide in that love, and may He give you peace as you learn to love again. In the precious name of Jesus, amen.
Scripture says that love comes from God, and everyone who loves in this deeper way is born of God and knows God, because God is love. There are different kinds of love. One kind is physical and largely self seeking, wanting to get something for oneself. Another kind is friendship love, the affection we have for family and friends, which is often reciprocal, we love because we are loved in return. But the love you are describing, the love that can heal fear and bring you back into fellowship with others, is a different kind altogether. It is a giving, selfless, divine love. It is the love God pours into our hearts. It does not take advantage, it gives. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and that same giving love is what He wants to form in you.
A long season of hurt brings tormenting fear, and fear makes us hide. The Bible says there is no fear in this divine love, because perfect love casts out fear. Fear brings torment, and the one who lives in fear has not yet been made complete in love. When you know how fully God loves you, fear begins to lose its grip. His love made complete in you gives confidence, not dread, about the present or the future or even the judgment to come. That confidence comes from knowing you dwell in Him and He dwells in you, that because of Jesus Christ you have been received as His child and your sins have been washed away through the cross. The cross is how God has shown His love, not that we first loved Him, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the payment for our sins. His love for you is not caused by you and it cannot be bought or earned. It cannot be quenched. It simply flows to you to be received.
We love because He first loved us. As you come to understand and abide in His love for you, a response grows in your own heart, and that same love begins to flow outward to others. Love for brothers and sisters in Christ and love for your neighbor becomes the natural fruit of having received His love. You do not have to force yourself to trust everyone at once. You can begin by resting in the truth that God loves you completely, that He watches over you as His child, and that whatever He allows in your life passes through His love for you.
If worry and fear have made it hard to sleep or to open your heart, bring that honestly to Him. Ask Him to make His love more real to you day by day, to teach you to trust Him with all your heart rather than leaning on your own understanding or on past wounds, and to acknowledge Him in all your ways so He can direct your steps and gently lead you back into healthy connection with others. He is not asking you to pretend the hurt did not happen, but to let His perfect love slowly cast out the fear that the hurt left behind.
Praying for you that you will experience the beauty and security of His love, that you will know you are fully loved and fully kept in Christ, and that out of that security you will find fresh courage to love and trust and relink with others in a way that is safe and life giving. May you live in that love, walk in that love, and abide in that love, and may He give you peace as you learn to love again. In the precious name of Jesus, amen.
