Agape

I just want to feel loved.

I think that's a normal feeling, I believe most of you can identify with that same feeling, right? I mean, everyone wants to be wanted at some point. It's human to have a desire for love, I believe.

But what happens when you don't feel love? What do you do when you don't feel accepted?

I honestly break down a little bit. When I don't feel appreciated, I get the urge to cry (sometimes I actually do, no shame), and I allow myself to get fed up with all of these lies from the enemy.

 "You're no good, you're worthless, no one could love you."

Obviously hearing those thoughts in your head just brightens your whole day! (Not really though).

Lately, I've been feeling the need to be loved a lot, ironically I haven't been feeling that loved lately..

BUT!! I serve an awesome God who loves to teach and show me things all in the right time!

So, I would like to share with you two things that I've learned about this whole "not feeling loved" experience.

1. God can bless you in your life to teach you lessons, and God can also take away things in your life to teach you lessons.

I was talking to my counselor last Tuesday and she was sharing with me some of her own experiences of when she first started becoming a Christian. At that time, she noticed that God was taking a lot of things away from her, not because she was bad, or that He was punishing her, but because He wanted her to learn a valuable lesson. He is all that you need. You've heard the saying, "if God is all you have, then all you have is all you need," right? Well that's what I'm talking about here. Instead of relying on the world around her, she began to rely on God for everything.

That made me realize that I rely on my friends a lot. I look to them for acceptance, for help, for guidance, and most importantly for love. The thing is, people will disappoint you. Not all of the time, but sometimes they will. I mean, humans are human! We all sin and make mistakes, we all have selfish tendencies. And we can't idolize another person, or expect them to be a perfect friend, because no one can reach perfection and more importantly, no one can take the place of God.

God is so cool because He loves me so well. He's never disappointed me, that's the truth. He's my best friend and my true source of joy. And it took Him to take away some of my friendships for me to realize that.

Job 1:21 says: "..The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

God is my everything, and for that I am eternally blessed.

2. Sometimes God calls struggles upon your life so you can be a blessing to others.

People walk through tough stuff. I mean, I've had so many people speak grace and truth into me and mentor me because they have walked through some of the same things I have. Take my counselor for example, she used to struggle with depression, now she is counseling me and helping me through my struggle.

And in the bible, there is SO MANY stories of people struggling just so they can minister to others.

Jesus is the prime example.In  John 15:18, Jesus says, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." Jesus went through so much, and for that he was able to minister and speak life and truth into others.

Another example in the bible is through Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a preacher. His words were rejected so many times, though. But even though, he still ministered to those who listened, and he grew because of it.

God turns your mess into a message!! He will never bring you through something that he can't take you out of. Every single struggle of yours happens for a reason, a beautiful, life-changing reason. How cool?!

Seriously, I love God. And I love that He loves me (abundantly) too.