God Loves Without Expectation by Lavera Wade

A few months back I read the book “The Shack”.  Amazing story, I was deeply touched by the words God loves without expectation.  My first thought after reading these words were, of course, that’s it.

So a couple of nights after finishing the book, and I could not stop thinking about how God loves us.  I have said my prayers and am just drifting off to sleep and I am suddenly filled with the knowledge of how much I love God.  I understand the words, with all my heart, and soul, and might, with every cell in my body.  It is wonderful. 

We talk a lot about how much God loves us.  We fill our prayers with pleas for ourselves and others for healing and peace and guidance knowing because he loves us he hears us.  But what do we do with our love for God

I want to do something with all this love I have for God.  So I try to love without expectation.  Oh boy, loving perfectly without expectation is going to take some practice.  I have come to see each person as Gods precious child so we have a start, but my tiny human mind just jumps in there with my idea about what would make them just perfect.   

Jesus brought the good news that God’s blessing is on the Poor in Spirit, the ones who do not have it all together.  And here I am battling with my idea of how someone should be perfect.  Do I have a lot to learn about God’s love.

I have spent a few days searching the internet for others thoughts on loving God.  There is a lot of talk about evil and sin, and I can see how it is important to put the love of God first, and that love will work as a shield against temptation.

I am looking more for how to love God by loving others. 

I read a lot of Rob Bells work, in his book “What We Talk About When We Talk About God”, he talks about gospel.  To quote ”Gospel is the shocking , provocative, revolutionary, subversive, counterintuitive good news that at your greatest moments  despair,  failure, sin, weakness, losing, failing, frustration, inability, helplessness, wandering and falling short.  God meets you there- right there-in that place and announces “I am on your side”.  That has been true for me.

So how do I start to learn to love others like that?

Every journey begins with a first step and I believe I have taken it.  I suspect I might begin with believing how precious I am, just as I am.

 I suspect that has something to do with really seeing how precious we all are.

I am excited about this journey and look forward to sharing more with you as I grow in the love of God.

May God Bless you and all you.