Love Compels

I love hearing the sincere prayers of others, especially when they are leading us from a place of understanding. The most recent prayer I had the pleasure of witnessing was from a guest pastor at my church. She said, “Thank You for loving us with everything; we love You back with everything.”

We love You back with everything. If Jesus’ love withheld nothing, may our love be freely and fully poured out. This is the only way to live. This is the only way to be a lover.

Reciprocity in love requires taking account of the ways we have been loved—the height, depth, breadth, and length—and realizing that the only fitting response to such great love is one that is just as radical, as free, as honest. This is the compelling power of love, as 2 Corinthians 5 puts it. And for love to change us, it must first compel us.

In this month of love, as people tease us about the presence or absence of romantic affection, may we begin, continue, and end in the love that lasts forever—a union that precedes and outlives this earth and its imperfect attempts at love. May He be our greatest display of what love truly is, and may our hearts echo back to Him what His has always said: fully loved, always loved, irrevocably loved.

And may our lives prove that His love is better than money, pleasure, friends, family, reputation, and even life itself. If He stopped at nothing for the sake of love, may we stop at nothing and offer Him everything.

Last Monday, as I thought about the love of God, I wrote this:

Lord, give us a new revelation of Your love for us. Show us how deep Your love runs, so deep that it led You to the cross. Acquaint us with how high Your love is, higher than our sins. Reassure us of the length of Your love: what existed before our first breath will carry us throughout our lives. Tell us of the width of Your love, that we may remember how Your love has made room for us.

I’ll end with this reminder: you are His bride before anything else. You will remain His bride after everything else. Every other title will fade away, but one will stand true and survive: We are our Beloved’s, and our Beloved is ours (Song of Songs 6:3).