The Unveiling: Part 2: Worthy of Being Loved

After writing "Part 1" my mind wouldn't sit still with the many more thoughts firing through my head.
I set the initial backdrop of the love story, the truth that our hearts are being battled for, and raised the question of whether or not we believed our God to be a good God, able to be trusted with our hearts. But i left out a key question. One that i have struggled with often. Am I worthy of being loved?

God says, yes,  I am. God calls us worthy. He actually sees us as he created us: that of whole, holy, perfect and worthy. He not only names us worthy but he proves it to us. For what kind of god would sacrifice his only son to a people that he views as unworthy of his love? This is freaking me out a bit to even write, telling me that i have yet to fully grasp the fullness of His love for me. It's so scandalous!!!

I suppose it goes back to those wounding messages we are bombarded with or the lies that have infiltrated. "You are unloveable", "You're a screw-up", "Not even your most trusted friends could stick around", "You are unworthy of love". Okay, yes, these are rather blatant and often times the messages are more subtle, but tell me you haven't thought at least one of these thoughts on one occasion or another? A lot of Christian songs actually serve to further this message, dropping lyrics with the likes of identifying us as filthy sinners, pieces of nothingness. These are only partial truths. Yes, its true that we are nothing and we are sinners….apart from God…but God desires, so desperately, for us to see who we are…in God and with God in us.  

What would happen if we grasped the truth that we have ALL of the living God within us…fighting for ALL of us--for our very hearts? I'm pretty certain the Scriptures proclaim that within God and God in us that we are made holy and perfect in his sight. True? What would happen if we believed that we are capable of being loved so fervently from the most Holy of Holies? Would our self-images change? Our outlooks on life? Our view of others? Our beliefs…thoughts…and behaviors?

The other day God whispered a love message to me: "You are beautiful, Kate".  Honestly, it threw me off guard…I wasn't sure how to respond let alone, feel about this. That made me ask myself why. Why did this declaration of love make me feel rather defensive? Because it touched at a belief that i too often entertain, that I am unlovable. Not only that but it enlightened me to realize that God is a lover of my heart…that he pursues me because he loves me. He pursues our hearts, not in a "one time, now you're saved" kind of way…but in the way of relationship. An out-of-the-blue, "just because", gesture of his love for us. In Revelation, it talks about Jesus carving a "new name" in stone for each of us. A "new name"…a name reserved to be heard between a Lover and his beloved.  We wait for not just any feast…upon that heavenly day…but the wedding feast. That. Is. Crazy. Love….in a way i've not quite thought of until now.

We have a choice. We have been given the freedom of choice to accept his love and to pursue him back. Its not always easy to accept His love, but we have already established that he is good and can be trusted. And furthermore, we are lovable--and while, not by any means deserving of his love, but freely given it. Remember that cross? The one he conquered sin and death on---that's how we freely receive it.  Who are we to turn around and say that we are not lovable? That kinda seems like a slap in the face to a God who has done everything to show us otherwise.

He doesn't want half-hearted lovers or controlled and forced affection, he wants the untamed yet wholehearted desire from his children to love him back. The love story, as mentioned previously. Where perhaps we haven't been given a voice or a choice before in how our hearts have been handled or given to, now we do. Talk about his risk! It's not manipulative or demanding, It's not even conditional! And that is what makes it so refreshingly desirable.

I used to give my heart indiscriminately to anyone and everyone. Not often realizing that i had a choice and not giving a voice to how my heart was handled. In so doing, it would often get trampled on, thrown out, spit upon--in short…i held my heart out and said "Go ahead…do with it as you wish", not deeming it worthy enough to protect it. God says that heart is worthy of being protected. God says, "It's beautiful…you are beautiful, my darling…there is no flaw in you".  Where his own heart has been trampled on, thrown out and literally spit upon...He still freely gives it, still battles for our heart, gives up everything for us, risks it all on us, and still he lets us choose…gives us a voice. Giving us complete freedom and with it, complete and whole healing.

A perfectly whole love, even with being hurt at his very core.  Experiencing total betrayal of his own heart. Lucifer, the betrayer, a chosen angel created out of God's furious love.  Israel, God's chosen people, betrayed continuously. Peter, apparently at the core circle of Jesus' friends, let in on more of God's glory and heart than some of the other disciples…totally betrayed him in the time that mattered most. And then he tries it all again…this giving of his trampled upon heart…to us. I can't say that we fared any better in loving Him, and he still gives himself to us, completely and in all wholeness. A love that is perfectly holy.

That is the fierce and unswervingly faithful love of our God. That is how much he says we are worth it.  We are his beloved. Likened to that of "His bride". That is a God we can entrust our heart and our love with. He will never betray us. Never stop fighting for the redemption of our hearts nor stop dazzling and overwhelming us with his continual pursuance. We are fiercely loved. And the more we can center our minds and hearts around this truth, the more freedom, holiness and wholeness we will live into.

Enjoy this quote from Abba's Child, by Brennan Manning:


"It takes a profound conversion to accept that God is relentlessly tender and compassionate toward us just as we are--not in spite of our sins and faults (that would not be total acceptance), but with them."