I am in love. Whoops! Wait a minute here, hold on just a moment. It's not what you think. I am in love with God. I love Jesus deeply and unconditionally. I love the Holy Spirit, too. I mean, how can I not be? God has taught me more about love in the past several years, months and even weeks than I ever even knew existed, let alone that I even dreamed I could be capable of. And yet, I still know nothing.
I do know that loving God means obedience. And I do know that sometimes that obedience is very, very difficult. I also know that obedience to God brings great joy and great pain. Both the joy and the pain can be blessings. The pain especially because I know that I am growing through the pain.
Right now, this evening, I am hurting. I don't like hurting but I hold fast to what James 1:2-4 says. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverence. Perseverence must finish its work so that you may be pure and complete, not lacking anything." I've always considered this my life verse, and it is the first verse I can remember memorizing. Coincidently, it is also one of the verses Pastor Jim taught about this evening. That means there is a lesson for me in there somewhere right now. I need to listen. I need to sit back and wait and listen for God's direction.
"There may be pain in the night but joy comes in the morning."
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