When His Love for Me Turns Into a Relationship With Me

I've been thinking about a relationship of love with Jesus. 

Of course, we know by now, especially if you've been around any teachers of identity, how much we’re loved by Jesus. 

His love is unqualified, from before the world began, without end, regardless of our behavior. He likes us, He loves us, He adores us. Wow! 

We know that's true, but that doesn't make a relationship. It’s simply the truth that, “To the exact extent that My Father loves Me, so also, I love you,” Jesus says. But how does it become a relationship? How do I get to love Him? And my answer might come from back in the old days of the cassette tapes of moralism saying, “I've got to do enough things, or if I love Him I'll keep His commandments.” And that's true, it's biblical. But instead Jesus is saying, “Because you love Me, you're going to find yourself obeying more, and loving more, but that's not how our relationship is built.”

When it comes to my relationship with Jesus, I want to say that it’s built when I'm “on my game,” when I'm “doing it right,” when I'm “getting it all squared down.” But Jesus would say, “John, our relationship is formed most deeply, and nurtured most wonderfully, not when you’re on your game, but when you don't have a clue. When things are hurting, when you can't make sense of this life, when chronic pain comes in, when resentment is there and you can't forgive, when you get hurt - that is when our relationship gets built most deeply.” If I will find and respond to this Christ-in-me heart that can say to Jesus, “Help me, I need You” - then in that moment He’ll say, “Kid, you just nurtured this relationship of love.” Wow! 

If love is the process of meeting my needs, then I have to let Jesus meet my needs in the toughest of things, so that He can love me. 

And He would say, “When you do that, you meet My need of being loved by you.” Isn’t that crazy?! We say, “He's God, He doesn't need.” But He accommodates Himself to need me and to need my love, and He's getting my love when I choose to trust Him with me. That's powerful, beautiful stuff. 

So here I am, I'm a mess, and Jesus says, “This is going to be great for the relationship!” And I reply, “If this is true, let it be. I need You. Help me.”

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