Today in my reading, I came across the most plausible reason. Bob Mumford author of "Journey to the Father on the Agape Road" says,
"Perhaps God wanted to be wanted. Love that is not based on preferential choice is not love at all- it is bought and sold, and God will not be bought. This is why salvation is a free gift; it can never be bought with good works."
When we truly open our hearts to love the Father, when we return the love, we are merely reflecting His love for us.
He is love.
When we allow His love to penetrate our hearts, we absorb it and then reflect it back to Him and the world around us.
It sounds so simple.
Just open our hearts.
But when you think about opening your heart to anyone, what comes to mind?
Past hurts, regrets, resentments, dis-trust, wounds of all kinds?
These inflicting wounds damage our heart and the repetive nature of the wounding over time makes us calloused.
This callous heart becomes hardened.
A hardened heart cannot receive love.
In order to open our hearts again to be loved we must understand the difference in the love that we've known and The love God wants to give.
We have been wounded by Eros love.
Eros is a Greek word who's meaning is: intention to possess, acquire or control. It does not seek to be accepted by its object but rather aims to possess it.
This the Greek symbol for Eros.
It is a love who's only goal is to satisfy itself.
This type of love will chew you up and spit you out.
This type of love is the kind that wounds the heart.
This is the type of love that lashes back at your when you injure it or reject it.
This type of love is the only kind most of us have ever known.
This type of love is conditional.
This type of love is human in nature.
Most of us identify with this type of Eros love.
We identify with this type of love because it is self-centered.
We don't even know that all the conditions are centered around "yours truly."
When we love by Eros we are loving based on our interests and our intentions This is selfish love.
When we refuse love by Eros, we are refusing based on protection and the guarding of our heart, self-preservation.
Again, self-centered refusal of love.
Eros love will undoubtedly consume itself either through:
1) isolation - building walls, hardening the heart
2) destruction through its desire to gain control or possess another.
Lust, greed, gluttony will all lead to self-destruction.
Eros is prevalent everywhere. It is even present within the church.
Eros simply says, I will love or do for you when I know you can love or do something for me.
Many people unintentionally love God this way.
This love says, "I love God for what He can do for me or through me."
It is so simple to love this way because it is all we've ever known.
We have learned by example to love this way.
But,
There is a better way to love, an easier way to love.
Agape love is the love of our Heavenly Father.
God is love.
God is Agape.
Jesus' sacrifice is the best example we have of Agape.
A self-less sacrifice as an ultimate expression of this Agape love of the Father.
Agape love does not have to strive or plot or scheme.
Agape is just received, absorbed and reflected back to the Father and the world around us.
It is a beautiful expression of who God is.
It is simple.
It says, "I love, because you first loved me."
Take a moment and ask God to open up your heart in a way like you've never known so you can experience all His love for you.
Ask Him to send His heavenly love to earth, into you and through you.
Through this love, His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven.
Many are the woes of the wicked,
but the LORD’s unfailing love
surrounds the one who trusts in him. -Psalms 32:11
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