To be human is to be loved and to love. Is it easier for us to give love to another than to receive love? For the most of us that is true. Why?  Maybe we have been rejected and the pain is too severe, blocking us from trusting again? To receive love would make us vulnerable to another. Our defense mechanisms automatically seek to protect us. As a result, we may never experience real love.

 

Not only do we respond this way with others, but we even do this with God. God is love and seeks to pour his love upon us in a lavish way, but we are afraid to accept this love. I remember ministering to a young girl who was sitting in a fetal position and crying. I told her that God loves her. She responded with some anger in her voice: “Love hurts.” She had confused human “love” with God’s love.

 

The very thing we long for at the very depth of our being is the very thing we reject. But God is bigger than us. He is persistent in his love. He doesn’t walk away but keeps calling us by name, as he knocks at the door of our heart. He would want to force his way in, but he doesn’t. He respects our free will. He waits for us to open up to his love sometime in our life-time. Not to open up would mean eternal emptiness and nothingness.