Guest Devotionalist -- Ariel Allison

LOVED

- Listen to Loved- By Ariel Allison

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now abide in my love.”

John 15:9

Several years ago I was encouraged to pray a different sort of prayer. We’ve all asked God to help us love Him more, to grow our faith and our passion for Him. But my friend suggested I ask God to reveal how much He loves me. Every day. For a year.

“Pray it in the morning before your feet hit the floor,” he said. “And see if your life doesn’t change.”

It was an interesting proposition. Show me that You love me, Lord. Show me today. Uttering that one request somehow took the striving out of my spiritual life. It reminded me that I can only love Him because He first loved me. And I began looking in scripture for all the places where God utters his love for me.

Loved by the Father. Loved by Christ. Loved with an everlasting love. Loved so much, in fact, that Christ died for us. And He challenges us to rest in that love. To accept it. To enjoy it. The truth of our human nature is that it is difficult for us to rest in anything. We work. We strive. We don’t know how to simply receive and be loved. We want to earn it but we never can.

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now abide in my love.”

John 15:9

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines “abide” as to “accept without objection.” My children don’t argue with me when I tell them that I love them. They don’t object that they have disobeyed too many times. They don’t find reasons why they’re not worthy of my love. They simply grin, full of delight, and believe that I tell them the truth.

So today I challenge you to ask that God will show you how much He loves you. May you feel it, and embrace it, and be humbled by the overwhelming flood of love that He offers. And then allow yourself to accept that love without objection. Only then will you truly be able to love Him in return.

Ariel Allison is a published author who lives in a small Texas town with her husband and three young sons. When not writing books or caring for her family, she indulges her penchant for adrenaline-infused madness such as rock climbing, running marathons, and jumping off bridges – as if raising three pre-school boys were not adventure enough! A voracious reader since childhood, Ariel has spent much of her life learning and honing the craft of writing. She is the co-author of Daddy Do You Love Me: a Daughter’s Journey of Faith and Restoration (New Leaf Press, 2006). She ponders on life as a mother of all boys at www.themoabclub.blogspot.com and on her thoughts as a redeemed dreamer at www.arielallison.blogspot.com.