Without a doubt, with the love and spirit of Jesus Christ directing my life, I have experienced and a deeper relationship with Him and I have grown in my ability to trust Him. The love Jesus Christ gave to me is like the currency of God’s kingdom. And it is because of his selfless love that I think of my faith in Him as the act of holding out my hand in the darkness and allowing Him to hold me as I walk through life. I gave my life to Jesus at an early age of seven years old and rededicated my life in my late teens. And, it has not been an easy road, but every time I felt unworthy of His love, I remembered the way Christ suffered for our sins. There are still days that no matter how hard I work, I feel unappreciated and unproductive. At times, I will hide my tears and use my laughter to hide my pain. But, whenever I close my eyes in a moment of prayer, all I can see are my disappointments, my past sins, my actions and the carelessness of my words. But, above all, I remember His love, a love that has unselfishly nourished my soul, given me the light to dust off, spread my wings and fly, and a love that has made me to cry out for Him without fear, knowing that He will respond, and give me my heart’s desires. Indeed, the love of Jesus Christ has changed my life and I believe that in order for anyone to personally experience it like I have one will never truly understand. It is a love, that is so unselfish, pure, and every day as I reflect back on my personal relationship with Jesus, it is like am falling in love with Him more and more each day.
Discussion
I gave my life to Jesus Christ at an early age of seven and rededicated my life in my late teens. All my life, until I rededicated my life to Jesus, I always thought that I was supposed to live my life doing my own thing just following some rules and acknowledging that there is a God. I never really felt full, to be exact, spiritually content. I always thought something was not right, but I was not sure but today, I view acts of love as two pronged; one is an invitation from Jesus to seek out His love and two, it is an invitation from Jesus to seek Him out. The love Jesus Christ gave to me has made my faith in Him stronger. Numerous times, I reflect on faith. I strongly think that His love is the currency of His Kingdom. Whenever I think of His love as the act of allowing God to hold me as I walk through life’s challenges, I think of darkness. He is the father of lights, for darkness is as light to Him. Allowing Jesus to hold your hand is allowing love and light into your world.
My thoughts on how His love feels like morph every time depending on the situation. I constantly think of it as an adventure. It is because of the love that He gave to me that my faith has many manifestations. Whenever I have a moment of reflection or I am with my friends, I have come to the realization that people, step out and walk on thin ice. For some people, it is like stepping out of their comfort zones, and for others, it is inviting the love of Jesus Christ into your life, and for some, it is simply holding out your hand in the darkness fully knowing that He will hold it because His love is immeasurable. And for some, it is touching the hem of His shirt for His goodness to flow into their lives.
I think that at times, faith and His love do not make sense. And as I write this paper, I am tempted to think that if I question His love, then I am setting myself for frustration, and even failure. I have experienced conflicts with my faith. I believe this when I act contrary to His word and expect supernatural results. This is certainly when I at times try to author my own faith expecting Him to finish it. How often do we all author things in our lives then invite Jesus to complete them? My personal example is when I rededicated my life to God in my late teens; I got new friends and made myself believe that Jesus had authored it. Jesus was somewhat clear with me that it was not His will for me, but as sometimes we all do, I continued to insist on doing things my way, suffice to say, that my relationship with my new friends miserably flopped, probably because we were not reading from the same page. In my opinion, it is much worse dealing with a broken heart within the context of His love and faith. Here I was, sort of like a baby Christian, dealing with a broken heart, but I certainly learnt my lesson. Jesus loves me so much that He only finishes that which He starts or authors. It is because of His love that He will finish what He has started however we look at it.
After rededicating my life to Him, I also noticed because of His love for me, I had been given a deep love for everybody. In simple words, I found it easier to love everyone; this is not an emotional love, or that ‘ lovey dovey’ kind of love, but it is a love that gives me a deep concern for the physical, mental and spiritual well being of other people. And it is because of this love that I am willing to sacrifice my prayers, money, effort, time, and so forth, for the benefit of other people. It is because of the love that Jesus gave me that I have enough love to risk being ostracized and misunderstood when I share the truth of His word. What’s more, since Jesus entered my life, I can no longer pass a beggar on the road. I normally feel compelled to stop and help out in any way I can. I have volunteered at shelters because the people sometimes need someone to talk to. Undoubtedly, my love is not perfect, but because of the love He gave to me, I would give everything that I have to help someone in need of help. Well, I am not there yet, but I have observed a dramatic and sudden difference in my behavior and attitude towards other people. In simple words, because of His love, my love for other people continues to grow.
Furthermore, the first thing that I noticed following my rededication to Him is that I started to have an inexplicable desire to read His word. Earlier, when I tried to read the Holy Bible, it was a challenging task probably because it did not make much sense to me as it does now. However, from reading the Bible and listening to sermons in my local church, I realized that for the joy and love set before Him, Jesus endured the cross for all of us. We, as children of the most High, are so precious to Him. We are all a blessed product that simply cannot fail, because of His love. He trusted the earth to bring forth plantation and vegetation. He also trusted the waters ability to produce all types of water animals and fish. This is simply too amazing. It is because of His love that I am able to bank on the inherent and potential ability of His plans to manifest that which He speaks over. Words have immense power, they are spirit. He creates by speaking. Say what I want to see and see what I say. I am on this spiritual journey and I continue to remain open to learning more.
Conclusion
In sum, it is very clear that God houses ultimate faith and love. For whatever reason, He needs us to only have a little faith just little enough to be able to seek His love and forgiveness. And once we do, His love will give us all the proof that we will ever need to fully understand the love He gave us. That is what happened to me, and I got the greatest gift and surprise in my life, His love.
