Swept Away By Love
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness”–Jeremiah 31:3 (NIV)
(L’viv, Ukraine)
The Lord has had me in a season of romance since the moment I stepped off of the plane in Kiev, Ukraine…OH Europe…everywhere you go you can smell love in the air. Some of that love, or more of a lustful, surface level love; which really isn’t love at all. Around the parks you see teenage couples making out on benches and all I can say is “Thank you Father” that you have recovered, and rescued my heart to imprint the meaning of real, true, authentic love within my soul. You’ve engrained what real love is, agape love. The kind of love that loves selflessly…without expecting anything in return…
Definition of Agape: Agape is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, the highest of the four types of love in the Bible.
This Greek word and variations of it are found throughout the New Testament. Agape perfectly describes the kind of love Jesus Christ has for his Father and for his followers:
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
(John 14:21, NIV)
The realest love you will find is in the lover of your soul, through your Father.
He whispers…” Nothing you ever do can ever change My love for you. For I am God. God is Love. My character cannot change…”
(Some of the Youth from Living Word Church of L’viv in the center city hanging out, worshipping, and hanging out English club flyers to people in the area)
So back to God’s love..so maybe you are wondering how I can be romantic with God. How he has this ability to “sweep me off of my feet…” Well since God creator of EVERYTHING created it, and knows my inmost being, AND knows what makes me smile; he has been doing just that.
So God has been sweeping me away since I arrived here…showing me the beauty of what he has created through art and his creation. I found out that we are staying in an area that is artsy (which I LOVE art), everywhere I looked last Sunday was walking art and it was so beautiful and intrinsically established. To top that off, I found out I am in coffee capital of Ukraine. I like coffee a LOT and if you know me, you would already know this …anyhow the father put me in the middle of expresso heaven. So I keep blushing…as I realize the Father keeps saying ..yep see how much I love you my love.
Fresh flowers line the streets, which I also like a lot. The beautiful colors just brighten my spirit and an instant grin is all over my face. The buildings in the center of the city are even romantic…the way that they are built and preserved. They also know how to make the most delicious chocolate here…& when we arrived to our house we were staying in for the month there was chocolate on my pillow & fresh flowers in our room.
(Busia, Uganda-Month 2)
(L’viv, Ukraine 3/12)
The beautiful sunsets...have just been the Lord showing off and painting beautiful paintings in the sky…sunsets are what I like to believe kisses from the Lord to me. When I was in Uganda it was prophesied to me that I am like sunshine….and that my bright spirit is what people need. They need the vitamins it gives off, and the warmth of it is good…sometimes however being around it too much could even cause sunburns…well ever since that prophecy, I felt the Father told me his beautiful sunsets where his EXTRA special way of saying I love you & I love to watch the sun set now even more than ever. There was the most extravagant sunset back in month 2, in Busia Uganda that i will never forget…and from that moment on, I am awestruck by the things the Father paints in the sky all around the world.
Reflections of trees in a Nearby Pond @ the Park we visited last week…
The Beauty in Nature….
This morning little snowflakes came down & yet the sun managed to make it’s way out the rest of the beautiful day here in L’viv Ukraine. I love snow…and for some reason missed it so much while in Africa & Asia. I really missed colder temperatures as well, I have really gained an appreciation for 4 seasons. So God has been sweeping me off my feet…even through my tears, he has been teaching me that my tears are tears that turn into increasing joy. After many years of numbing pain through alternative choices, I had a lot of tears built up. Now my emotions are coming out in a healthy way…They aren’t too high, but not too low, just perfect wrapped up in the love of Christ, in the stillness of being a daughter. Not that I am perfect, but that his perfect love comes in me, and works through me…and it covers me. He was perfect love. He came here and gave of himself…the ultimate sacrifice…to free us….
One of my favorite things to do while I have been here is sit out on the balcony and just talk to God. Even in the colder temperatures I will go outside and wrap a blanket around myself and sit there, and just marvel at how much he loves me. As I wrap the blanket it is as if the Lord is wrapping it around my shoulders for me…showing me affection…and comfort.
HE LOVES ME. He Loves You….
(this is still life art that I am talking about…all around the city you will see people painted in freezing positions and I find it beautiful…underneath these real life statues lie people God loves with real feelings and real stories…)
It’s not like when you are a little girl wondering as you are pulling petals off of a daisy..”He loves me, He loves me not…” It’s more like He Always Loves Me. He Always will. He Always does.
That’s just the kind of love that he gives…It’s the kind of crazy love that doesn’t make sense…It just keeps loving. Always patient. Never bearing any wrongs.
Something inside of me has ignited, has sparked…that love has exploded & its has started this movement inside of my soul to love him back. To honor him more. To give more of me. Like a husband needs his wife as his helper, I need the Father…
We can’t let that love die. That individual specialized love & attention God has for each one of his children. Relentless. Sweet, affectionate, delightful love. He created it all, and has a lot to do but he takes the time to love each and every one of us which just blows my mind…
Awaken love Father…in all the people you have created. Unveil their eyes, open their hearts. Expand on their understanding of love… want to be loved in an agape love. No other love will do. To give & receive that love is fulfillment of life. You amaze me Father. Your love is the most beautiful thing on this Earth. I pray this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
