Daily Delight
Does anyone else ever feel like the seasons in our lives when we’re flourishing only last for a month, while the dry seasons when we’re seriously struggling and hurting seem to last for a year? There are long stretches of time when I feel like I have nothing to offer God. My energy is spent, my drive is limited, and my passion falls flat. It’s times like these when we need to stop striving and trying to do things all the time and instead go back to our original purpose:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
-Matthew 22:37-38 (ESV)
The number one thing we’re called to do is love God, and in order for us to do that, we have to first know that He loves us.
“We love because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19 (ESV)
By that logic, the very first thing we’re called to do is be loved. It’s the foundation of everything. We were created out of love, to be loved, and to then love. We weren’t called to strive and to do things for God to get Him to love us. If you’re in a place where you don’t even want God to look at you or you don’t even want to spend time with Him because you don’t have everything together and you’re a mess, your thinking is backwards. We need to let Him in, and we need to let Him love us. We need to tell Him what hurts, and we need to ask Him to help us. We need to tell Him that it feels like we can’t go on and we feel like there’s no hope.
“Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath.” -Psalm 116:2 (NLT)
He hears our every prayer and our every cry. He knows what hurts, but He also knows what the outcome will be. So if you’re in a desert season that seems like it won’t ever end, don’t walk through it alone. Let God in, and let Him bring you hope. Allow yourself to be loved and live out of love instead of for love, and before you know it, everything will start to shift.
{photo: @jaydaiye}
About the Author
Tatiana Jaeger
Tatiana is a 23-year-old idealist living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a lover of all things creative, and would happily spend the rest of her days learning more about the heart of the Father through what he has revealed to us in creation. She loves deep conversations and connecting with people in a real and authentic way, and her heart is to break through the surface level to find the gold in people. You can usually find her outside on a sunny day, going on long hikes in nature, or taking a drive around the city while singing along to her favorite album of the week on repeat.
