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Beloved = Be Loved By God!
Victoria Boyson
www.victoriaboyson.com
Father kept saying over and over to me this morning, "You are My BELOVED daughter, in whom I AM well-pleased!" until it sunk deep in as only He can affect me. And as though He were trying to tell me that I didn't yet fully understand the mystery of this word, I saw Jesus right in my face in the Spirit, holding up a sign that read, "BELOVED!" So, I studied it for a while and finally saw it!
If you separate the word BELOVED you get the message He wants you to hear and that is to BE LOVED by HIM!
As His beloved daughter, I cannot change the fact that I am beloved by Him, but sometimes I don't feel His love. Indeed, when the accusing voices come demanding perfection, finding nothing but fault to strip you of the certainty of feeling loved by God, they're
trying to rob you of God, Himself.
It doesn't matter if we are unloveable, because His love is unconditional - there are NO CONDITIONS to His love. So, truly, it's not about feeling loveable, because we
could never do enough good to redeem ourselves. It's about the fact that HE IS LOVE DEFINED.
GOD IS LOVE and if we deny His love, we deny Him. Because the two cannot be separated - it is Who He is. It is His
essence - His being.
When Father calls you BELOVED, He is doing more than trying to show you that He loves you. He is trying to get you to allow Him to love you. He wants you to LET YOURSELF BE LOVED
BY HIM!
A Celebrating Father!
Years ago, I had a very intense vision of the Father. He was indescribable in His perfection and beauty, much more than I'd ever imagined Him to be. He was, indeed, LOVE
PERSONIFIED. Yet, even saying that does not really convey His character, because our human love, even at it's best, doesn't come close to describing His love. His love is much more than accepting of us, appreciating or tolerating us. His love is a CELEBRATION! When He sees you or even thinks about you, His love explodes in delight!
It's no wonder Jesus represented the Father's nature with the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke
15:11-32), because it is much more like that than anything else we've been told. The miracle of our whole life will be that "While we were yet sinners He LOVED US!" (Romans 5:8).
Truly, His love is
continually pursuing you all day, every day and every minute of every day. Yet, we don't feel it unless we allow ourselves to BE LOVED
by Him - we must believe AND receive it for ourselves. It's for YOU; you're NOT excluded. HE WANTS YOU TO BE LOVED BY HIM!
Father's Love
The closest human example of love I can think
of to describe Father God is my mother's father. When he loved you, there was no doubt that you felt loved. His giant blue eyes would light up when he saw you and he would explode with celebration. He was so loud and would pick you up and squeeze you so tight you thought you might burst. He'd twirl you around and then sit you back down on your own two feet, just to stand back and look at you with an expression of celebratory pride.
Sometimes I think of him in heaven now with his Heavenly Father and I think they must have so much in common. Heavenly Father has the most amazing, piercing eyes, filled to overflowing with excited celebration when He sees His beloved child. He wants nothing more than to pick you up and squeeze you so tight, dancing with the glee of seeing you. And surely, He too, sits you back down on your own two feet just to stand back and look at who you are, overwhelmed with pride at every thing you do. Every time you wake up, He loves you. When you're exhausted, He loves you. When you're cranky, He loves you. And when you pull yourself back up one more time after you have fallen again, He loves you to tears. In our human relationships, there's a great pain in loving someone who doesn't love themselves. It's even much more painful for God, it hurts Him unbelievably when you won't LET YOURSELF
BE LOVED by Him, because, in receiving HIS LOVE, you are truly receiving HIM!
Just the Way You Are
Several years back, I had a run-in with someone and they hurt me very badly. I felt so unloved, so
contemptible and horrid. I thought it would be a long time before I could stop feeling the self-hatred that condemnation can bring.
After a difficult night's sleep, I woke up the next morning and before
remembrances of the previous day could hit me, I felt Holy Spirit singing to me. I love it when He does that. He was singing a song I'd heard that I liked. It was Just The Way You Are
- by Bruno Mars.
These words sank deep into my mind, restoring my soul:
Oh, her eyes, her eyes make the stars look like they're not shinin'. Her hair, her hair falls perfectly without her
trying.
She's so beautiful and I tell her everyday. Yeah, I know, I know when I compliment her she won't believe me.
And it's so, it's so sad to think that she don't see what I see.
But every time she asks me "Do I look okay?"
I say, When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change 'cause you're amazing. Just the way you are.
And when you smile the whole world stops and stares for a while, 'Cause girl you're amazing
Just the way you are!
I broke down crying before my feet hit the floor. He knew what was needed and His love washed over me. Even if no other human soul in the world loved or approved of me, there was
nothing on earth that could measure HIS LOVE, ACCEPTANCE AND CELEBRATION over me!
He was loving me and He was accepting me, but because of accusation, condemnation and rejection, I couldn't feel it. I could only see and feel the things said to me by the person who'd hated me so much, yet God's love was fighting for me...
I just had to RECEIVE IT!!!
Because, BELOVED =
BE LOVED!!! It's an order! It's His decree, His edict!
People often quote the scripture in (Matthew 5:48), be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect, implying we need to be
perfect before we'll be acceptable to God or His love is expressed merely from a position tolerance rather than love.
Indeed, in that Scripture, Christ is saying put on MY FATHER'S PERFECT LOVE! He is
perfect because He is LOVE and His LOVE is PERFECT and COMPLETE! Human love is fraught with fragile places and collapses at the first sign of pain, but HIS LOVE is perfect. We can only really love perfectly if we accept His
perfect, unconditional, revolutionary love for ourselves no matter what others think we deserve!
People can devastate your soul, loss can strip you of your equilibrium and failure can leave you disgusted with
yourself. None of that changes the FACT that the ALMIGHTY GOD in heaven, who created the universe, the mountains, oceans and deserts, also created YOU! And you absolutely were His GRAND FINALE.
He made you to love
you. He imagined you and loved you before you were even conceived. ALL OF HEAVEN celebrated with Him the day you were born. They cheered when you took your first steps and rejoiced when you finally turned your eyes to HIM
for the first time and the second and third and millionth!
A Slanderous Lie!
The enemy of your soul wants very much to convince you that God is NOT love or that, if He is, you don't qualify for His
love. But no other dreadful lie is more hated by Father than this. Because it is truly the exact opposite, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life, (John. 3:16).
King David said, Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD will hold me close. (Psalm 27:10). The world can hate you, your parents can abandon you, but none of that disqualifies you from God's love - it doesn't even come close!
Let God love you! Let Him forgive you! Let yourself
BE LOVED
by Him! Don't deny Him the joy of loving His child, the delight of His heart - His Work of Art. Like a good father loves his child and would be broken hearted to be separated from him; your heavenly Father feels the separation from you intensely. HE WANTS YOU BACK!
Maybe you've walked with Him your whole life, BUT HAVE YOU LET HIM LOVE YOU?
Lord Jesus stands in front of you right now as you read these printed words and He's crying, begging you to let yourself
BE LOVED!
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Father, pour out your love on this your child, let it wash over them and break off the lies the enemy has sown into their heart and mind. Give them the courage Holy Spirit to receive all
the Father's great love for them. Restore them to the palm of His hand!
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NEW Book by Victoria Boyson