I Will Love thee.

I will love thee O Lord, my strength.

Psalms 18:1

This Psalm is on my calender today. I sat and thought about this brief line and the meaning. It souds so simple in writing, I will love thee O Lord, my strength. But isn't this the hardest thing that we struggle to do with our relationship with the Lord, just to love him and let Him be our strength?

For me it can be. I can be moving along just on cloud nine. Having the "Spirit" in my heart, speaking with me, ngauged with the Lord, seeing the blessings of the day laid out in front of me. Like being truly in love, not a care and having a feeling of invincibility. Then, on other days, my mind just won't be settled, I can't see anything as the Lord may have me see it. I allow the things of this world to be a trap. Making excuses for failure and disobediance. My love suffers, I am almost selfishly alone and weak.

I read once that we see ourselves as the most important person to us see us. So, if my most influential person in my life sees me as strong and confident and that is reinforced over time I will be in general strong and confident in my life. The inverse is then true, if I am detested by the person who is my influence then I will see myself as detestable.

I believe the same thing is true in our love. As we love as we learn how to have relationships, what we see, what we beileve from our influence is how we will then love. With that, If we as parents, as influences love others as Jesus loves us, if me could model Him precisely then our children would have a closer loving relationship. We also allow the things of this world influence us and our relationships. We get our modelling from TV, radio, movies, others that may not know the Lord. We cn't help but have inperfections in this area.

Problem, for me is that I didn't know the Lord, early enough and didn't have a perfect role model of how to appropriately love. I didn't love myself the right way, I didn't love others in the right way, and I didn't have perfect love from those that were important to me growing up. Now don't get me wrong here, I am speaking comparatively to the Love of the Lord. Because of this I struggle as many of you struggle.

Jesus gives us the road map to fix this, one of the two greatest commands. Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, all your soul. Only when you accomplish this will you begin to have the perfect relationship. It will not happen all at once and this is part of the journey we are on, we are learning to Love more abnd better each day.

Now like I said at the beginning, it is hard because we are unlearning the things that were not right to begin with. The Spirit will help you work them out if you listen to Him. He will guide you through the areas where you need improvement. He if you let Him will become part of the perfect example of Love that you will need to get there.

The important thing, however i9n all of this, is do not dispare. Do not see a failure or a slip back as an end, as a point of which you will be punished as Gods Love is not like that. Realize that Gods love is perfect. Use it as the most important influence in your life, and you will begin to see that the hardest thing we do as people is to love unconditionally as the Lord loves us, will become easier everyday. The struggle will lesson, and the love blossom.

Lord, you are my strength, when I allow you to be. Lord you are my guide, when I allow you to be. My provider and my shield, rock and strong foundation, my everything, if I allow you to be. So as I follow your example I can love you more and as I love you more, I am stronger. Amen.