Taking in God’s Love

Categories: RECENT RESEARCH

Juliet Caceres, PsyD.

February is the month of love. What better time to contemplate the source of all love and to consider His extraordinary love for us?

A “love” scripture often quoted is Song of Solomon 6:31:

“I belong to my beloved, and his desire is for me.”

What a beautiful declaration of the certainty and security of the beloved. She is secure in the fact that she fully belongs to her lover. But it does not end there, she is also certain that his desire and longing are exclusively for her. This security stirs her passion and vibrancy. This is the very image of God’s relationship with us. His love is active towards us, and when we accept and internalize His love we become alive and vibrant.

God loves, not because of anything we do, but because it is who He is. God is love, and to love is His nature. When we truly take in His love, it changes us. It is like taking in nourishment. When we consume nourishing things, they change us. We become filled, restored, vibrant and alive. As a result, we are strengthened and enabled to live out what we were created for. Only the love of God can nourish and restore us fully and only the security of the love of God can enable us to love others freely.

Many people struggle to embrace the love that God wants to lavish upon them. Feelings such as guilt, shame, anger or unforgiveness become barriers to receiving His love. Negative self-messages can also become internalized and make it difficult take in the beauty and goodness that God has towards his children. Each time one overcomes any obstacle to fully receive God’s love and goodness toward us, the whole person is restored and the depths of our being comes alive.

Juliet Caceres, PsyD., is the Clinical Director of Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center.

Timberline Knolls is a residential treatment center located on 43 beautiful acres just outside Chicago, offering specialized Christian-based programming and a nurturing environment of recovery for women and girls ages 12 and older struggling to overcome eating disorders, substance abuse, mood disorders, trauma and co-occurring disorders. By serving with uncompromising care, relentless compassion and an unconditional joyful spirit, we help our residents help themselves in their recovery. For more information, visitwww.timberlineknolls.comor call 877-257-9612.