28/10/2015
May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle
down, abide, make His permanent home) in your
hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded
securely on love.
- Ephesians 3:17
Each one of us is born with a "love tank," and if our
tank is empty, we are in trouble. We need to start
receiving love from the moment we are born and
continue receiving it—and giving it out—until the day
we die. Sometimes Satan manages to arrange things so
that instead of receiving love, we receive abuse. If that
abuse continues, we become love starved and warped,
so that we are unable to maintain healthy relationships.
Many people develop addictive behaviors of different
types. If they can't get good feelings from within
themselves, they look for them on the outside. One of
the things we must understand is that people have to
have a certain number of good feelings. We are all
created to have good feelings about ourselves. We
cannot go around hurting, being wounded, and feeling
bad all the time. We are just not designed to live that
way.
To find those good feelings, many people turn to s*x,
drugs, alcohol, to***co, food, money, power, gambling,
work, television, sports, and many other addictive
things. They are simply trying to get those good feelings
they are missing from within themselves and their
relationships.
The good news is that whatever may have happened to
us in the past, whatever we may have been deprived of,
we can get it from the Lord. He is our Shepherd, so we
shall not want (see Psalm 23:1). He has promised not to
withhold any good thing from us (see Psalm 84:11).
If we did not get enough love when we were growing
up, or if we are not getting enough love now, we don't
have to go through the rest of our lives with an empty
"love tank." Even if there is not one other human being
on this earth who loves us, we are still loved by God,
and we can become rooted and grounded in His love.