One Look and Instant Love

Have you ever felt like you just weren't good enough? Like no matter what you did, your flaws always won the day? Has it ever been hard to win someone's approval? Man, I have sure felt like that before. In fact, I felt like that just yesterday! It is so easy to focus on wanting to win the attention and approval of the people around us. And once we fall into the "popularity" trap it is extremely hard to pull yourself out of it.

A guy in the Bible felt like he needed to win Jesus' approval to be a disciple. In fact, he doesn't even have a name. We only know him as the "rich young ruler." But one day this man came up to Jesus and wanted to know what "criteria" he had to have in order to follow Jesus. Well, Jesus said he had to follow the commandments. Pretty simple, right? The man nodded in agreement. He had kept all of the of the commandments thus far. But then the Bible says something incredible.....I mean this is just awesome! Mark 10:21 says, "Jesus looked at him and loved him." Wow! Jesus just looked at this guy who claimed that he had kept all of the commandments and loved him. The rich young man didn't do anything to earn that love. He hadn't been following Jesus around worshipping His every step. He simply asked a question. The other cool thing is that Jesus knew what was in the young man's heart, yet loved him anyways. You see, this young man was extremely rich and Jesus knew that. Jesus knew that his riches were taking first place in the man's heart. So what did Jesus do? He challenged the man and told him to leave his possessions and follow Him. Well, the young man left disappointed because He didn't want to leave his number one priority--his "stuff" behind. But Jesus still looked on him in love. WOW!

Jesus sees my heart....my every thought, word, action, and attitude. He sees it all and He still loves me! That is such a crazy thought for me to comprehend! I mean, He (the God of the universe!) looks and me and instantly loves me. I don't have to do anything to earn that love. Wow, let that sink in. I don't have to do anything to earn His love.

So, why do we care so much about what others think of us and treat God's love like it's nothing? Why do we try so hard to fit in when Jesus is screaming, "Daughter, come follow me! I love you!!" I think we have placed popularity and being accepted at such a high priority that we often times forget Jesus. Ouch....that is a pretty tough thought. I like to think that I am worshipping Him all the time, but sadly that isn't always the case. The reason we forget about God's love (which is the greatest and most pure love you can ever find!) is because we don't make Him our number one priority. Believe me....I know how this feels. In fact, my priorities were a little out of order until I had a huge wake-up call last night. God always welcomes us back with open arms. It is never to late to run into His arms screaming "Daddy, I love you. Take all of me." And you know what He will shout back to you? He will say, ""Welcome home princess. I have been waiting for you! Come back into my arms. I love you!"