Beloved

Recently, I've been thinking of the word beloved. Mainly because that is exactly what my name means. Every definition I've read reads: greatly loved and dear to the heart. That's all well and good, but what does it mean to be someone's beloved. More importantly, what does it mean to be God's beloved. To figure this out, I turned to the very Words of God to see what he says about this. 


God says that his beloved can dwell in security because of He will shield me from the day-to-day trials. (Deut. 33:12) 


For me, security is such a fickle thing. Something I struggle with consistently is being secure in who I am and who He made me to be. He has been gracious enough to allow me to discover some of the roots of my insecurity. It is still something that is a struggle day in and day out, but with His help, little by little, it is getting better.


Being God's beloved is knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that nothing you do, say, think, or feel will change the fact that we are adored by our Father in Heaven. It's more than just being loved though, it's being accepted. He has adopted each of us as his own child. Picture how much a parent loves his child and multiply it times a million, and that is how our Father looks at us. 


If we would actually grasp how much he loves us, we would crumble at the weight of the love and acceptance. His love for us is so deep, so wide, so long, and so far that it isn't fathomable. 


My Favorite song describing God's love for us is called "Your Love Is Deep". The chorus says: "Your love is deeper than my view of grace; Higher than this wordly place; Longer than this road i travel; Wider than the gap you've filled."


How refreshing is it to know that these words are true. Grace as I see it, runs forever, it's a never ending stream, yet His love for us runs deeper than that. His love for us runs deeper than the deepest well we know. It runs to the core of who He is.


His love runs from the heavens down to earth, how far from the earth is the heavens? No one will know until they reside there. I'd imagine it's higher than our imaginations can even begin to fathom. I'm sure it runs higher than the distance between the earth and the sun, He assures us of that.


His love goes longer than the distance we will go in this life. If we could measure God's love, I have a feeling we'd see it wrap completely around the world so many times we'd lose track of just how many times it's gone. His love is indeed long. 


It's long enough to close the gap between Him, being most holy, and us, being humans who are unworthy of his love. The gap between God and His creation is immense, yet His love has filled that gap.


All this to say that, even though your name may not mean beloved, you are still His beloved. He loves you and made you the way you are. Take comfort in the fact that you are adored by your Father, even when it seems you aren't by anyone else.


What does being His beloved, mean to you?