Love from Life Letters

I was completely baffled.  Nothing about Michal's story had ever spoken of love to me.  Disappointment, betrayal, misunderstandings, bitterness, and ridicule permeated her story found in I & II Samuel.  But love, not hardly.  At least not in my mind anyway.  

How on earth could the story of a princess's forbidden love lost, regained, abused, and shattered, much less her later consuming malice and self-righteous vengeance be the chosen tale to portray the fruit of love?  

Until my eyes landed on these words:

There was only One who could love me the way I longed to be loved and I spent my whole life setting Him aside. I did to Him what the world had done to me.  

Doughty, Becky (2011-07-01). Life Letters: The Fruit of the Spirit (Kindle Locations 125-126). BraveHearts Press. Kindle Edition. 

Slipping beneath Michal's skin to the true nature of a woman's heart, Doughty erased Michal from my mind.  This was now my story.  

Believing myself insignificant, overlooked, and useless, I reached out to people, accomplishments, and possessions for fulfillment where none could be found.  All the longings, desires, and dreams I held so tightly completely blinded me to the only One who could satisfy, the only One who’s Love could make me whole, the One who was waiting for me to “come down” from the window and “receive Him.”

Doughty, Becky (2011-07-01). Life Letters: The Fruit of the Spirit (Kindle Locations 131-132). BraveHearts Press. Kindle Edition.

Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT)

And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 

And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.