THE SECRET PLACE
Abiding under the shadow of the Almighty
PART 24
I CAN’T MAKE YOU LOVE ME
“And Jesus went out from there and came unto His own country; and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath day was come, He began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing Him were astonished, saying, where has this man learned these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto Him that such mighty works are done by His hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judah and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us? And they were OFFENDED at Him.
But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house. And He could do there NO MIGHTY WORK, except that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. And He went round about the villages, teaching.” (MARK 6:1-6)
I cannot take credit for the title of this article because it belongs to a songwriter named Bonnie Raitt. It is a powerfully emotional song about two people in a relationship where one feels the other is not as excited about the romance as they are. Do you believe sometimes feels this way about us? To Him nothing is impossible – however, when it comes to our free-will responding to His love, this is an area that He waits patiently for us to “see” the light of His passion and our desperate need to willingly RETURN our love back to Him. It is not difficult to notice the world does not really love God even though it may be hard to comprehend. There is much interest and devotion to religion but that is not the same thing. When I think about the wide spiritual chasm that separates man from God, I wonder just what it would take for humankind to receive the revelation of His love. God not only created every person and gave them the opportunity to enjoy living, He intentionally sent His Son Jesus to be crucified so that anyone who believes in Him could enjoy the blessing of eternal life. In addition, if creating the entire universe including heaven and earth were not enough to prove He is filled with love and forgiveness, how much more could He do? I personally believe that each person must be drawn by the Holy Spirit and their eyes must be supernaturally opened in order to see how spiritually naked they are. At the same time, humans have an independent decision making mentality and this self-sufficient attitude has the deceived (yet determined) ability to survive without His intervention. The Lord would be thrilled if everyone would embrace Him in a personal and intimate relationship but if He had to force them – it would not be satisfying. The beauty of a love affair is the MUTUAL feelings of devotion and infatuation. The bond of marriage is a sincere commitment with the deepest part of the heart which causes the two to become as one. Spiritual passion is “one sided” until we are introduced to Christ – and hopefully through the power of His grace we can know what it is to fall in love. Does our heart reveal that we truly long to spend eternity with Him?