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The dictionary describes a habit as a recurrent pattern of behavior or established disposition of the mind that is acquired through frequent repetition.
When practiced over time, attitudes, behaviors, actions, and thoughts become habits. They start to come naturally. And love is a habit worth forming. So let’s dive into the first love habit.
1. The habit of living loved.
Sounds kind of strange doesn’t it? What does it mean to live loved?
A dear friend of mine was sharing how she didn’t really feel loved growing up. She was the oldest of three children, her younger siblings were boys. She grew up feeling like she wasn’t as desirable or loved as they were. She also grew up thinking she wasn’t smart enough, pretty enough, or likeable enough. It made me sad because I could see how living with the feeling of not being loved had permeated her life.
Maybe you grew up with the same feeling. Or maybe you have a habit of blocking others from loving you. You intentionally or unintentionally put up a wall that shuts people out and keeps people at an arm’s distance. Living loved, believing that you are lovable and worthy of love can be hard sometimes. People will do a poor job at loving us, as we will do with others. When we open ourselves up to people caring about us, to people loving us, it can be scary. We fear being rejected. But Jesus wants you to live loved, because you are. People will love imperfectly but Jesus is perfect love. Do you live as one deeply loved?
I love the Apostle Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians.
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17b-19 emphasis added).
Jesus wants you to be utterly convinced that you are loved and he wants you to live loved. When we live as one deeply loved by Jesus, it changes everything.
