Falling deeper in love with Jesus

Perhaps you have heard that idea before, and it sound fluffy and nice. But what does it mean and why is it so important? and, then, how do we do it?

To start, falling in love is perhaps not the most helpful phrase. We use so often to talk of the early days of a romantic interest or relationship. Usually that is when feelings are fairly new and untested. They have not withstood the test of time and trials.

'I was so in love but then they they said something offensive so I broke up with them' that, is not love, regardless of feelings.

I fell in love but they got ill and now where they used to make me feel amazing they are just ill and sad so I don't feel the same any more. Also not love, if you only say you are in love and then pull away because they change a little or don't meet your needs as much, then your love is selfish anyway. You love them because of how THEY make You feel.

But true love works be going a lot deeper. Loving someone when they don't make you feel good, in fact, when they have a breakdown and shout at you. Or when you are exhausted and still need to pour into another being with little in return as any parent would understand.

Loving Jesus needs to deepens. Loving Jesus needs to deepen to where you love him when he doesn't always give you what you want. When the trials of your life feel never ending, or they do end and another one begins - or 3.

Being deeper in love with Jesus needs to be removed from our romantic inclinations, and more how a child depends on a parent for everything. That reliance, that dependency that deepens over time and through experience. Through many trials our love is tested and trialled as scripture states, in the form of faith. In scriptural terms love and faith and trust are intimately interlinked. You can't have a deeper love for Jesus without growing in faith, you cannot grow in faith without growing in trust etc.

So often the idea of falling deeper in love is about sudden change but in my experience it is about going through trials together where he proves himself time and again. Which leads me to my other questions. It is important to deepen our love for Christ in or to be able to remain faithful through trials and storms. As we love more, we listen more, we rely more, we depend more. These things test the reality of our faith and give us opportunity for growth. It is a circle of growth. But it is not meant to be faked. It doesn't mean forcing yourself to keep going to church when going through a trauma. It can mean praising him for some good things, even if there are a ton of bad things going on right now, or being thankful, if for nothing else other than that you are saved by his blood.

Sometimes things can seem so bad, that that is the only thing you can do. And if that is the case, then that is enough.

But ultimately it comes down to understand question 3, sure experience helps grow us, if we allow it to. But knowing his love for us is core to it all. If you don't know his love for you, how will you love, how will you trust, how will your faith grow? Basically, it won't. Knowing His love for you is a core part of all of the above. It is in fact meant to be what actually drives us and moves us in life. Only by dwelling in him and through him in his love, are we able to love him.

As a child who is secure in their parents love and care will trust more, open up more, share more, listen more, so we also need to know his love for us. It is all about him first, not us. Paul's prayer at the end of Ephesians 3 stresses this that it is through knowing his love that we might be filled with the fullness of God.

So if you want to deepen your love for Christ, pray for and seek and deeper knowledge of his love for you and how high and wide and deep it is, even when you sin, mess up, don't know what you are doing and everything else. He loves you and that is the basis of growing ever more in love with Jesus.