Choosing to Stay in the Arms of His Love
By Ellie Ash
@negativenellie4
confessionsofanegativenellie.com
As a lifelong perfectionist, I often overanalyze how my actions, or lack thereof, have disqualified me from the love of my Savior.
I mean, who could love someone who blew up at another for not rinsing the dishes properly? Again.
Who could love someone who cycles through the same mistakes?
What could a person like that do to become worthy of a love like His?
Nothing. The answer to that last question is nothing. Why? Because, as Lehi states, “[we are] encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.” (2 Nephi 1:15).
Unlike us fickle humans, the Savior never wavers. In our lowest of lows and in our highest of highs, He is along for the ride, holding our hand and leading us through. His arms are always extended towards us, so, why does it not always feel that way?
Because that is how the adversary wants us to feel. He wants us to feel as if our slip-ups are permanent, causing the Savior to turn His back on us. The adversary knows that believing these lies actually causes us to step out of the Savior’s loving embrace, because they make us believe we are unworthy to stand there.
So, how can we stop that? How can we shine the light of truth through such falsehoods? How can we become aware of the love the Savior readily offers? How can we choose to stay in the arms of His love?
Use His Gift
The greatest act of love the world will ever know, the Savior’s atonement, will continually allow us to feel and see His love for us…if we use it.
The adversary would have us believe that the fact we even have to use the Atonement saddens the Savior, upsets Him, or even irritates Him when we cannot seem to gain traction against a particular struggle.
The opposite could not be more true.
The Savior did not suffer for perfect people. He suffered for imperfect people that He loves dearly. Nothing brings Him greater joy than when we turn to Him, pleading for help, guidance, and forgiveness. As we choose to turn to Him, the love our Savior has for us becomes so obvious, nothing can convince us differently.
Reflect on the Past
Not only am I a perfectionist by birth, I am also a complainer. I love nothing more than to wallow in my own self-pity, and the best type of mud is the tried and true statement, “If He loved me, why would He give me this?”
When I find myself searching for the love of God, I find it most often in the past. Bringing up even just one instance of previous proof of His understanding, His foresight, His compassion, leads me to drown in the firehose stream of even more memories, moments, and evidence of His absolute love for me.
God is an unchanging God, and if He loved me then, He still loves me now. Even in the hard times.
Talk To Him
When you want to know an answer to a question, you first must ask the question.
We have the incredible ability to talk with God ourselves, questioning Him on anything and everything. We can ask to feel His love, we can ask to see His hand in our lives, and we can even ask Him if He loves us.
I guarantee He will answer you, through the actions of another, the warming comfort from the Spirit, or even a whispered, “Yes”, spoken straight to your heart.
However, even just the act of praying itself reveals God’s sincere love for us. No matter how far down the path we’ve gone, or how big we think we’ve messed up, prayer is and always will be an option.
The Creator of the Universe wants to speak to you. He wants to hear your worries, your concerns, your heartaches, and your incredible celebrations. The Lord knows you, but He wants you to know that He knows you, and prayer is one of the best ways to accomplish that task.
In a world that tries to convince us the Lord is not there, that His love does not exist, and if it did, we would not be deserving of it, please choose to stay. His arms are eternally outstretched towards us, ready and waiting to envelop us in the feeling of His love. It is us that steps out of that reach, by not trusting the love He already proved in Gethsemane and Golgotha.
He loves us, and as we choose to stay within the arms of that love, we will wonder why we ever thought of leaving in the first place.
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