Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies

Valentine’s Day is here and what better way to celebrate than with red velvet cookies and a post about love?

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  Today is a special food, faith and Friday edition for a couple reasons.  First I haven’t posted in over six months, much less created a new recipe, so that’s pretty exciting. More importantly though, I have a message I’ve been wanting to share for several weeks, but I decided to save it for today (yes it has to do with love).

A Love That Satisfies

Beginning around September of last year, I fell into about a three month slump.  My grandma, Mommom, was passing away slowly before my eyes and I wasn’t in a healthy headspace about work.  To add to everything, I was feeling very isolated; not physically, but spiritually and emotionally.

During this season of life, I found myself longing to be in a relationship.  I remember thinking that if I could be in a relationship, I wouldn’t feel so alone and that all my troubles would melt away.  Because that’s realistic, right?

One day as I was sitting in church, the pastor made the point that God is just waiting to fill every part of my life and all I have to do is be receptive to His love.  Having grown up in the church, I was very familiar with this truth. However, during that moment, I felt the Holy Spirit ask me a very simple question, “Natalie, why won’t you let me love you?”  At that moment, I realized although I knew God loved me, I never actually opened myself up to receiving and fully experiencing His love.

For a long time, I allowed God’s love to cover so many parts of my life except one – the space in my heart I was reserving only for that special someone.  For many years, I was in denial that God could satisfy that part of my heart. Sitting there in church, it became clear what God was asking me to do: to open up my heart completely to His love. 

That evening, I finally surrendered that part of my heart to Him. Not fully understanding how He could fill that perceived void in my life, I opened that part of my heart to Him in faith that He would do exactly as He said and fill it completely.

As promised, God’s love rushed in like a flood and flowed through every crevice of my heart.  No longer do I feel like I am lacking anything, most importantly a relationship. Is getting married and having a family still a desire of my heart?  Yes. However, it’s not a missing piece in my life, because I have no missing pieces. My life is filled with Christ as Ephesians 1:23 states:

And the church is His body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with Himself.”

Praise God that my identity, confidence and sense of wholeness is not found in anyone (or anything) but Himself!  I think Ephesians 3:18-20 encapsulates this idea beautifully:

“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 is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. ~Ephesians 3:18-20

And guess what?  Even if my dream of being married and having a family of my own never comes to pass, I will still live a very satisfied and fulfilled life just as I am doing right now.  For I know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. That doesn’t mean having this mindset is easy. Receiving God’s love is a daily choice. He is longing to fill every space in your life.  The offer is there and now the choice is yours: Will you let Him love you?

Blessings on your home and table,

~Natalie

For more Valentine’s Day treats, check out my chocolate lava cakes!