Wanted: True Love

By Kimberly Barton
Guest Writer

CBN.com – God speaks to my heart every day with His beauty and provision – even through contemporary love songs on the radio.

Often, I come across lyrics of a lover desiring his beloved and doing whatever it takes to bring his own to him. The lover’s longing is to be known and loved and finally, out of desperation he puts the beloved to the test to see what the final answer is.

And so it is, in the same way, God may be asking you: Do you want Me or do you want the world? What is your answer?

Everyday I am faced with this question. Ultimately, I know that Jesus Christ is all that I really want and all that I really need. Only He can fill the inner longings and desires of my soul.

I want God to strip away all the imitations and counterfeits that this world has to offer and reveal to me the true Lover of my soul, Jesus Christ. I want him to reign within my heart, spirit, and mind forever. I am desperate and hungry for this pure and innocent, true love that I have found in Jesus Christ.

There is the occasional day on Regent University’s campus when, either leaving or entering the library, I see a bride posing for her picture along the red-carpeted stairwell of the vestibule. Then, there are the days when I see brides posing in front of the regal fountain on campus with the roaring lions.

They, the brides look like royalty, and I feel like Cinderella with ashes across my cheek, not yet discovered by her prince. I think to myself as I longingly look at the brides with admiration, “I desire to be chosen, to be a bride beautifully arrayed in the finest of ornament for her husband.” The brides — they glow, they radiate, and they bask in knowing they have been chosen. I think, “I want to be chosen” and I ask God, “When will my day come?”

I imagine Jesus Christ longing to reach down to this earth and take my face in His hand and tenderly and lovingly saying to me, “But my dear, my beloved, you are already a bride, a most beautiful bride because of Me, and I chose you and you are Mine.”

“Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say. Forget your people and your family far away. For your royal husband delights in your beauty; honor Him, for he is your Lord. (Psalm 45:10-11, NLT)"

Today, I wrote in my journal, “How much better it is to be your bride rather than an earthly one! The material of a wedding dress is perishable, but your garment of righteousness lasts forever.”

“She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear. For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people (Revelation 19:8, NLT)."

I now understand the longings of my heart. Everything goes back to Jesus Christ, and it all makes sense to me now. The desires of my heart are really all for Jesus Christ Himself. He gives us wisdom and freedom in regards to things of this world. He delivered us out of the depths of Sheol. Respectively, we are free from the worldly systems.

Again, it all comes back to the fact that we all long for the love that involves a deep sacrifice, the sacrifice of God’s only Son. It is an innate yearning within us that rises up. Pay attention to the stirrings within your soul … when you are feeling that void. People are always doing whatever they can to stave it off — believers and unbelievers alike. Go to the True Source. Be looking out for your Romancer. He wants you to seek His face and love Him for who He is.

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