Love Changes Us When We Let It
God’s love changes us, concludes Ron Hughes. However, there are some that refuse to allow God to work in their lives at all. Are you open to allowing God’s love to change you?
A Brilliant Woman
I encountered the story of a brilliant woman. Her intellectual gifts were staggering. Her creative output included more than 25 novels. She was a philosopher and in high demand as a public speaker. She was a free thinker and a free spirit and she was terrified of anything that might set a limit on her. For example, she greatly feared the loss of her intellectual prowess in old age.
Accept Me the Way I Am
Something she said repeatedly, grabbed my attention. She would tell people, “You just have to accept me the way I am.” This would be followed by an explanation of how she could not accept external boundaries which would limit her self‑expression. This even extended to the men in her life, to whom she explained the necessity of their accepting her other lovers.
Love Changes Us
I found myself torn as the story unfolded. We all have a deep desire to be loved as we are without being called on to change for others, to experience and express oneself completely freely. Yet, at the same time, we know that the experience of deep mutual love does change us. We adjust our thinking, our values and our behaviour as our love relationships develop. I kept asking myself, whether this woman I was learning about ever experienced mutual love, even with her husband, or were they both in love with the same person ‑ namely, her.
Touched by Love and Changed
Literature abounds with both true and fictional stories of men and women who, when touched by love, are changed by it. These characters do not fear and seek to avoid this change. Often they embrace it, allowing it to shape them positively. They are ennobled by the process, made better than they would have been if they had protected themselves from giving and receiving love.
God’s Love Changes Us
All this made me reflect on how an authentic relationship with God changes us. Anyone who is touched by the love of God is changed by it. We cannot avoid that. To experience deep human love changes us, how much more divine love, untainted by weakness, need, or self‑interest.
Love Transforms
When the Bible addresses this matter of being changed by love, it uses an even stronger word. It speaks of transformation. In Romans, Paul calls on us to cooperate with God in the process of being conformed to the likeness of the Lord Jesus by telling us to stop being conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we may be able to discern God’s purposes for us.
Later, he assures us that this deep change does not depend on us. He uses the idea of a mirror reflecting the image of the person standing in front of it. The more we gaze at Christ, the more like him we become.
Love Changes Us – But Only If We Allow It
When we find ourselves saying “You just have to accept me the way I am” and using these words to resist knowing who God intends us to be, we may find that not only do we shut out the possibility of being changed by His love, but also the possibility of being touched by His love.
A deeper experience of God’s love changes us only if we are open to receiving Him into our lives. Are you looking for a deeper relationship with Jesus? We would love to hear from you. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
Ron Hughes
Ron Hughes is the former President of FBH International He developed his interest in technology and mass communications during his highschool years in Peterborough, Ontario.
He received a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Radio and Television Arts from Ryerson University where he graduated as the program’s “outstanding graduate.” He gained experience working in both commercial and cultural radio stations in Southern Ontario as well as engaging in freelance production.
In 1983, he and his wife, Debbie, moved to Ecuador where they served as missionaries for 10 years. There, Ron produced radio specials and numerous music albums as well as several videos. Some of these videos were the first ever produced in Ecuador’s major indigenous languages. In 1993, the Hughes family returned to Canada at the invitation of FBH International (then Family Bible Hour) and oversaw the ministry for many years.
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