This has been one of those weeks where every time I log onto Facebook, someone else is in a new relationship. Must be Spring Fever or something.

I’m glad for all these new couples, and I’m excited that the God Who gives good gifts has loved them in this way. But it still makes me sigh. Part of me completely understands that I have absolutely no time for a boyfriend for the next several months, and I’ve just about given up on the idea of getting married on my dream calendar date; but still…sigh. I’m so ready for it to be my turn.

This week, I went back and re-read a couple of my previous posts (here and here) to remind myself of the truths of the Gospel – like about how God loves me and knows that this season right now is for my good, and about how the God Who gives other people good gifts is also my God.

I was thinking about how God loves me enough to give me exactly what I need now, and how this singleness is not God’s forgetting about me; it’s His showing His love to me. I knew it was true, but it was hard to be happy about it, you know?

Then I read in Ephesians 3 this morning, about how God has orchestrated salvation and trials to be for His glory. Paul (the author) writes out his prayer for the recipients of his letter in verses 13-19:

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named:

• That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
• That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
• That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able
  • To comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and
  • To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge
• That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God

The part that stuck out to me was, “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able. . .to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.”

Because Jesus Christ lived a perfect life as a man and died in my place on the cross, I can trust and revel in the all-surpassing, beyond-measure, mind-blowing love of God.

I was talking to my friend yesterday, and she was lovingly pointing out an area in which I’d been serving someone for my own benefit – trying to be so helpful and whatever, but totally wanting all the glory for myself. She helped me see that my focus was in the wrong place; I needed to put Jesus at the center of my motivation, and love at the center of my actions to the person I’m trying to serve.

Because Jesus is full of love, which overflows onto me, I don’t need to drum up the love out of myself, thus serving from a place of emptiness; I can rely on Him to provide the love (and perspective) that I need to be “filled with all the fulness of God.”

The same truth applies to serving and loving my friends who are in new (or old) relationships: because Jesus came and lived and loved perfectly, I am free to rejoice in the ways He’s loving them now. Because I know I am loved beyond measure, I’m free to love them without envy or cattiness.

I, for one, am extremely glad that God’s love for me isn’t contingent on my human relationship status.