The Unrelieved Quest

Feed My sheep. — John 21:17

This is love in the making. The love of God is unmade—it is God’s very nature. When we receive the Holy Spirit, He unites us with God so that His love is manifested in us. But union with God is not the end in itself; the purpose is to be one with the Father as Jesus was. And what did that oneness look like? It looked like being sent to be spent. Jesus said, “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (John 20:21).

Peter, after denying Jesus, was brought face to face with this reality. Jesus’ question—Do you love Me?—wasn’t to shame him but to reveal what Peter had inside. His love for Christ was real, but it was meant to be poured out, not just professed. “Feed My sheep.” And sheep are not always easy to love. Some wander, some resist, and some are just difficult. But God’s love is not wearied, nor is the love He produces in those who abide in Him.

The love of God doesn’t operate through natural inclination or personal preference. It moves beyond sentimentality and human sympathy. We do not get to decide whom we love or how we love them. If we love Christ, we love those He sends to us. If we are His, we feed His sheep.

Journal Entry

Lord, I hear Your words to Peter echoing in my own heart. Do you love Me? Of course, I do. How could I not? You have rescued me from myself, from my desperate attempts to be my own source of life. You have drawn me into Your life, and in You, I have found rest, joy, and freedom. I have found You.

But then You ask me to spend that love—to let it pour out on others, even when they are difficult, even when they misunderstand, even when they reject it. That’s where the struggle begins. It’s easy to say I love You in the quiet moments of prayer, but love that remains only words is incomplete. Feed My sheep. Love in action. Love without preference. Love without conditions.

I recognize the tendency to retreat into what is comfortable, to serve where it suits me, to care only when it costs little. But You did not love me that way. You gave freely, relentlessly, sacrificially. You were not led by mere human compassion; You were moved by the Father’s heart. That is the love You live in me now. That is the love I trust You to express through me.

Lord, I yield to You today. I trust You to love through me—not with my own limited affections, but with Your unwavering, unstoppable, supernatural love. You have already provided everything I need in Christ. There is no striving, no trying to muster up something I don’t have. You are my life, my love, my sufficiency.

So, I go forward, not to try harder, but to trust more deeply. Not to work up love, but to rest in the love You have already placed within me. This is not my love for You; it is Your love in me. And that love will never fail.

Amen.

Photo Credit: Unsplash
Devotional Credit: My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers