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Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

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learn. God’s Word is like food and clean, clear water. It filled the emptiness

inside me. It renewed me. It opened my eyes and ears and mind and heart

and filled me with joy.

We opened our house for a home Bible study, and our pastor began a

study on the gospels. Then we did a study on materialism. Then we began a

study on the minor prophets. We eventually came to the Book of Hosea.

That portion of God’s Word hit me so profoundly that I knew this was the

love story the Lord wanted me to write! His story, a deeply moving story of

His passionate love for each of us—unconditional, forgiving, unchanging,

everlasting, self-sacrificing—the kind of love for which most people hunger

their entire lives, yet never find.

Writing Redeeming Love was a form of worship for me. Through it, I was

able to thank God for loving me even when I was defiant, rebellious, contemptuous

of what I thought being a Christian meant, and afraid to give my

heart away. I had wanted to be my own god and have control of my life the

way Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Now I know to be loved by Christ is the

ultimate joy and fulfillment. Everything in Redeeming Love was a gift from

the Lord: plot, characters, theme. None of it is mine to claim.

There are many who struggle to survive in life, many who have been

used and abused in the name of love, many who have been sacrificed on the

altars of pleasure and “freedom.” But the freedom the world offers is, in reality,

false. Too many have awakened one day to discover they are in bondage,

and they have no idea how to escape. It is for people such as these that I

wrote Redeeming Love—people who fight, as I did, to be their own gods,

only to find in the end that they are lost, desperate, and terribly alone. I

want to bring the truth to those trapped in lies and darkness, to tell them

that God is there, He is real, and He loves them—no matter what.

I used to believe the purpose in life is to find happiness. I don’t believe

that anymore. I believe we are all given gifts from our Father, and that our

purpose is to offer them to Him. He knows how He wants us to use them. I

used to struggle to find happiness. I used to work hard to attain it. By the

world’s standards, I was successful. But it was all meaningless vanity. Now, I

have joy. I have everything I ever wanted or dreamed of having: a love that is

so precious I can find no words to describe it. I haven’t achieved this

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