‘He Loved Us First’: Actress Jessica Oyelowo on Discovering God’s Love
By Movieguide® Contributor
LAWMEN: BASS REEVES actress Jessica Oyelowo sat down with Streams Studio to discuss her journey to encounter the love of God.
“I spent three months. The only prayer I prayed for three months was ‘God, show me how much you love me. Just, however scary that might be, because I have a feeling you do. And I really, really need to know, because otherwise I’m going to die. It’s too painful to live unloved,’” she said.
The actress explained how she felt she couldn’t receive love despite her successful life and loving family.
“[I had] lots of confidence, but in my heart, I still felt so unloved,” she said.
Then, one day, Oyelowo realized something profound. “You can only love God to the measure that you know you are loved, because we only love God because He first loved us,” she shared, referencing 1 John 4:19.
“So, I had to ask first the source of all love, ‘Show me how much you love me,’ every single day, and I committed to three months. And it would be things that meant a lot to me. It was a sunset. It was a walk in the South Downs. It was a sparrow coming along and singing at me.”
Understanding God’s love for her resulted in discovering his will for her life. This meant moving from England to America and realizing her value came from God’s love, not from anything she achieved.
“Being able to understand my value based on nothing but my existence, just sitting still and breathing, makes me valuable,” Oyelowo said.
God’s plan doesn’t always make sense, but the actress has learned to trust his will no matter where it leads.
“Who would have thought that the best thing for my career as an actress was to have four babies and homeschool them for five years? That’s not normal. That’s not a good career path. That’s not climbing the ladder,” Oyelowo said.
“It is absolutely what I needed to do. This is achieving the perfect will of God, and it’s achieving all the things he’s called me to, and he can achieve all of them in a day if he chooses. He might not achieve any of them until I’m 80 if he chooses,” she concluded. “But right now, this is where I need to be. In the perfect will of God, no matter what that looks like.”
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