"Real Love" is from Blanca's EP Real Love. These engaging and poignant songs are a follow-up to her 2015 debut solo album Who I Am, which featured the standout songs "Not Backing Down," "Greater is He," "Different Drum" and "Who I Am."

"This new chapter in my life and career has been amazing," Blanca says. "I feel that with every song written and every show performed, God is stretching me and showing me more and more of who I am and what He has created me for. I also feel incredibly blessed to embark on this new journey with my family right by my side." I had the opportunity to speak with Blanca about "Real Love."

Please tell me the personal story behind writing this song.

This song has been a healing song for my heart. I've been through a very tough year. There are several pieces to this song coming together. The biggest focus for me to be inspired to write this song was feeling like I can check off all of the boxes and do all of the things that I'm supposed to do--I read my Bible, I went to church--but sometimes I feel empty after doing all of these things. I feel like God's saying to me that doing those things are great, but when am I going to go deeper with Him? I feel like He is asking me, "when are you going to go out of the shallow waters into the deep waters?" That's where it can be painful, but that's where He wants me to go with Him.

My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and fought it for a few years, and she ended up passing away this past year. I think sometimes those very hard seasons that we walk through in life bring out these underlying issues and questions that we have. Especially in that moment, I realized that I don't want to face the whole foundation of who I am in Him based on these shallow things that leave me empty. 

When I was facing these hardest things I've ever walked through in my life, and I was questioning and angry and those things were coming to the surface, I remember speaking with my mom. She told me she was scared when she was in hospice. People were telling her she needed to have faith and trust God and believe and that He was going to heal her, but she was still sick. That was like a dagger to my heart. My mom was an amazing, selfless woman who loved the Lord, and when her time was ending, she felt like God's love was running out on her. That she had done too much wrong or His grace was running out because she was still sick. She was struggling with this issue of works and striving and proving ourselves to the Lord. But He loves us because He is love, and that's who He is.

Which Bible verses connect to the message of the song? 

Romans 5:8 (NIV): "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

John 3:16 (VOICE): "For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life."

1 John 3:16 (NIV): "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

1 John 4:18-19 (NKJV): "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us."

John 7:38 (NKJV): "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

John 4:29 (NKJV): "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?"

Hebrews 4:14-16 (NKJV): "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace; that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

What is the takeaway message?

It's not about religion or what we check off as our good works. It's about trusting and knowing and encountering the real love of Christ. That's where this song came to life. I wrote it after my mom passed away. I had all these emotions, and I want this music to be real, and I want it to talk about something that so many of us are walking through. In that process, I wanted it to be healing to me.

This is a song I can turn to when I feel like I've missed it. A lot of people have been connecting with this song. It's kind of an intense message for some people, and can be misinterpreted in some way when I say "you can leave your religion at home." There is good in religion, but when you look at the Bible and read about the heart of Jesus and what made Him angry and what did He fight for, it was against the religious Pharisees who were missing the mark and the heart of God. That's so relevant today. We get caught up in the picture of what it should be instead of the heart of what it is. It's not about religion; it's about relationship with Jesus. 

There are so many people who have been hurt by the church or don't know Jesus, and the last thing they need from us as the church is how they should dress or which church they attend or their status. It's about loving on people like how Jesus treated the woman at the well. I'm thanking God that He gave me these words for this song.

Lyrics:
This isn't easy for me to admit 
I got a fire inside and some words I know I can't keep in
I see faith turning into a show
Of Sundays and sermons and works getting caught in the flow. 

Oh but we got real pain 
And real fears
Thirstin' for the drying
Of our real tears 
It's not satisfying anymore
Ain't it true that veil was torn
Don't need no stained glass
To be washed in His blood 
Don't need no perfect put together pretty words 
To be enough
I want Jesus and His real love it's something that I crave deep inside of my bones
So you can leave your religion at home

Spent my life trying to keep all the rules
Now I know it's about what He's already done 
Not about what I think that I gotta do

I want Real Real Love 

I got real pain
And real fears 
Thirstin' for the dryin of real tears
It's not satisfying anymore
Ain't it true that the veil was torn 

I want Real Real Love
I Want Real Real Love 
I want Real Real Love

Blanca expresses with transparency her walk with the Lord and how she wants Jesus and His real love, relying on God in the midst of self-doubt, worry and struggling with issues like identity. Believers may know Bible passages like Romans 5:8 and certainly John 3:16, but we should all continue to be so grateful that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The thought that Jesus laid His life down for us as sinners is so remarkable. The story of the woman at the well stirs up my soul to think about how excited she was to drop her bucket and go tell everyone in the town to "come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?" Jesus knows everything about us, and His Spirit is the well of Living Water that never runs dry. That's a picture of His real love for us.

God explains love in 1st John 4:19: "We love because he first loved us." God's love was given at an outrageous cost, the life of His only begotten Son. Not only should we love God because He first loved us, but we should also love others unconditionally because while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God, our Creator, adores us immensely, and sent Jesus to die for us to show us the definition of love: "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8 (NIV).

There are several truths we can cling to in this song's lyrics: "Spent my life trying to keep all the rules," "I don't need no stained glass to be washed in His blood," "I got real pain and real fears, thirstin' for the dryin' of real tears." God is omnipresent and always with us, and we are never too far beyond His reach. "Real Love" is one of my favorite songs of the year. Right from the lyrics "ain't it true that veil was torn," I find myself praying and singing along with this amazing song as it expresses a deep desire that many people have, which is to proclaim: "I want Jesus and His real love, it's something that I crave deep inside of my bones, so you can leave your religion at home." Amen to that!

Watch the music video below.