With grace and compassion we are coming to love one another. We are
coming to step outside ourselves and clearly see our loved ones and their
needs. We can shed layers of selfishness, resentment, anxiety, pettiness,
and entitlement. Most of all, we can rise above our human imperfections and
step into transcendent love. There is an immensity of space for our love to
always continue to grow for one another. Love opens doors to share our
faith. We will love to exalt God. To love is to obey Him. They are inseparable,
love and obedience. Because this is how God calls us to live, our love will
always protect, always trust, always hope, always persevere. Our love will
be consistent. It will never give up. Our love is to be rooted in a spiritual
connection that helps us find meaning and purpose in our lives and the lives
of others. This spiritual love will walk us through life and teach us lessons
that will grow our characters. We ought to choose to have love be the motive
behind our every choice. Love affirms the words of truth as it creates the
spiritual touch between hearts and minds. Love is that pure gift from God to
be received and shared. This spiritual gift of love is the only type of love that
fulfills the deepest longings of our hearts. It must be cherished. We are to
practice love in our every action and we are to reflect love in our very attitude
that an atmosphere of kindness, acceptance, and unity is created in
ourselves and in those around us. Love is that conviction that comes from
God preparing us to be perfect. Our love must be unwavering, unbreakable,
having an unparalleled fondness and devotion for the word of God. It must
be defined by our emotional, physical, intellectual, and spiritual connection
with Him. True love runs immeasurably deep and has life that is so significant
that it is unthinkable to be without all that God blesses us with. Love
empowers us to be free in our whole selves. We experience "true
individuation and self-discovery". Love is that substance of faith that hopes
for eternal life with God and those whom He knows are His. Love is that
which moved God to create, and He created us with the capacity to love in
imitation of Himself. Because God is complete all by Himself and has no
needs, His creating us shows His wanting us to share His life as He has all
life in Himself. His love is so for us that we have infinite worth to Him. God
proved that in His Son Jesus, the most precious Person of Himself. He gave
him to us that we may be with them for all eternity. God is the creator God
and our love brings joy to Him.
Love is light, that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is gravity,
because it draws us to God and it makes some people feel attracted to
others. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows us
not to be extinguished in blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals the glory of God.
Love is to show what God is like. Not to make us like God, but to
make us godly. Being like Jesus is loving like Jesus loved. It is easy to love
those who are like us. But Jesus wants us to love even our enemies. We
must work to rid our hearts of racial prejudice, socio-economic arrogance,
and religious superiority. None of that belongs in the life of someone who
wants to love like Jesus loves. He loved people selflessly. Godly love gives
sacrificially. Loving like Jesus means we hold everything we own with loose
hands. We are willing to part with things in order to serve other people. We
recognize that all we have is on loan to us from our Father in heaven and we
are responsible for what we do with it.
We must not equate love with complete acceptance of everything someone
does. Jesus did not tolerate sin, deception, or false followers. Loving like
Jesus means we care enough about the souls of others to tell them the truth.
We do not love people by watering down the truth of the word of God that
could save them. Jesus never changed the truth to satisfy the “itching ears”
of his listeners. We must love them enough to warn them, challenge them,
teach them. Our purpose is to propagate sons and daughters of the Most
High God, born of faith just as we are. Our goal is not just to get as much
God as possible for ourselves, it is to share as much of God’s love as
possible with others. But most of us have this problem…we just don’t have
enough God and that means we don’t have enough love. Self serving love is
self satisfying only. Let’s ask God for the power to love. We need not only to
know about the love of God, but we must have faith in the power of love that
God has for us that we may have that love for others. God is greater than
our hearts, and we must have faith that God has actually put His love in us
through His Spirit. God’s love is all sufficient, and the more we allow God’s
love to flow through us, the more perfect our attempts to love will become.
Why would we consider love to be measurable. Whatever degree of love we
pour out, God will quickly replace with more of His own. Only by pouring out
the love God has poured into us is His love perfected in us.
Deuteronomy 7:6-9
God loves His people because of His own eternal, sovereign, and good
pleasure. And we are not always lovely, but His love is “uncaused,
unpurchased and unconditional.” His love is “uninfluenced.” He loves us
because He loves us. So, we are to love God’s people simply because God
loves them. We can grow in loveliness. Our loveliness blossoms out of the
love of God for us and in us, and it is affirmed and magnified and publicly
displayed in the love we have for one another. It stands before the watching
world as a spoken invitation: come and see God’s love displayed.
Love is act, not talk; it shows itself in the deed done, not simply in words
spoken. Second, love works itself out in mutual sharing. Loving begins by
asking the Lord God to let us become aware of ourself in the divine presence,
and we offer ourself to God. We learn to love by letting our heart go out to
God. Think on the splendors of the created world. Wonder about the stars
and planets, and then delve into the tiniest atom with its elegant particles and
forces. Remember that God has created and continues to create. And
remember how much God gives us in all this. Consider this, and ponder it.
The Lord bestows on us life, light, understanding, desiring, free choice, and
the summons to love and to be loved. Most astonishing of all, God plainly
wants to and does communicate God's Self to us. Now think about our own
case, about our own life history and our own self. We are being created by
this great God to live and function according to gifts coming from God's Self.
How are we to love in return? What makes sense except to do as God does,
to give as God gives? What would be right except to offer all that we are?
Love is participation with God. Love is rejoicing in the truth.
And with the throes of sorrow that carried Jesus to the cross and the violent
struggle that will accompany us, the deeper we are to understand that love
that is sacrificial and unconditional will not tolerate sin. We have seen God
through Christ, for He is God, and what Christ has done, and is doing for us to
save us from our sins, is that love that will mark the redeemed lives forever.
Faith works by love. When faith and love exist together, it is proof that we
have truly been born again.
The fullness of the spiritual path is the understanding that love, that
compassion, is the expression of one’s values that bear truth for the moral
qualities we have achieved in our character and person. The highest
expression of love is the experience and realization of more…more of who
we are and what we believe. God is the source of love, Jesus is the proof of
love, and we, as true believers, must be the instruments of love in this world.
We must show love to the lost, in order to influence them with the truth of the
word of God. And we must also share love with each other, in order to
encourage one another to keep the faith. The love expression moves what's
in our hearts and minds to how we speak, how we hear, serve, and suffer,
both for the good of others and to the glory of God. Love will never let us just
do nothing. Our concern must manifest itself in selfless behaviors that prove
love amidst difficulty. We are today in the time that is darkening, where godly
compassion, authentic devotion, and real love are best demonstrated. If we
think to go to the kingdom together, we have to be prepared to love one another
as times get hard. Even in our absence are we to be mindful of one
another. The strong among us will break our silence, blow our cover and let
loose our concern that our love shows to be transparent. It is our
vulnerableness that proves the power of love. The cross was not a joyful
experience. Love hurt Jesus. Honest affection is what we have received, and
honest affection is what we must reciprocate. Love is the mature faith to
encourage someone to teach the word. If our faith is not stable in our love,
then the daily situations, the difficult issues, and the stressful crises of life
will move us back and forth between belief and unbelief. This is why we need
God and each other to remain centered, focused, and encouraged, because
trouble is guaranteed to all. We must find ways to sacrifice in order to minister
to the faith of others. Love will not allow us to edit out suffering from the
itinerary for our life. God set us in His love knowing that suffering is one of
the destinations along the road to perfect obedience. This is the covenant
we have with Jesus.
Because love is the power, and grace is amazing, and mercy is necessary,
and suffering is inevitable, we must quickly move the minds from milk to
meat. God only had one child without sin; He will have no children without
suffering. Love is what causes our suffering to be turned into a ministry. In
our teaching is not heard the hurting. As we express love in the midst of
difficulty, we have to keep on encouraging, keep on believing. We can't afford
to give up on anyone. We have got to hold onto our faith. We have got to
express love, because we experience it!
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