Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It tells us that we belong and that we are significant. It validates the core of our being and it motivates us to do many things in order to keep experiencing it. Scientific studies have shown us that without expressed love in the earliest stages of development, babies can become physically and emotionally sick and in some cases, even die. I am not sure that The Beatles knew the profound nature of what they were singing when they coined the phrase ‘All You Need Is Love’ in their hit song, but they definitely captured the cry of the human heart. Ever since people started singing, thousands of songs have been dedicated to love’s pursuit. Countless books and movies capture our heart and imagination as they tell story upon story of love’s exploits. Love isn’t only a big deal, it is really the only deal. As Christians, we have the inside track on love. In 1 John 4:16, we read what ‘love’ is when the Apostle John writes... We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. Notice that John doesn’t say that ‘God loves’ but that God is love. The very fabric of God’s being resonates with love and The Trinity is the ultimate expression of family love that exists between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He responded by saying it was ‘love’. If you love God with all your heart and you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you are complete (Matthew 22:35-40). As He was preparing His disciples for the future, He added a new twist to the horizontal expression of this commandment when He told them in John 13:34... A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. Jesus was showing His disciples (and us too) that there would be a new way in which they would be able to express love after his death, burial and resurrection. Because of the indwelling Holy Spirit, they would be able to love each other in the same way that they were loved directly from Him. No longer would they try and ‘muster up’ some form of love that was sourced in their own good intentions. For the first time in all of history, Jesus’ disciples (and every believer from then on) had the potential of being a conduit of the love that originated from God Himself! Jesus modeled this Himself because He was a conduit of the love that originated from His Father. We read about this in John 15:9 when He said... Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. So love is a big deal. As I said earlier, it is the only deal. That is what Jude 1:21 says. Stay there, make your home there, make love your greatest aim (1 Corinthians 14:1). If you build on the foundation of being loved by God, you will indeed be a success no matter what you do. While it is true that you may be able to accomplish many amazing exploits in the world system and the church system without love, at the end of the day it will be all for naught (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). True success is measured and will always be measured by the standard of love. So my encouragement to you is if you really want to be all that God created you to be in this life, keep your focus and your value system rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17). So here’s the million dollar question...How do we keep ourselves in God’s love? I wish there was a ‘one size fits all’ answer to this most important question, but unfortunately there isn’t. I believe that God loves each and every one of us as uniquely as we love each one of our own children. I can only share with you what I am discovering for myself. So this is how I keep in God’s love... I keep reminding myself that love is the big deal It is so easy to become distracted from the priority of love and get focused on things that really don’t matter from an eternal perspective. So whenever and wherever I can, I try to remind myself to ‘make love my greatest aim’ (1 Corinthians 14:1). My job is to receive love, not initiate it When I am thinking with a religious mindset, I think that it is my job to initiate good works to God in order to win His approval and His love. It is only when I am reminded that my job is to simply receive His love that I stop ‘trying to please Him’ and simply rest in His ever present abiding affection for me. I am learning to be a responder 1 John 4:19 says that ‘We love because He first loved us’. I believe the more I can position my heart to receive His love, the more that I will be able to respond to His love in every expression of life. I need to believe God’s love for me is unconditional I have grown up in a world where I have been taught that love is conditional. You work hard, perform and do everything right, then you will earn the right to be loved. If you mess up though... shame on you! I am learning that God’s love for me is not conditional. He loves me because He is love itself and He can’t help Himself. Jesus’ secured God’s love for me when He died on a cross and because of that sacrifice, I am loved completely and unconditionally. I stay little in my heart Little children are the world’s best example of how to receive love. They have not been hurt yet by our damaged world system so they live with open hearts. They simply expect to be loved and are very comfortable with it. It is in this returning to the heart of a little boy who needs to be loved, that I can position my heart to stay in my Dad’s unending affection for me. I remind myself that love never fails The world around me will fail, friends and family will fail, church systems will fail, and I myself will fail even when I have the best intentions. But love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). The revelation of God’s love is the only thing that will stand rock solid for all of eternity. I try to keep an eternal perspective of love In Jeremiah 31:3, God says... “I have loved you with an everlasting love”. This means that there has not been a time in all of eternity when I have not been loved. When I remind myself of the eternal love that God has for me in the midst of the hardships and disappointments that life can bring, somehow my perspective changes. I believe when I keep myself in this revelation, everything else is eclipsed by the love that my Dad has for me. I am truly more than a conqueror! Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 15:46:25 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015