That's Love
Dear Friend,
I remember the day I began to realize many of my problems that I was experiencing with "people" was due to "MY" love walk. God had me study 1 Cor 13:4-8 for over a year and a half (1 1/2). In my "own opinion" I was one of the most loving people I knew. However as I began to study, I began to realize that I wasn't. My love was overbearing, impatient, not always kind, not always believing for the best, not always long suffering. As a matter of fact, I often demanded love, to be "my way". I wanted love on my terms and based on my conditions, those in which I was comfortable.
When they questioned Jesus, about the "greatest" commandment, here was His response:
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
When I asked God why love? He showed me that's the way I get "my will" done in the earth; through love. I first demonstrated this through my son:
John 3:16 New International Version (NIV)16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 5: 6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
When we were utterly helpless....how many people have we known to be utterly helpless, how often have we been utterly helpless....
If God's will is to be done in this earth, through us, it is going to take a supernatural love, not a love that's based on emotions and feelings, it's going to take a love that comes from the Father. Which means I have to spend more time with Him, learning how HE loves. I am learning that:
1. It has to start in my thinking:
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8
2. I have to learn to operate in forgiveness:
It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 1 Cor 13:5
3. I am going to have to set my affections things that are up above, my affection and love towards God has to be first. Not my affection towards man.
Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. Col 3:2
Friend I don't know about you, but the part of the scripture in Romans 5:6, that reminds us that Christ came for me, when I was utterly helpless, just keeps resonating in my spirit. I am to love like you (God/Christ) did, love the utterly helpless, without conditions or my own response (see 1 Cor 13:4-8) which FOR ME it means sometimes love is verbally quiet (I am not to always be talking), but seen in action.
Lord teach me how to love the God kind of Way!
Utterly Helpless,
LMJ
