Love – Inside & Out
Love is a beautiful part of who we are as human beings. No matter our nationality or heritage, we respond to love. Not everyone was introduced to love as a young child. I am thankful that my parents and my whole family knew about love and put love into practice. I honestly can’t imagine a world without love. I’ve seen the ugliness and darkness of hatred. I have actually had some of it in my heart before. As I walk through life daily in the Word of God, I realize that hate can’t be part of who I am as a Christ follower. I must eradicate it from my heart. God’s love is the recipe to eradicate hate. John makes it clear that love is from God and it is Who He is. Check this out….
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.(1 John 4:7-13 NLT)
When Christ followers love deeply, it is a beautiful expression of God in us. When Christ followers fight, it is really discouraging, and I believe God is heart sick. The Lord wants love to permeate who we are all the time. He doesn’t want us to love deeply only at church. He doesn’t want to love only beautiful people. He doesn’t want us to love people who are easy to love. He wants us to love others with a love that is from Him. I believe that love comes from deep within my heart that is transformed by His love. He equipped me to love like He loves. The Lord has my picture in His wallet! I am deeply loved and therefore I can deeply love others. My love for others is “Exhibit A” in my defense of His love for me.
Pressing On!
Dwayne