Love is something that I have always wanted more of. I've wanted to be loved more, and I've prayed that I would be able to love others more. A couple of weeks ago I read a Bible verse that really spoke to my heart, speaking of Jesus it said "having loved His own which were in the world, he loved them to the end." (John 13:1). "Wow!" I thought, when I read it, "That means he even loved Judas who was as about to betray Him, and Peter who was about to deny Him. I want that kind of love for people, but that's a high standard of love!"
As I thought about the question of how to define love, I thought of 1 Corinthians 13, which tells us that love is kind, etc., etc. I thought of 1 John 4:7 "God is love", and I thought of 1 John 3:16 which says "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." "I guess the simplest definition I can think of for love is Love gives", I replied to my friend. "You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving."
Nothing says "I love you" more than the way you treat people! You may have heard of the five love languages, if not they are: physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and gifts. What do these all have in common? They are all giving something! Whether you give someone a hug, sacrifice of your time to spend it with someone, write them a note, give them a compliment, or give them a gift, either way you are giving, because you care about the other person.
This past week I experienced love in a deeper way than I ever have before. It was Wednesday and the Bible study I was about to give was on the sacrifice of Christ (how he suffered on the cross). Before my friend from church and I got out to give the Bible study I prayed, "Lord, melt our hearts, and help us to see your love in a fresh way. Please help the lady we are about to study with to really see and understand how much you love us, Amen". After reading the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane I started explaining how Jesus was being weighed down with guilt, the sins of the whole world. I explained how difficult it was for him to decide to go through with the cross, because it meant separation from His Father. As I explained the story in my mind I imagined Jesus falling helplessly in prayer to the Father in the garden that dark, lonely evening. As I explained Jesus' love I spoke with more conviction than I have ever spoken. Then I said Jesus looked in the future and could see that if He didn't follow through with the cross we wouldn't be saved. He made the choice to save us because he loved us, no matter what it cost Him. And then I broke....I've never cried in a Bible study before, but I couldn't keep back the tears! In that moment of silence with tears in our eyes, I realized my prayer had been answered, each one of us saw how much God loved us! Yesterday I gave the same Bible study to another lady. Her comment after was "If that's not love, I don't know what is!"
As I thought about the question of how to define love, I thought of 1 Corinthians 13, which tells us that love is kind, etc., etc. I thought of 1 John 4:7 "God is love", and I thought of 1 John 3:16 which says "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." "I guess the simplest definition I can think of for love is Love gives", I replied to my friend. "You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving."
Nothing says "I love you" more than the way you treat people! You may have heard of the five love languages, if not they are: physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and gifts. What do these all have in common? They are all giving something! Whether you give someone a hug, sacrifice of your time to spend it with someone, write them a note, give them a compliment, or give them a gift, either way you are giving, because you care about the other person.
This past week I experienced love in a deeper way than I ever have before. It was Wednesday and the Bible study I was about to give was on the sacrifice of Christ (how he suffered on the cross). Before my friend from church and I got out to give the Bible study I prayed, "Lord, melt our hearts, and help us to see your love in a fresh way. Please help the lady we are about to study with to really see and understand how much you love us, Amen". After reading the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane I started explaining how Jesus was being weighed down with guilt, the sins of the whole world. I explained how difficult it was for him to decide to go through with the cross, because it meant separation from His Father. As I explained the story in my mind I imagined Jesus falling helplessly in prayer to the Father in the garden that dark, lonely evening. As I explained Jesus' love I spoke with more conviction than I have ever spoken. Then I said Jesus looked in the future and could see that if He didn't follow through with the cross we wouldn't be saved. He made the choice to save us because he loved us, no matter what it cost Him. And then I broke....I've never cried in a Bible study before, but I couldn't keep back the tears! In that moment of silence with tears in our eyes, I realized my prayer had been answered, each one of us saw how much God loved us! Yesterday I gave the same Bible study to another lady. Her comment after was "If that's not love, I don't know what is!"
This summer has been something a little different than I expected, it has been and will continue to be a journey of love. A journey to find more depth of God's love than I have before...a journey to learn to be completely fulfilled by God's love and not other people's...A journey where I learn to give and give, more than I thought possible, and not feel empty at the end...not come back at the end of the day and miss those I'm miles away from, because I'm full....because when you give of God's love you truly are filled more and more! Yes, there's times I'm tired, and times I miss friends and family, but that doesn't happen very often, because I have so many people here who I've grown to love! And by God's grace I am getting closer to the point where I don't care how I feel or what mistakes I made, I just care how other people see Jesus through me!
And, it's a growing experience. Sometimes growth hurts! Because the first step of growth is to admit that I have a problem, I must admit that I haven't loved like Jesus loves! It hurts to admit I've been selfish in my relationships! It's humbling to see that there are some people who are so much easier for me to love than others. It hurts to admit I don't always turn completely to Jesus every moment of the day for help, and that sometimes I turn to people who don't have all the answers. It hurts to admit the fact that I make mistakes - I don't have all the right Bible answers to people's questions, and I don't know what I'm doing a lot at times. It also really hurts to see other hurting people and realize I can't solve everyone else's problems! I can't fill their needs, all I can do is direct them to the source of love, joy and fulfillment - the One who offers them the water of life freely!
Growth in God's love is a journey. A journey of love that will continue through eternity, where we can each say that we have met the One "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me!" (Galatians 2:20)
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