So...I've been reading and meditating and listening and learning...
I used to think it was naive of me to believe that love- true love- could fix any problem and heal all wounds. I've learned, however, that this is not a naive idea at all. It is truth. Let me interject with this thought: God, in His Word, repeatedly urges us to love ourselves and to love our neighbors. He says it all the time. He even emphasized this command when He said, "Look...forget all the other laws...its all summed up in loving your neighbor like you love yourself." (Galatians 5:14). Why is it such a big deal that we love each other? Honestly....? Its because in loving other people we are clearing an opening for the Holy Spirit to move upon the heart of man. A lot of times its hard for people to accept and receive God's love, not because they're wicked. Not because they have hard hearts. Its actually because they don't know what love is. They've never been touched by its warmth. So when God comes to move on their hearts, His Spirit doesn't find that little piece of Himself that someone should have left behind. He doesn't find that little piece of Himself to mix with and bring people to trust Him and come to repentance...
Too often we sow hurt and fear, and God has to clean up the messes we've made. But when we sow love, the person we've sown into has a small idea of what love is. When God comes to take their heart and establish a relationship, that person's heart says, "I've felt something like this before...this just may be real..."
Now, back to the idea of love fixing any problem. Is it sexual sin? Or gossip? Or anything that doesn't match up with God's Word? The thing is that the desires to do these things are there because we need something...some kind of unconditional acceptance....some kind of affirmation. Being man, who's heart is desperately wicked, our very nature longs to find fulfillment in the things that are of the flesh. But those things can't fulfill us. Only God can. God is love. Only love can...
Let's love ourselves...I mean really and truly...and let's love one another...it isn't always easy to do either but lets do it...let's fight our flesh and go against the nature of our humanity...let's love and love and love....
...and love and love and love.....of all the things to aspire for, LOVE is the number one greatest aspiration! (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:13).No wonder the Bible says "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing DEBT to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8)
ReplyDeleteGreat scripts, JOY!!!
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