|
Good Morning,
Love, love, love,love is what everybody needs and everybody wants. But few know that love is God, so therefore without a relationship with God, very few can identify with real love. As believer's love must become who we are. "Keep out of debt and owe no man anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor [who practices loving others] has fulfilled the Law [relating to one's fellowmen, meeting all its requirements]. The commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet (have an evil desire), and any other commandment, are summed up in the single command, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. Love does no wrong to one's neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law." (Romans 13:8-10) So what do we owe? Love, we owe God's kind of love, which is not necessarily, touching and feeling, physical kind of natural love. It may include these things but it is not identified by these emotions alone. How can we as human beings actually live this kind of love out. Well, we know that as born-again Christians, we have received God's love in our hearts. "Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us." (Rom. 5:5) The magnificent character traits of love is partially described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; "Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]." This has to do with the changing of attitudes and an entire renewal of our minds. We can only do it by the Word transforming our thoughts and responses. Let's face it we all have people that are difficult to love by our own strength and ability. Well, thanks to God, we have supernatural help. Don't give up or quit on loving the difficult ones. You may never be 'huggy-lovey-dovey' with them, but you owe love, God's kind. How, you may ask? "[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.(Phil. 2:13) Power equals might, force, energy, and strength; can signify the ability to exert effort for a purpose and the capacity to produce results or actions. Desire means to long for, covet, and crave with strong intensity; high degree of passion. God is working in you now through the love that has already been shed in your heart by the Holy Spirit. You are developing in love as long as you stay in God and in His Word. Eventually you will begin to produce results as you keep craving to see God's image seen in you. The 'want-to' and the ability to do it is part of our DNA.
"For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that (are requisite and suited) to life and godlinesss, through the full, personal knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue). By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence), And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety), And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love." (2 Peter 1:3-7) It is not in our own strength, but we must yield ourselves to God and exercise His Word concerning love, then we begin to develop in His image. Exercise is something that is performed or practiced in order to develop or improve a specific power or skill; it involves exertion, effort; a regular or repeated appropriate use; to train by drills. Develop means to cultivate in order to promote growth; to mature, progress, thrive, and be established. So, as we practice God's love we will mature and thrive as we make progress in the Kingdom ways. God has provided the necessary practice, the people that are in our sphere. Let's exercise our spiritual muscles and grow in love.
Love,
Pastor D.
|
Daughters of Z 