Really Love One Another
Love your neighbor as yourself. Galatians 5:24. This most important command only five words, seems so easy. All we need is love. (de de de de de na). Right? I have been challenged by this seemingly simple idea since we have been studying Romans this year in my BSF group.
Love defined by Merriam Websters dictionary is; as a noun, an intense feeling of deep affection, or verb, like very much; find pleasure in. This human understanding of love is flawed by our egocentric flesh that calls our for "feelings" and "pleasure". We see love as having this feeling inside towards someone or something, to just doing enough good that it is seen to others that we love more than have bad feelings to anyone. It is so skewed by our flesh and not seeing God's true love for others.
I have come to find out that love, being a major theme of the Bible, God is telling us that even when we read about it once, 1 Corinthians 13, John 3:16 or coming to realize no matter what chapter you look at in the Bible love is more than this simple concept that can be understood with a feeling. Though there are many attributes to love, just read 1 Corinthians, these three areas of Love have been challenging my heart to make changes in how I love others.
We know the deepest love is that of God sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. As a mother, my raw understanding of this has been broken open. I have now seen how hard it would be to even think of giving my children for someone who I felt was not worthy of this sacrifice. Abraham bringing Issac to the alter and tying him up makes my skin crawl with pure fear and sadness that he would have had to feel. Knowing our sin needing justice and punishment God did not strike us down, though all knowing, chose to send his Son, the quintessence of life and his love, to satisfy the punishment needed to appease his wrath towards humanity's sin. Love is a sacrifice.
Another deep attribute of love that has challenged me is from Romans 12:9, Love is sincere. Sincere love is real, genuine, a gift for others from God. I struggle with sincere love. I can so easily slap "I love you" to action I do for anyone but is it from my heart, or do I do good just to be seen as a good person. When I take time to sit with my daughter, who also loves to "sit and talk" as she calls it, my heart attitude determines the way she will see or not see God's love through me. She asks to sit and talk usually when the other is sleeping and it is finally quiet in the house. During this quiet time, I try to give myself a refresh moment in the day doing a bible study, reading a book, or resting my eyes for a moment. I struggle showing God's sincere love to her when I have so much on my mind that I can't listen to her or rush through my conversations with her. My selfishness gets in the way and she sees it. I have been trying to stop myself before our "sit and talk" times examine my hearts sincerity and sacrifice my agenda for special time with her that God uses to help her see the sincerity of God's Love.
The third attribute of Love is Empathy. Romans 12:14-17 talks about mourning with those who morn, rejoice with those who rejoice. Being able to have the insight into peoples feelings can be easy if they are crying, laughing, or smiling, but to be able to love through sacrificing time and energy to carry their burdens with them through the good and bad, whether they drive you crazy or not. Empathy is easy when we are close friends but it is when they drive us crazy, walking with people gets hard. This is again the sacrificial nature of God's love seeing people through his eyes being love to them even when love is not reciprocated or easy. My heart yearns to be like God but my flesh cries out against so many of God's children. Romans 12:21- Do not be overcome y evil, but overcome evil with good.
In Romans Chapter 12 Paul opens this chapter with, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (NIV) Our calling to worship God is to live as sacrifices holy and pleasing to God which is live in God's love towards others. Love is a sacrifice, it's sincere, it's full of empathy. For those who know God, love is a gift that was given to us so we could live showing God's love to other. What a calling to not breeze through life showing shallow, feeling only love but to dig deep and sacrifice for others in the same was God sent his son to die for our sin.
Would you pray with me that our hearts and minds may be renewed so we may show God's sacrificial love to all around us.
The photo above is from You Version bible app.
I have come to find out that love, being a major theme of the Bible, God is telling us that even when we read about it once, 1 Corinthians 13, John 3:16 or coming to realize no matter what chapter you look at in the Bible love is more than this simple concept that can be understood with a feeling. Though there are many attributes to love, just read 1 Corinthians, these three areas of Love have been challenging my heart to make changes in how I love others.
We know the deepest love is that of God sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. As a mother, my raw understanding of this has been broken open. I have now seen how hard it would be to even think of giving my children for someone who I felt was not worthy of this sacrifice. Abraham bringing Issac to the alter and tying him up makes my skin crawl with pure fear and sadness that he would have had to feel. Knowing our sin needing justice and punishment God did not strike us down, though all knowing, chose to send his Son, the quintessence of life and his love, to satisfy the punishment needed to appease his wrath towards humanity's sin. Love is a sacrifice.
Another deep attribute of love that has challenged me is from Romans 12:9, Love is sincere. Sincere love is real, genuine, a gift for others from God. I struggle with sincere love. I can so easily slap "I love you" to action I do for anyone but is it from my heart, or do I do good just to be seen as a good person. When I take time to sit with my daughter, who also loves to "sit and talk" as she calls it, my heart attitude determines the way she will see or not see God's love through me. She asks to sit and talk usually when the other is sleeping and it is finally quiet in the house. During this quiet time, I try to give myself a refresh moment in the day doing a bible study, reading a book, or resting my eyes for a moment. I struggle showing God's sincere love to her when I have so much on my mind that I can't listen to her or rush through my conversations with her. My selfishness gets in the way and she sees it. I have been trying to stop myself before our "sit and talk" times examine my hearts sincerity and sacrifice my agenda for special time with her that God uses to help her see the sincerity of God's Love.
The third attribute of Love is Empathy. Romans 12:14-17 talks about mourning with those who morn, rejoice with those who rejoice. Being able to have the insight into peoples feelings can be easy if they are crying, laughing, or smiling, but to be able to love through sacrificing time and energy to carry their burdens with them through the good and bad, whether they drive you crazy or not. Empathy is easy when we are close friends but it is when they drive us crazy, walking with people gets hard. This is again the sacrificial nature of God's love seeing people through his eyes being love to them even when love is not reciprocated or easy. My heart yearns to be like God but my flesh cries out against so many of God's children. Romans 12:21- Do not be overcome y evil, but overcome evil with good.
In Romans Chapter 12 Paul opens this chapter with, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (NIV) Our calling to worship God is to live as sacrifices holy and pleasing to God which is live in God's love towards others. Love is a sacrifice, it's sincere, it's full of empathy. For those who know God, love is a gift that was given to us so we could live showing God's love to other. What a calling to not breeze through life showing shallow, feeling only love but to dig deep and sacrifice for others in the same was God sent his son to die for our sin.
Would you pray with me that our hearts and minds may be renewed so we may show God's sacrificial love to all around us.
The photo above is from You Version bible app.
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