Tag: love

It’s All About Love – 1

(2 Thessalonians 3:5,NIV),“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”

About a week ago, I awaken around 3 o’clock in the morning. I was wide awake. I didn’t feel sleepy at all. So I decided I would just use the time to pray. I love early morning prayer because everything is quiet and still. I don’t always do it as consistently as I should, but when I do it, I love it.

During my conversation with the Lord, I could sense Him saying to me, “It’s all about love.” This statement has been resonating with me ever since. I can’t stop feeling as if God wants us as Christians, to never forget that the true foundation of our relationship with Him is…LOVE. Who we are and the things we do, rather for God or for people, it should all be about love.

(2 Timothy 3:1,KJV),“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.”

We are living in perilous times. God knows that in order to persevere, we need a strong foundation that is rooted in His love for us. Otherwise, we will succumb to the pressures we face daily.

We hear the word love a lot. We see many expressions of it everyday. Sometimes we may even think we have it (love) all figured out, and then we find out differently. I will take some time to explore love in general over the next several posts. Since it’s the foundation of our faith in Christ Jesus, looking at it more closely is beneficial. I don’t know exactly where this will go, but I’m just going to “trust” the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ to guide the process (Hebrews 12:2).

It’s all about love

 

Fruit of the Spirit:Gentleness

Galatians 5:22-23(NLT), “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things!

GENTLENESS. Gentleness also called meekness can be described as power under control. It’s like Jesus, He has all power in His hands, yet He knows how to control it and use it appropriately.

Being gentle or meek, has nothing to do with being weak or letting others walk over you. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. To me, a person who can exhibit meekness, especially when they are in a position of authority, is really to be admired. This is a person who knows how to use their authority and power for good, just like Christ. They don’t try and abuse their authority or belittle others in an attempt to prove themselves. Meekness also knows when it’s time to stop talking and just walk away.

We also must be gentle/meek in our relationship with Christ, so we will be willing to follow His will for our lives. God let’s us choose how we want to live, and being gentle/meek causes us to not want to rebel against Him. Instead we will want to submit to Him and follow His path for our lives.

There’s a lot riding on us having a meek, humble attitude. This is one of those things that the enemy will quickly use to try and destroy our witness if we aren’t careful. I know it’s rough. I’m learning too. But we can do it, because as always, the Holy Spirit will empower us to be who we should be for His glory.

Be of a gentle spirit…

1.Philippians 4:5, (NIV),” Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

2.Ephesians 4:2,(NIV), “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,”

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! It all goes back to love. Loving God and loving others. We also have to ask God to take away any insecurities or fears that keep us from being gentle/meek. The fear of being taken advantage of is real. The truth is, there are many people who will try and take advantage of others.

However, being gentle/meek will cause us to bow down to the power of God, and allow Him to show us exactly how to respond to difficult people or tough situations. Gentleness/meekness does not mean we don’t take action. It just means we know how to take the right action.

***Please share your thoughts about GENTLENESS in the comments.

Fruit of the Spirit: FAITHFULNESS

Galatians 5:22-23(NLT), “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things!

FAITHFULNESS. God is always faithful. He never lets us down. I love this verses in Lamentations 3:23-24(NIV)…

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

We can depend on the Lord to always be there for us. He has promised to never leave us and to never forsake us (Hebrews 13:6). He is faithful to be who He promised to be. He is faithful to do what He promised to do.

The most important relationship we have is our relationship with Jesus. So we should be faithful in our love and loyalty toward Him. When we are faithful to Him, it will cause the other areas of our lives to fall into place. Our relationship with Him even sets the standard for the other relationships in our lives.

Although faithfulness is planted in us, we must still pursue it. We must actively seek to increase our faithfulness to our God. The more we come to know Him, the more we will want to faithfully love and serve Him.

A few ways we can increase our faithfulness to God:

We can spend time getting to know Him through His Word.

We can pursue activities that will strengthen our relationship with Him.

We can fellowship with likeminded people.

We can pray and ask God to strengthen our faith as we seek Him.

Walk in Faithfulness to our Lord…

1.Psalm 31:23(NIV), “Love the LORD, all his faithful people! The LORD preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full.”

2.Psalm 37:28(NIV), “For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed; the offspring of the wicked will perish.”

God promises to preserve us when we are faithful to Him. That brings such peace to know He is covering us, especially with all the turmoil that is going on nowadays. He will not abandon us, but will instead lead us on level ground (Psalm 27:11).

I will be the first to admit, remaining faithful to God is not an easy road. Some days are easier than others. The Holy Spirit gives us warnings, called convictions, that He designed to keep us on the right road. But we must follow those convictions. I’ve been guilty many times of ignoring the convictions and doing what I wanted. I know from experience that in the end, that causes heartbreak. But thankfully, He was still faithful to keep on loving me, being patient with me, and helping me to do better. Even when we fail, He is still faithful!

We just need to take one day at a time and trust God that we are progressing more and more with each passing day. We must live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). When we seek Him wholeheartedly, He will be faithful to help us learn and grow.

***Please share your thoughts about FAITHFULNESS in the comments.

Great is His faithfulness

Fruit of the Spirit: LOVE

Galatians 5:22-23(NLT),”But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things!

LOVE. I am convinced that love is something that we will never stop learning to do. Learning to walk in love is a life long adventure. Jesus set an example for us to live by. His words and actions are a constant expression of love. He died for us because of love (Romans 5:8). I’m so glad he loves me. Nothing else in my life or this world can compare to His love. His love is pure. No strings attached.

God is love…

1 John 4:16(NIV),”And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

A few instructions from the Bible about LOVE:

1. Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. (Luke 10:27)

God should be first place in our lives. We should love Him more than anyone or anything. We must make a decision to surrender our lives to Him. Once we make this decision, we will learn to surrender in stages. As long as we’re making progress, we’re on the right path.

2. Love your neighbor as yourself. (James 2:8)

Loving others as we love ourselves, basically means we are treating people the way we want to be treated. We should not think more highly of ourselves than God wants us to (Romans 12:3). Taking time to stop and think before we speak or act, will help us to be more successful at showing love to others.

3. Love your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)

This one can really be a challenge! But we must remember that even before we came to Christ, He loved us. We were living against Him and His will for our lives, but He still loved us. Showing love to those who are the hardest to love, is a sure way to share Christ with them.

4. Love keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 13:5)

When we forgive others, we can no longer hold their faults against them. We have to let them go free. We can’t say we forgive someone and then keep bringing up everything wrong they did. Depending on the situation, we don’t necessarily have to stay in a relationship with someone. It’s okay to go your separate ways if need be. But we must forgive if we want to be forgiven by God (Matthew 6:15).

Of course there is so much more the Bible has to say about love. As children of God, love is a big part of who we are. As we draw closer to Christ , we will continue to grow in love.

***Feel free to share your thoughts about LOVE in the comments.

Next Reading: Fruit of the Spirit: JOY

We love because He first loved us, 1 John 4:19