Abide In Love
As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. John 15:9
This morning as I was doing my Bible reading, I was impressed with the idea of God's love. So as I thought about the greatness and depth of it, I thought I would write about it.
I'm sure you've seen movies that show someone in “love” and you've seen and heard how people in love act differently than they usually do, because of their great affection for the other person. My mom calls it being twitterpated like from Bambi. Funny, huh? But you know, it is true. People in love act differently. Why? Well, I think some reasons are that they want to please the person they love more than anything else except God. They love them so much that their mind keeps going back to that person, so it's hard to concentrate on things and it is a new exciting thing for them also. But what does all this far off stuff have to do with God and us?
John 14:21,23 says, He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My work, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Do you love God? This is a very serious question that has a lot of weighty effects based on your answer to it. I don't always love God. None of us do when we sin against Him. But do you know what? Because of God's great miraculous and merciful love for me, when I sin and don't always follow His path, I am still able to talk to Him and He hears even though I have offended Him. You see, when God saves us and we make choices each day to do what is right even though it's hard, we are pleasing God and bringing Him glory. Our hearts are not always right, I admit to that, but God's is. He always loves us with His perfect, unceasing love even with our failing efforts to please Him.
...But love covers all sins. Proverbs 10:12b
...for love is of God...for God is love...But He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins...God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 5:7,8,10,16
It says above, that God is love. But what does love involve? We will look at what true love is and what character traits go along with it, so that we will be able to see what God is because HE is love.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself (not showing off our abilities), is not puffed up (does not boast); does not behave rudely, does not seek its own (is unselfish), is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity (wickedness), but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a,13
As you read over the list of what love is, what it is not and what it involves, reflect on how God is all of these things and how He has shown these things to you and your family.
It looks like we have a long way to go before we have a truly pure, godly love toward others like that, right? But praise be to God that we have a friend who sticks closer than a brother who is available at any moment, so that we may ask Him for help to learn godly love.
We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 5:19
This week, let us seek to work on the traits of love shown in the verses above. Do something extra out of love for God to help someone this week. I guarantee, you will feel more joyful because you were able to further God's kingdom in a small, but sincere way.
