Genuine Love is Godly Love

"Don't just pretend to love others.  Really love them.  Hate what is wrong.  Hold tightly to what is good.  Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other."

Romans 12:9-10 (NLT)

Genuine love--real love--honest love--Godly love is a love we all seek and desire.  It is also love we are instructed in Romans 12 to give.  It is a love that is the same for an enemy as it is for a best friend.  It is a love that doesn't change because of a circumstance that does change.  It is a love that is constant even if it isn't returned.  It is a love that remains even if a relationship doesn't.  

When we really love  someone, we love out of God's heart.  He has lavished His love upon us so that we can love one another.  Really, genuinely loving someone means we put them before our own needs and wants.  Really, genuinely loving someone is giving without expecting anything in return.  In fact, if we genuinely love someone, then it wouldn't change based on the condition of whether or not that person loves us in the same way back.  This doesn't mean that if we are being abused or taken advantage of by another person that we should continue to allow that kind of behavior to continue; rather, it means that we continue to love that person with the same genuine affection even in spite of the abuse or the advantage taking.  Those kind of relationships may fall apart or change because of that behavior, but our love for that person should not fall apart or change.

Really love someone today.  Take delight in honoring another person, not yourself, today.  Respond to the love God has so richly given you by honestly, authentically loving others.  Not only will you have love overflowing in your heart, you will also have joy.

"We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them."

1 John 4:16 (NLT)

Glorious Gift

 Who doesn't love a gift?  About two years ago, I put together some welcome gifts for the guests attending my sister's wedding.  My sister arranged a destination wedding at this quaint, antiquated inn on Lake Michigan.  The whole weekend was exquisite, and it was my job to put together welcome/thank you gifts for all the guests.  Well, I couldn't just throw together some treats in a gift bag, could I?  Not a chance! 

I ended up driving all over two cities to find and buyout these beautiful white cupcake holder boxes.  The outcome was worth it.  I enjoyed sorting and arranging the treats inside the boxes and tying pretty ribbon and tags around each one.  I enjoyed seeing my sister's delight at what I had put together for her special guests, and I enjoyed the smiles of surprise and awe that each guest had when he/she arrived and was handed one of my welcome/thank you boxes.  Such joy comes from thoughtful, intentional, hard work!

What joy it was for Jesus to leave us His thoughtful gift...the Holy Spirit!  "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17)  What joy it must be to Him we open this gift!  What joy it must bring Him when we use His gift!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)

A gift given is a joy, and a gift opened is a joy.  What good is Jesus' gift to us if we don't open it?  If we don't allow the Holy Spirit to powerfully work in our lives, to produce fruit; then, we lose out on receiving a glorious gift and we lose out on bringing glory to God.  May our prayers today and every day be of gratitude for such a glorious gift.  May we live with joy of receiving such a gift, and may use this gift to bring joy to others.

Spiritual Seasons

We all enter various seasons of our lives at various times and in various places. 

God takes us through valleys so that we know the feeling of a true mountaintop high.  God allows us to go through storms of all sorts, floods, dry seasons, high winds, no winds, extreme heat, and bitter cold so that not only could we experience the vastness of His power and creativity, but also so that our character could be tested and tried. 

During some seasons of our lives, God guides us the "long way" through the desert perhaps to see if we can learn trust, patience, and obedience to follow Him.  In some seasons of our lives, He provides the wondrous miracles of what it is like to walk on water, or what it is like to see for the first time after being blind for a lifetime, or what it is like to have a never-ending supply of oil in our jars. 

Whatever the season, in each of them God is there to shepherd us, to show His love for us, and to bring us ever closer to Him and His glory.  Therefore, the question isn't "Why are we going through this?" or "Why is this happening to me?"; instead, the question is and should be "What am I going to do about this in the light of God's love?" 

How we respond in each season we experience will show who we are in Christ. 

"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."

Ecclesiastes 3:1

Necessity is the Mother of . . . Creation

Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it

but receive it with thanks.

1 Timothy 4:4

The other day, I bought a new bag to carry my laptop; and although, it was a great buy, it did not have any place to hold my pens and pencils.  So, I had been throwing them into one of the pockets and had been fishing around for them when I needed one.  I would cringe when I pulled out a pen with the cap off because I really didn't want ink all over the inside of my new bag, nor did I want it on my laptop.  Consequently, I decided to shop for a pencil pouch. 
 
None were attractive or inexpensive or as small as I wanted it to be (I didn't have room for a big lump in my laptop bag).  So, I decided to make one.  I had never made one before, but I have sewn pillows.  The shapes are similar and the only difference, really, was adding a zipper, which was done first in the process.  I later added buttons to cover-up my novice sewing (a.k.a. crooked lines).  I sat back after my creation and smiled in amazement. 

 
How amazing it is that God gives the ability to create.  I thought about what He must have felt after creating the universe and everything in it.  I think that the seventh day was not rest as in sleep, but rest as in sitting back and marveling at all He had made.  I know that a handmade pencil pouch is nothing in comparison to the universe, but, still, in some related way I learned to appreciate more the creativity of God, His wonderful works, and the gift of creating He has given to each one of us. 

Faith. Trust. Hope.

"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

Hebrews 11:1

Oswald Chambers says that faith is remaining true “to God’s character whatever He may do.”  Job said in chapter 13, verse 15, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust Him” (KJV).  Faith, trust, and hope are lost without each other.  My faith in God is meaningless unless I trust Him.  Hope doesn’t exist unless I have faith, and trust keeps both faith and hope activated.  Therefore, if I am losing hope, I need to check how my faith and trust are doing.  If my faith is weak, then perhaps my trust and hope are as well.  If I’m having a hard time trusting, then I’m probably not keeping the faith or hope intact. 

To remain true “to God’s character whatever He may do” is to step out boldly from the boat of fear and uncertainty and onto the water where my Lord is walking.  Unlike Peter, though, I must keep my eyes fixated on Jesus, so that when the waters rise or the wind blows, I won’t change my course, go my own way, or sink down into the depths of lost and confusion.   

Easy Improvements

Improvements.  We all want them.  The most difficult things to improve?  Ourselves.  The easiest?  The stuff that we have.  The worst thing to do is to give up the desire to improve.  The best thing is to keep trying.  If you fail, another way or another time.  Never cease to improve.  If you sow improvements, you will reap greatness.

I could have easily thrown away this beat-up, rusty black file cabinet and purchased a new one.  But why throw away something that works perfectly well?  It really just needed an improvement. 

The front of the file cabinet was the only area that really needed help.  It was rusty on the bottom and the drawers looked a little beat-up.  After wiping down the cabinet, I took some of that magical Mod Podge, some napkins, scissors, and a sponge brush and decoupaged the front of the cabinet.  Voila!  A more decorative, improved file cabinet in no time and money saved!  Now, if only improving myself was that quick and easy.  Something to aspire to, I guess.  In the meantime, let me see what else needs a facelift...

"Since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect."

Hebrews 11:40

LoVe

From the book Hinds' Feet on High Places (a fabulous allegory) by Hannah Hurnard:

"Love is not a feeling. It is an overmastering passion to help and bless and deliver and comfort and strengthen and give joy to others just as the Lord Jesus always did. Here on earth we have the opportunity to do what the God of love does all the time, and to learn to abandon ourselves to loving, to giving, to seeking, and to saving others. Not a lovely feeling of affection, or physical pleasure and satisfaction, but the extreme eternal ecstasy of creating happiness and good and blessed things for others to enjoy....It is an attitude of will. I will cast myself down in giving. The lower I go the more love I am able to transmit from God to others, just like the Lord of love himself, who was not content until he found and took the lowest place in the universe."

Oh, LORD, may we love the way you love! Help us to have the same kind of passion that you have, to have an attitude of will, and to abandon our agendas for the sake of others. Forgive us for when we fall short of loving You. You are so gracious and good and worthy. Thank you for being everything that we are not capable of. Amen.