Saturday 9 April 2011

loving God and loving people

I ended my last post saying “I believe that Jesus wants to use this experience to continue to teach me about loving God and loving people” … OK that sounds all warm and fuzzy but what does it practically look like on a day to day bases?
To be honest I am not entirely sure. I think learning to love is a lifelong lesson.
This is some of what I think I may know about it at this moment in time, but I don’t doubt that these will shift and change as Jesus teaches me to love.
It says in God’s Word that we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I understand that to mean I am loving God when I honour Him with my whole being, in all I do and say. I am reading through the book Song of Solomon right now, and Jesus is opening up my heart and mind to how much He loves me, and how He desires for us to be in an intimate love relationship. So, I think that I love God when I spend time with Him, in silence, mediation, prayer, praise, and reading His’ Word. As I experience God’s love for me in deeper ways, and love Him back, I will naturally start to love people more and more, because as I spend time with God I will become more like Him, as we do with anyone we spend a lot of time with, and since God is love, I will become more loving.
1 Corinthians 13 tell us that:
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Love never dies.

WHOOAAAA WOMAN! That is quite the list! If I put my name in front of each “item” of this list I would be a liar! So now what? I can see that this is love, and I’m clearly not measuring up. First, I take a deep breath and remember that Jesus is love and that His Spirit is working in me to produce His fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control! Second, I relax because although I am not this picture of love right now, I know that I am not the one who has to paint the picture, Jesus is, and He has promised that as I spend time with Him in an intimate relationship He will do all the painting!
So there you have it, I don’t know a lot, but what I do know is that the key to loving God and people in a practical every day way is to be in an intimate love relationship with Jesus through silence, mediation, prayer, praise and reading His’ Word.

That’s it for now. If you have any thoughts or comments I would love to hear them, let’s walk this journey together, learning and growing together and encouraging one another in the ways of LOVE.

2 comments:

  1. So good:) Thanks for the words of wisdom Maria. Glad you are writing this! He is so worthy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amen! He IS worthy indeed. Glad you are reading :) Thank you for reading and commenting!

    ReplyDelete