Love is a learned behavior. Jesus taught us two important things: The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Love is not just some day - like Valentines and cupid's arrows flying across the room. Love is an assignment we have from God. To love Him and love others. Imagine looking through a pair of eye glasses. One lens representing loving God and the other loving people. When we look through these 'LOVE" glasses, we’re actually looking through both lenses at the same time. The stereoscopic image they transmit to our brain or in this case, our heart allow us to see that through the “loving God lens” we love God no matter what is happening in our lives. We see life as loving God! Similarly, as we look through the other lens “loving people” we love people of all shapes, colors and sizes. However, as we have all learned we’re not going to always like everyone. What is the difference between liking and loving people and wanting the best for them? We know that: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1Cor. 13:4-8).
Notice that love isn’t described as a feeling and although it does involve our emotion, it goes far beyond that. The idea of love begins the moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We begin to experience the love of God as a Father because we are a child of God. We love Him because He first loved us - for God so loved this world - He gave His only begotten Son. For some of us it may be challenging to think of God as a loving and perfect Father because of our history with our own fathers. Yet it is from our glimpses of our own fathers that we get an idea of what God is like. Our heavenly Father loves each and every one of us unconditionally. We are precious to Him. And as He demonstrates His love for us, He shows us how we are to love others. How do we do that? Well, here are three key points to live a life of love.
1. LIVE IN THE LOVE OF GOD.
God's loves as a Father is an unceasing love. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35, 37-39 NIV).
God loves us as a perfect Father and this love (thank God) it isn’t based on our behavior.
Of course He does want us to behave well, but He doesn’t stop loving us when we get off track. 2. OVERCOME PAST DISTORTIONS OF LOVE.
Our world changes those it loves. And true love is rarely true. So many fall out of love - but God loves us and His love endures FOREVER!
3. VIEW PEOPLE AS GOD DOES.
Max Lucado wrote a children’s story called “You Are Special”. It’s a story of Wemmicks who were little wooden people who stuck gold stars and grey dots on one another all day. Getting a gold star was dependent on abilities, looks, etc. On the other hand, if a Wemmick couldn’t do much or they were flawed in some way, they'd receive a grey dot. Punchinello was a Wemmick covered with grey dots. One day he noticed a Wemmick girl who didn’t have any stars or grey dots on her. In fact, every time a Wemmick would stick a star or dot on her, it fell off. So Punchinello asked the girl about it. She told him that she went up to the hill everyday to see her maker Eli. She added that Eli reminded her how special she was and that he loved her. It didn’t matter what Wemmicks thought of her. What mattered most was what Eli thought of her. So she told Punchinello to go up and see Eli. So Punchinello went to see Eli who was so pleased to see him. Punchinello was surprised that Eli knew his name. But of course he knew his name for Eli made him. Eli noticed Punchinello had a lot of grey dots and when Punchinello tried to apologize, Eli said it didn’t matter what the other Wemmicks thought. All that mattered was Eli loved him and that he was special. When Punchinello got up to leave after a few minutes of visiting, Eli invited him to come back and see him often. You see, Eli wanted to remind him how much he was loved and cared about. Then as Punchinello believed what Eli said, one of the grey dots fell to the ground. Many of us can identify with this story. Our self-image was formulated to a large degree on what other people thought and said about us. Sometimes, it’s not a positive thing. We tend to look at each other as though we had colored dots on our lives. Our evaluation can become unhealthy at times. Jesus told us not to judge others and to be careful by how we 'measure' them. (Matt. 7:1-5)
Let us remember that God loves us as a perfect Father. Let us not only learn to live in the love of God and enjoy that for ourselves, but let us extend that love to others in the same way God loves us. Our Father loves us unconditionally. It’s not based upon what others think of you or what you’ve been taught to think about yourself. He loves us - the God of the universe loves YOU.
No matter what you are facing right now and who may or may not be extending love to you - Our God loves you and YOU MATTER to HIM!
Embrace His love - let it fill your heart - Extend His love to others - fill them up too!
God's love is so much more than a Valentine thing!
Notice that love isn’t described as a feeling and although it does involve our emotion, it goes far beyond that. The idea of love begins the moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We begin to experience the love of God as a Father because we are a child of God. We love Him because He first loved us - for God so loved this world - He gave His only begotten Son. For some of us it may be challenging to think of God as a loving and perfect Father because of our history with our own fathers. Yet it is from our glimpses of our own fathers that we get an idea of what God is like. Our heavenly Father loves each and every one of us unconditionally. We are precious to Him. And as He demonstrates His love for us, He shows us how we are to love others. How do we do that? Well, here are three key points to live a life of love.
1. LIVE IN THE LOVE OF GOD.
God's loves as a Father is an unceasing love. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35, 37-39 NIV).
God loves us as a perfect Father and this love (thank God) it isn’t based on our behavior.
Of course He does want us to behave well, but He doesn’t stop loving us when we get off track. 2. OVERCOME PAST DISTORTIONS OF LOVE.
Our world changes those it loves. And true love is rarely true. So many fall out of love - but God loves us and His love endures FOREVER!
3. VIEW PEOPLE AS GOD DOES.
Max Lucado wrote a children’s story called “You Are Special”. It’s a story of Wemmicks who were little wooden people who stuck gold stars and grey dots on one another all day. Getting a gold star was dependent on abilities, looks, etc. On the other hand, if a Wemmick couldn’t do much or they were flawed in some way, they'd receive a grey dot. Punchinello was a Wemmick covered with grey dots. One day he noticed a Wemmick girl who didn’t have any stars or grey dots on her. In fact, every time a Wemmick would stick a star or dot on her, it fell off. So Punchinello asked the girl about it. She told him that she went up to the hill everyday to see her maker Eli. She added that Eli reminded her how special she was and that he loved her. It didn’t matter what Wemmicks thought of her. What mattered most was what Eli thought of her. So she told Punchinello to go up and see Eli. So Punchinello went to see Eli who was so pleased to see him. Punchinello was surprised that Eli knew his name. But of course he knew his name for Eli made him. Eli noticed Punchinello had a lot of grey dots and when Punchinello tried to apologize, Eli said it didn’t matter what the other Wemmicks thought. All that mattered was Eli loved him and that he was special. When Punchinello got up to leave after a few minutes of visiting, Eli invited him to come back and see him often. You see, Eli wanted to remind him how much he was loved and cared about. Then as Punchinello believed what Eli said, one of the grey dots fell to the ground. Many of us can identify with this story. Our self-image was formulated to a large degree on what other people thought and said about us. Sometimes, it’s not a positive thing. We tend to look at each other as though we had colored dots on our lives. Our evaluation can become unhealthy at times. Jesus told us not to judge others and to be careful by how we 'measure' them. (Matt. 7:1-5)
Let us remember that God loves us as a perfect Father. Let us not only learn to live in the love of God and enjoy that for ourselves, but let us extend that love to others in the same way God loves us. Our Father loves us unconditionally. It’s not based upon what others think of you or what you’ve been taught to think about yourself. He loves us - the God of the universe loves YOU.
No matter what you are facing right now and who may or may not be extending love to you - Our God loves you and YOU MATTER to HIM!
Embrace His love - let it fill your heart - Extend His love to others - fill them up too!
God's love is so much more than a Valentine thing!
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