What is going on everyone!! I apologize for the radio silence last week, I needed to take a small step away from writing to rest and refuel, but I’m back ready to dig into the subject for the week. This week, I want to talk about love. If you have been following my writing journey, I have already done a post on love, but for those new to the journey, I previously wrote about love on the more romantic front. This time, I want to come at it from a lifestyle vantage point.
We were created out of love. We were rescued from our sin because of the love of Christ. We were even loved so much, that a perfect God sent His son Jesus down to an imperfect world to lay His life down so that we may one day be in His presence for eternity. How many of us would honestly lay our lives down for a stranger? Probably not right? But we are called to live our lives from being loved. Just like the saying, “hurt people hurt people”, loved people love people. When you have really experienced the love of God and His love has captured you, you can’t help it but to show others the same love that has been shown to you. Scripture tells us about love many times. One specifically says that, “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. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:16-18). I love the word confidence in this passage. Not only does it give us confidence when we see Jesus, but it also gives us confidence to face our trials in life on a daily basis. I don’t know about you but I need confidence from God every single day.
You mask ask, well what does loving others look like? That is an amazing question. Here are some characteristics about it: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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 (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). Granted, we are human and we fall short all the time, absolutely, but we have to set our hearts and renew our minds constantly to live from a position of love. “The world will know you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Love is so powerful. It really is what keeps us alive.
We live in a world now that thrives on what we can get from others, and also convenience. Because we are different, we are called to go the extra mile for others, and to lay our lives down, meaning we lay our own agendas down to serve. We give out of the abundance that we have received. We do not selfishly keep it to ourselves. I believe that we need to be in awe of how loved we are by God. When we are in awe of His unconditional love, we gain confidence so that whenever the enemy comes into our minds and tries to contradict how we are seen, we instantly cast down that falsehood, and battle that with what we know about us from our Creator.
Love isn’t just a feeling or a blind way of going through life. It is, rather, a confidence in how much we are loved that brings us to be an example in our circles of influence. Wherever we go, we are called and challenged to love others as sacrificially as we have been loved. We cannot just let people go on their journeys without being loved. So I challenge us all: find a stranger and do an act of kindness. Also, find out how people in your lives feel loved, and do just that. Be an example of Christ’s love today, and every day.
Much Love,
Ryan W.
