What We Think Effects How We Love

To love right, we need to think right.

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." [Philippians 4:8]

Today: Think about loving!

What we love and how we love it

I went to the mecca of baseball today, Yankee Stadium.  America loves baseball.  They all come to celebrate, cheer, and watch it.  They devote their day to it.  They wear gear to show their allegiance to it.  How come it's O.K. to love sports, enthusiastically and not people  or God?  Perhaps, we put our love in places that are unworthy or self-serving.  O Lord, help us love YOU with all our heart and mind and strength and not other things, lesser things - even if they are good.  They are not You.  

Love Shows

In walking around the big city of New York as I passed by the LOVE sculpture by Robert Indiana, I wondered how can you 'love en mass.' In this big impersonal city, how do I show love? How do I love these masses of people? I realized it must first be in my heart. If there is love in my heart, it will show in my eyes, and it just might be translated into words or actions. If my only words are "which way" it might show in how I listen or how I look at them or how I thank them. Loving en mass really does work if it's in your single heart. So, don't be discouraged. What's in there - will show.

Love is Bold

My friend says she fears because she loves.  I understand what she is saying.  You do not fear for those you don't know or care about.  You fear for those you love, because you love.  So, I go back to casting out fear.  Because I love, and because I fear, I must cast out those fears that creep into my life and relationship.  I must let love conquer those fears so it is love that is conveyed and not fear.  I must deny fears to become a part of my fabric.  I must let love's purity overcome any fears.  So I can love with boldness and not timidity or clouded with fear.

II Timothy 1:7 - For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline

Know Love, No Fear

I John 4:18 says perfect love casts out fear.

I have a friend who loves and who fears. She has a lot to fear: her husband lost his job. He's lost his identity and will to live. She loves God. She trusts God. But, she fears.

I understand. How can perfect love cast out fear?

I started picturing casting out fear. I discovered that casting out was also driving out, like the word they used in war with the enemy. That helped me understand more. It may be work, or even war to drive out fears. It also implies we may have them, we just need to throw (cast) them out.

So, in the name of love: Cast out fears!

Loving from Love

Yesterday was my birthday and I felt such love from those around me. It was like taking a love shower. I was showered with love, and it felt so good, and it hurt so bad! To feel the love of so many and to appreciate all the time we have spent with each other to feel this love, my heart began to break. I know this life does not last forever. I know I will leave these loved ones, or they will leave me. To know it's the truest thing I know, and yet it is fleeting, moves me to tears. The somberness is how hollow I will feel to not have them, or to know how they will feel when I am not here. But, this great expression of love makes my heart overflow, not only with tears, but with great joy - to love some more.

Can you think of anything more important?

How great a love

When Jesus prayed for His disciples (before His death), He asked for the love with which God had loved Him be in them/us (John 17:26). How great a love is that? Jesus asked the Father to bestow upon us the same love He had been given, the same love He had experienced. Can I ask it again, "How great a love is that?" I don't know if we can comprehend it. But, I do know we can see the effect of it lived out in the life and death of Jesus. Do people see a great love lived out in me? If you can just slightly comprehend the great love that is bestowed upon us ("For God so loved the world...John 3:16),we would have to be the most loving creatures. For once you have been loved, you are compelled to love.

Who are you loving?

Matthew 5:46 asks what reward will you get if you love those who love you.

Which begs the question: what reward are you seeking?

If you seek man's reward, it is short lived and fickle.

If you seek God's, it's eternal and sure.

Colossians 3:24 says you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. Then, it goes on to say: It is the Lord Christ you are serving. [Implication: it is not man you are serving or seeking to serve.]

The Bible reminds us continually we will be rewarded according to what we have done (or my thought here ~ who we have loved). [Psalm 62:12; Matthew 16:27; Ephesians 6:8; and Revelation 22:12]

Matthew 6 teaches us God sees us in private and rewards us. Our reward is from God and not man.

Who are you serving?

How well are you loving?

The Presentness of Love

We live in the speed of life, which feels like the speed of light. It's sort of like the temperature with the humidity factored in, "feels like..." Life is going so fast I don't know how to assimilate all that is happening.

Ephesians 5:2 say to walk in love. I've been pondering "walking in love" and wondering what that looks like. I've visualized walking and I see out flowing of what comes naturally. I see people moving out from where they are: I see them in normal circumstances, i.e., where they are. Walking means usually not going far, but transversing where you are to somewhere a little further. It also tells me they are not running. I have to sometimes remember not to run, but to walk...especially in love!

The Debt of Love

Romans 13:8 says, "Owe no one anything except to love on another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."

With the rising national debt, I wonder has anyone considered paying the only debt we are permitted to have? We mount credit card debt, we overspend our time , we over eat our food, and we over commit our promises. But how do we extend ourselves in the currency of love? We hardly pull the love out of our pockets. We don't usually over extend in this area. Not only is this debt permissible, it fulfills the requirements of the law: the law to love.

How do you love when you're tired?

As I yawn and consider this, I hear: "Not by might, nor by power, but by Spirit." [Zech 4:6]

Isaiah 40 instructs us: "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak...(verse 29) But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint "(verse 31).

Jesus taught us: "The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." [Matt 26:41 and Mk 14:38]

Do you recall the old children's song: "We are weak, but He is strong"? Did you know that was Scripture? [I Corinthians 4:10]

The letter to the Corinthians goes on to say, "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness...for when I am weak, then I am strong." (II Corinthians 12:10)

It goes back to abiding and letting Him live through us - as we align ourselves with Him.

How do you love someone who has done you wrong?

We've all had it. One person does one thing, and we've had it. That's it! They don't deserve LOVE, they deserve a piece of our minds, and it's not a good piece! I was there yesterday and I thought, how do I love them. They don't deserve it, I don't have it. How does this work? Jesus even told us not only to love our neighbors, but He stretched us further by saying, "Love your enemies." [Matthew 4:44] How do I do that? He said "love your enemies AND pray for those who persecute you." So, I'll start my feeble attempt at love by praying for them, now, sincerely. Lord, help me...

How do you love when you don't "feel it"?

You love when you don't feel it, because you love out of obedience, not out of feelings. If you treated the people the way you felt, it wouldn't always be good. But, if you act out of love toward others because this is the right way to behave, because this is what God desires (even commands) our relationships as well as our hearts will be better. Do we act out of love or out of hormones, or feelings, or hunger, or tiredness, or irritation, or impulse? I know I have acted out of all of these. I also know which is better. Luke 6:32 says "if you love those who love you, what good is that? For even sinners do that." It's no good to act like everyone else. We are called to a higher standard, a holier ground of relating and thinking.

My Niece Reminds Me

We can only love by ABIDING in God. John 15 teaches us this. In verse 5 Jesus says, "apart from me you can do nothing." We can do (or have) no good thing without Him [I Samuel 12:21]. In the great analogy of the vine and the branches, we are told we are the branches and He is the vine. We have to stay in Him and His love (verse 9 and 10). He again commands us, in verse 12 and later in 17, to love each other. He even tells us how: AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. This is a tall order. This is a huge responsibility. He died on a cross in love for us. How am I going to die today to love others?

Are we liars?

I John 4:20 says, "If people say, 'I love God,' but hate their brothers or sisters, they are liars." God ties together loving Him to loving others. We can't do one without the other. It's a duo, a couplet. It's a complement. It's an outflow. I don't want to be a liar. But, I know at times my wagon is not harnessed to my horse: I run off without my wagon. I don't love, even though I "hitched" my wagon to the Lord. I run off without Him, or as the Bible says, I go astray. I am not loving to my neighbor. In doing that, I am making myself a liar. I am not doing what I say I am, a Christian, one who 'says' they love God.

Father of Love, Giver of Love, keep me from lying. Keep me from harming others, myself, and You. Please let me live with truth and in truth. Let the truth and reality of Your love live in me and flow outward to others.

"We must love each other"

1 John 3:11 says, "We must love each other." I think we have failed to hear this compulsion and we are paying the price to miss the "sell." It goes on to say we shouldn't be like Cain, who killed his brother. It expounds by explaining he killed him because what his brother did was good. Not only do we not love people because we are jealous, but we also go further and ignore them, criticize them, and yes, even murder them in our hearts. They are dead to us. Or, would it be more exacting to say we are dead to them. Something in us dies before that. Later in that chapter it tells us we have have left death and come into life - BECAUSE we love each other (verse 14). If we don't love, we are left in death. Rise to life today, Love! And give life to others as you pass love onto them.

I have been convicted

The other day as we thought of all the failed marriages around us, I became convicted of our responsibility to love. It is a huge responsibility to love other people, and God gave us this mandate: "This commandment I give you: LOVE ONE ANOTHER. As I have loved you, you must love one another." [ John 13:34] This was Jesus talking. The responsibility is even heavier, because He called us to love the way He had loved. We take our love responsibility too lightly. We don't understand how it feeds our soul, or how it affects others. By being responsible in our love relationships, we can extend hope and love to others.

I am starting this blog as a reminder to me of this huge responsibility and as an encouragement to you: LOVE responsibly.