His Love rather than yours

"Learn to relate to others through My Love rather than yours...

Let my Love envelop your outreach to other people."

(p. 139, Jesus Calling, Sarah Young)

Love Personified

"The story of Jesus is the story of love personified. We miss the point when we simply try to do what he tells us to do. And we miss the point when we merely try to follow the pattern of his life. His life points us back to the his own Source. His life is intelligible only when it is understood as the personification of divine love...genuinely encountering Love is not the same as inviting Jesus into your heart, joining or attending a church, or doing what Jesus commands. It is the experience of love that is transformational...Jesus came to lead us back to Love. He came to play the central role in the world's greatest love story...He was the Son of Love who came to show us the love that is our destiny, our healing and our fulfillment."

(p. 25,26,27, David Benner, Surrender to Love)

Despoiled Love

"All of us live with love despoiled. It appears to be the best we can experience and the best we can give. The love we receive from others is always limited by their brokenness and finitude. And the love we give to others is always contaminated by our self-preoccupation. We long for perfect love but easily become discouraged about the possibility of ever deeply experiencing it."

(p. 24, Surrender to Love, David Benner)

Love Pervades Every Aspect

"God's bias toward us is strong, persistent and positive. The Christian God chooses to be known as Love, and that love pervades every aspect of God's relationship with us."

p. 16

David Benner

Surrender to Love

The First Step in becoming great lovers

"There is nothing more important in life than learning to love and be loved...

And it is about knowing ourselves to be deeply loved by God as the first step in becoming genuinely great lovers of others and God...Love invites surrender, and surrender is at the core of spirituality...Love speaks the language of the soul."

p. 11

David G. Benner

Surrender to Love

Love by Choice

My New Spirit Filled Life Bible says in a footnote on page 1439, referring to Matthew 5:43-48 and Luke 6:27,28,32-36: "Love by choice, not by circumstance."

If we are to love our enemies, and even bless them, and do good to/for them, and pray for them, this will be a huge choice we make. Circumstances will not lead us there.

If there is no incentive or reward for loving others, then circumstances will not compel us to love. It must be a choice that you choose now, not later, not due to circumstances or rewards.

Life is all about choices. Make them good.

"But only one thing is needed and Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:42

Laws of Logic & Arithmetic

"By all the laws both of logic and simple arithmetic, to give your self away in love to another would seem to mean that you end up with less of yourself left than you had to begin with. But the miracle is that just the reverse is true...To give yourself away in love to somebody else --- is to become for the first time yourself fully...is in a new way to come fully alive..."

(p. 161, 162, Listening to Your Life, Frederick Buechner)