Winning the Battle of Life: Put Action Behind Your Love
"From a distance Adonai appeared to me, saying, "I love you with an everlasting love, this is why in my grace I draw you to me." CJB
In this verse we can see that the Lord puts action behind his words of love. He said, I love you with an everlasting love." He does not stop there. He then states what His actions are because He loves us. First, He draws us to Him, and then He tells us in John 3:16, that He loves us, therefore He gave His only Son so that there would be nothing between us and Him. Can you see that these are action words, He draws, He gave, He does for us?
It does no good to say you love someone and you are never there for them. It is really insanity to believe that someone loves you, yet all their actions seems to be against you. Love is for us and not against us. My new son-in-law, Dante, just said to me, "Mom, I believe in taking care of family." He has it right and He loves my daughter and her 3 sons very much. When you love someone you do for them and you care for them.
Another example is my youngest sister Rachel. She loves my parents so much that she gave up her career as a Professor to be their caregiver. She is an educated woman with a Master degree who could earn a nice salary, but she made the sacrifice to take my parents in. This is no easy task since both my parents have been diagnosed with Alzheimer. And instead of putting them in a nursing home they live with her family. It can be very tough on a family to have one parent with Alzheimer, but two! Only God could give her and her husband Chris, enough patient and love to take them as their charge to keep. Yes when you love someone you do what it takes and you become selfless. It becomes about the other person and not about how you are inconvenient. Chris loves Rachel so much that he gave up having a regular family, with just him, his wife and kids. Instead he has 2 parents-in-law, three daughters, just recently they took in another family member. That's love! My brother-in-law is not only holding down a job as a teacher, but he is also running Trinity Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, as the Senior Pastor. By his love and grace for my parents he has drawn my parents to him, to love and care for them. I admire him very much, because he is a godly man and has always done whatever it takes to provide for his family. He is a loving husband and son. He lives the example of what it is to truly love someone.
So let's look at some of the action of the God who loves us:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10 KJV)
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. (Hosea 14:4 KJV)
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 KJV)
So you see love is the very essence of who God is and His love is backed up by actions. 1 John 4:16KJV,
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. "
Listen whether you are a man or woman, if a person truly loves you it will not always be about them, and they will do you no intentional harm. Please listen, it makes no sense for a man to say he loves a wife and everything he does is about him, and very little about her. It makes no sense for a woman to say she loves her man and she cuts him down every chance she gets. That is not love. That is merely blaring brass or a cymbal clanging. A bunch of noise about love from the lips, but hollow inside the heart. For those of you who find yourself in emotional or physical abusive relationships, let me be clear, THAT IS NOT LOVE!
And, if you lack love you have nothing in a relationship. For love is kind, patient, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not gloat over other people's sins but takes its delight in truth, Love always bears up, always trust, always hope, always endures. Love never ends for it is everlasting!
Love is God in the flesh moving about the earth through the actions of selfless human beings.
True Love once hung on cross when He had no sins of His own that you and I may have a life full of love. True Love did everything for others and took no power for Himself. True Love open blind eyes, healed the sick, raised the dead for those who needed it and not for Himself. True Love was beaten to unrecognized form by those who hated him and then walked more than mile, bleeding and bruised only to say, "Father, forgive them because they no not what they do." True Love is Jesus Christ, and he is full of Love for you.
Who have you loved today?
For Him always and forever,
Pastor Patricia
In this verse we can see that the Lord puts action behind his words of love. He said, I love you with an everlasting love." He does not stop there. He then states what His actions are because He loves us. First, He draws us to Him, and then He tells us in John 3:16, that He loves us, therefore He gave His only Son so that there would be nothing between us and Him. Can you see that these are action words, He draws, He gave, He does for us?
It does no good to say you love someone and you are never there for them. It is really insanity to believe that someone loves you, yet all their actions seems to be against you. Love is for us and not against us. My new son-in-law, Dante, just said to me, "Mom, I believe in taking care of family." He has it right and He loves my daughter and her 3 sons very much. When you love someone you do for them and you care for them.
Another example is my youngest sister Rachel. She loves my parents so much that she gave up her career as a Professor to be their caregiver. She is an educated woman with a Master degree who could earn a nice salary, but she made the sacrifice to take my parents in. This is no easy task since both my parents have been diagnosed with Alzheimer. And instead of putting them in a nursing home they live with her family. It can be very tough on a family to have one parent with Alzheimer, but two! Only God could give her and her husband Chris, enough patient and love to take them as their charge to keep. Yes when you love someone you do what it takes and you become selfless. It becomes about the other person and not about how you are inconvenient. Chris loves Rachel so much that he gave up having a regular family, with just him, his wife and kids. Instead he has 2 parents-in-law, three daughters, just recently they took in another family member. That's love! My brother-in-law is not only holding down a job as a teacher, but he is also running Trinity Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, as the Senior Pastor. By his love and grace for my parents he has drawn my parents to him, to love and care for them. I admire him very much, because he is a godly man and has always done whatever it takes to provide for his family. He is a loving husband and son. He lives the example of what it is to truly love someone.
So let's look at some of the action of the God who loves us:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10 KJV)
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. (Hosea 14:4 KJV)
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 KJV)
So you see love is the very essence of who God is and His love is backed up by actions. 1 John 4:16KJV,
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. "
Listen whether you are a man or woman, if a person truly loves you it will not always be about them, and they will do you no intentional harm. Please listen, it makes no sense for a man to say he loves a wife and everything he does is about him, and very little about her. It makes no sense for a woman to say she loves her man and she cuts him down every chance she gets. That is not love. That is merely blaring brass or a cymbal clanging. A bunch of noise about love from the lips, but hollow inside the heart. For those of you who find yourself in emotional or physical abusive relationships, let me be clear, THAT IS NOT LOVE!
And, if you lack love you have nothing in a relationship. For love is kind, patient, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not gloat over other people's sins but takes its delight in truth, Love always bears up, always trust, always hope, always endures. Love never ends for it is everlasting!
Love is God in the flesh moving about the earth through the actions of selfless human beings.
True Love once hung on cross when He had no sins of His own that you and I may have a life full of love. True Love did everything for others and took no power for Himself. True Love open blind eyes, healed the sick, raised the dead for those who needed it and not for Himself. True Love was beaten to unrecognized form by those who hated him and then walked more than mile, bleeding and bruised only to say, "Father, forgive them because they no not what they do." True Love is Jesus Christ, and he is full of Love for you.
Who have you loved today?
For Him always and forever,
Pastor Patricia
Comments
Post a Comment