Love: I've really been getting smacked with this one lately, and I don't know why. I know all these dots are appearing in my life for a reason, that there is a reason I have been hearing so much about this lately, and not just hearing but being impacted. I just don't know what that reason is. This Thursday at Cru I felt like I had been whacked in the head with truth, and I'm still sorting through that one. The talk was on sacrificial love. We started in 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. That makes sense. But we dug a lot deeper into it. First, look at the first three verses of that chapter.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
There is nothing of worth without love. That should be a good indicator of how important this is.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4: 7-8
16 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.
1 John 4:16
19 We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
Love comes from God, and we would be incapable of loving if God didn't love us.
5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:5-6
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:16
Jesus loved sacrificially. Sacrificial love is willing to give up everything for someone else. To quote Burt, Jesus was love with skin on. We tend to think of God turning His face away as Jesus died on the cross. But He didn't all His wrath for every sin that had ever been committed or will ever be committed was focused on Jesus. It is more than I can ever begin to comprehend. Yet Jesus suffered the physical pain of crucifixion and the wrath of God willingly. We are asked to love like Jesus loved. But, that usually doesn't involve dying. Doing something uncomfortable, giving up study time, is that really that much of a sacrifice? Yet, it is so easy to let "reasonable priorities" get in the way. It makes sense not to love sacrificially. By the world's standards, living a life of sacrificial love is a life of bad decisions. But it is so worth it. No, it's not going to be easy. It's going to hurt. True love hurts. Look at Jesus again. As Westly says in The Princess Bride, "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you different is selling something." It hurts, but it's worth the pain. Sacrificial love is radical. Will I continue to be comfortable, or will I step out and love someone?
This all came from the notes I took on Thursday.
"If what we call love doesn't take us beyond ourselves, it is not really love." Oswald Chambers
That was the first thing I read in My Utmost for His Highest this morning. Right back to love, and the sermon I heard on Sunday about being doers not hearers only. Love. I seem to be getting this from all angles right now. Which leads to my third four letter word.
Wait: I don't know why I'm learning all this right now. I don't know if there is something I am supposed to be doing, or if I just need to be still and soak it up. But I trust that God will let me know in His timing. Which means I have to wait. Patience is not my strong suit. So, I get to learn about waiting a lot. But that's good. That's mostly what's been bouncing around in my head lately. Take it as you will.
