Love: Appreciation, Devotion, Passion, Joy, Adore, Sweet, Glorify, Embrace, Enchantment
Recently I have been really trying to define what it means to love someone? to show love to someone? to be loved? This all started when Wes challenged us (the Young Adult community) to be intentionally loving for three months. Has it been easy? No, even though I thought it would. I forget all the time or I did it because I wanted to find some sort of gratification from it. It is hard to love people when you are broken or hurt or just being selfish.When you put yourself aside and begin to look at the people around you, it's amazing and devastating at the same time, you either see so much love or you see nothing!
God has began to show me how much he loves me and others by opening my eyes to see the people that surround me and love me no matter what I do or say. On the flip side he has shone a light on people and situations where I need to love, to show His love to them just as he has shown me. Through this realization I have been able to love people I have never met, people that are dear to me and people that have hurt me. Does it make loving easier? Yes!!!!
When you take YOU out of the equation that leaves God.
I look back on situations I have gone through in the last couple of years and realize that the only way I came out alive was because I had people intentionally loving on me. I am so thankful for those people that have hung in there and put up with all my crap even when it took a toll on them. That love that made them fight for me when I was to weak to fight for myself is the reflection of Gods love for us. When we do this we answer Gods call on our lives when love each other no matter what and we do it best when we are in Community.
Gods first command to us was to Love:
1 John 4:19 " We love because He first loved us"
He never gives up on us. He never runs out of love for us. He never forgets to love us. He never loves us in a a selfish act.
He NEVER stops loving us. So we should do the same!
