Deeply, dearly, definitely, daily..

“Above all, love each other deeply…”  1 Peter 4:8

Above hurt feelings, love each other deeply…

Above unmet expectations, love each other deeply…

Above selfish desires, love each other deeply…

Above physical stresses and anxiety, love each other deeply…

Above mistrust, love each other deeply…

Above anger, love each other deeply…

Above pain, love each other deeply…

Above open-ended promises, love each other deeply…

Deeply, dearly, definitely, daily! 

This is what I’m hearing… this is my conviction today!

   Maybe you've had a similar conversation with God…

            Me:  “Good grief!  Seriously?!?  I am so done!  

                     Are you seeing the way they're acting, Lord?”

                God:   “Are you seeing the way you're acting?

                    “What do you mean?  I am trying to love them.  

                      What else can I do?”

                           “Do you really want to know?  When you’re ready,

                             I’ll show you.”

                    “God, they’re the ones that are being hateful and it hurts.”

               “The point is not who needs to change but who is willing to change.”

                    “But God, I’m tired of having to be the bigger person.  

                      It’s just not fair!  They can be the bigger person for a change.”

                            “I never said it was fair or that they didn’t need to change

                             but you are responsible for you, not them.  And you know

                             that discord with others affects my relationship with you.”

                    “I just can’t do it, God.  I trusted them and now look…  I 

                     cannot love them, I don’t even like them right now!”

                            “You are right; you cannot possibly love them by yourself 

                              but nothing is impossible for me.  When you are ready, 

                              get up and let me help you.”   

I don’t know about you but out of all the jobs I’ve had in my life, loving is by far the hardest.  Some people are just really difficult to love.  Some are never satisfied with the way you do things, some are stingy, some look for ways to step over you, some are pushy, some make fun, some seek to turn others against you, some deceive, some take what is yours, some say they will be there and they are but only 'til they get a better offer…  Loving others is complicated.

I don’t have to search my heart long before I see attitudes and thoughts in there that aren’t in line with God’s will for my life.  And some days I'm not very loveable, myself.  Hard to believe, I know! J 

It’s a constant battle for me as it is with any child of God, I suppose, to keep a pure heart.  When I am hurt, the last thing I want to do is love those that hurt me but my focus must stay on my own heart and how I conduct myself.  I fail so often and I react instead of acting out of love.   

I’m reading a book AGAIN(smiles) called, “A Love Worth Giving” by Max Lucado.  It’s so good and SO challenging at the same time.  Before we ever left MS in route to Haiti, I knew God was calling us first and foremost to love.  To love each other deeply… in our family (old and new), in our community, in our home.

Most of us are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13.  It’s called the ‘love chapter’ and it’s used in weddings a lot.  We see postcards and wall-hangings and art work that use verses from this chapter.  Bracelets and necklaces are sold with portions of the chapter, too.  In part, The Message version says this,

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor... but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

......

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”

This can be enlightening or it can be frustrating…frustrating when we measure our love (or lack there of) with these truths but enlightening when we realize that this is how Christ loves us. 

When we begin to talk to God about our feelings (even our frustrations) and ask him to do what we (alone) cannot do, we find that He is more than willing to meet us where we are lacking.  But before we can love with this love from Christ, we have to first accept it and “live loved” as Lucado explains.  Something miraculous happens when we accept His love that far exceeds our own. We find that we are able to love whether it's reciprocated or not.

    

Loving people isn’t easy.  It's messy and it’s tough (as I probably over-stated earlier) but as we learn to live in the overflow of God’s love, it can be very rewarding, too!  

I noticed this heart as I was walking outside the gate the other day...

I continue to be fascinated that God loves us enough to keep sending us personal messages.  Look for yours today... and if you are struggling like me to love someone else, try to focus on the One that loves you and ask Him to show you how you can pass that love on.

"God loves you.  Personally.  Powerfully.  Passionately.

Others have promised and failed.

But God has promised and succeeded.

He loves you with an unfailing love.

And His love - if you will let it - can fill you

And leave you with a Love Worth Giving." ~ Max Lucado