God is Love.
My friend Cathy spoke these words in our Bible study group, Woman @ 10.
I pondered on these words throughout the 45 minute long discussion.
It is suppertime and still, my mind lingers over her words.
Love is subjective.
And I while I do not feel qualified to tell someone how to love, I can only speak about what I personally know and have experienced.
On the subject of God's love, I understand that as He loves me I in turn am supposed to extend that love to others.
What do we expect from love?
I see examples of love everyday. Sometimes I hear love expressed in words spoken in soft, tender tones and repeated often.
"I love you"
Other times I hear someone express deeply & with enthusiasm, their love for something inanimate.
I love my new shoes
I love my new car
I love pizza
I wish I could talk to people, take a survey of sorts and ask, "what does love look like to you'?
Love, as I see it should never be expressed simply with spoken words. I see it as part of a two-fold equation. My love for you is demonstrated in tangible ways of self-sacrifice, the giving of my time, my self, sometimes standing in as my all.
Love is me saying, "you are important to me and worthy of my time"
And oh how we long for that to be reciprocated. We want to "feel" that love.
It is not just paying homage to the ideal of love by means of lip service. It is so much more.
Believing that God is love, the end all then I must believe that His love is perfect.
I, am not so perfect.
I struggle, like anyone else to express myself. Sometimes, when I desire to actively demonstrate that love, I end up second guessing myself.
My actions get misinterpreted and I end up frustrated., sometimes even embarrassed.
No rule books here.
Every single person, I believe has their own expectations when it comes to love.
It's complex.
And most often confusing.
I guess that accounts for all the love songs ever written and the new ones that pop up every year.
It's one subject that no one has all the answers for that is, unless you are God and His love is perfect.
2 days ago
1 comment:
Our Chief Love.
"And now, Israel, what doth the Lord they God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul." De. 10:12
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." De. 13:3
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." Mark 12:30.
Futility of Sacrifice and Service Devoid of Love.
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [love], I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I bestow all my good to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [love], it profiteth me nothing." 1 Co. 13:1,3.
Love Inspiring Love.
"We love him because he first loved us. 1 Jo. 4:19.
A Proof of Discipleship.
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Jo. 13:35
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born [begotten] of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. And this commandment we have from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." 1 Jo. 4:7,8,21.
Sacrificial Love.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Jo. 15:13.
The Assurance of Love.
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Ro. 8:28.
The Greatest Thing in the World.
"And now abideth faith, hope, charity [love], these three; but the greatest of these is charity [love]." 1 Co. 13:13.
I am so thankful for you. I have seen the love of God in your life shine for Him ~ not only for me but for others.
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