Love
"God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them." (1 John 4:16b NIV)
If the Bible is God's story of who He is, what He's done, and what He's going to do, its subtitle could easily be "Love." In fact, I think we could spend 365 days just exploring this one facet of who The Great I AM is.
That God is love underlies everything else He is, as conveyed by just a few of His many names.
*He is El Elyon...Most High in love.
*He the Covenant Keeper...keeping his promise of love to thousands of generations.
*He is Yahweh-Tsidkenu...God Who Makes Us Righteous With Himself for the simple and yet profound reason that He loves us.
*He is Emmanuel...the God who came to be with us because of love.
*He is the Word...and the word He speaks first and foremost is love.
One of my all-time favorite quotes is this one from St. Therese of Lisieux: "It isn't enough to love. We must prove it."
God proved and proves His love over and over. The question I need to ask myself is, "How will I prove love today?"
How will I prove love today?
Here is where God's way of doing things is so radical and redemptive: I prove my love for God not to earn His love for me but in response to it. I prove my love for God not to get something from Him but because of what He has already given me.
"This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other" (1 John 4:10,11 MSG).
God's love story goes well beyond "once upon a time." Its ending will really be just the beginning. And "happily ever after"? We can't even imagine.
I adore every one of these posts, Elizabeth. This one, though, moved me so much I had to comment. I really want to bask in the depth of this, not just glaze over it since we hear "God is Love" all the time. I want to consider your question, "How will I prove love today." There is a tug at us all the time - warring within - to seek our own gain or to lose ourselves on behalf of love. Jesus definitely models and calls us to the latter, but He does it from the same place He loves - from fullness. From His fullness, He poured out. He calls us to abide in love so we can exude love. Love costs. It can't be given without us giving. Yet, love returns something greater to us as we give - when we give without wanting to get what we'll receive. That is God's marvelous economy. Thank you again and again for these posts.
ReplyDeleteOh, Patty, I'm so sorry I'm so late in responding, but THANK YOU for this thoughtful and lovely comment! I cherish every word but will especially remember "God's marvelous economy." Oh, my, YES. Thank you for the gift of your presence and insight!
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