Reviving Love

Love is patient. Love is kind. It is not selfish n'or proud.

Love is obvious in many places. The love between a couple, or a close family is a wonderful blessing!

I want to go an extra mile on this topic though; to a place of unconditional love.

I recently saw a picture circulating on facebook that said, " I don't have time to worry about who doesn't like me... I'm too busy loving the people who love me. "

In a sense this might be good advice. Our top priority should not be to make sure everyone likes us.  On the other hand, this is not biblical.

Here is why:

Matthew 5:43-48

⁴³ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

⁴⁴ But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

⁴⁵ That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

⁴⁶ For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

⁴⁷ And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

⁴⁸ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

In my last post, I wrote about  God's Love.

Assuming,  we want to love more like God loves us, we  have a lot to learn! We need to allow God, our Heavenly Father,  to love through us when we don't even know how.

Agape is a Greek term for one of the four types of love in the Bible.  In 1 Corinthians (KJV) agape is translated as charity, which is love.

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

⁵ Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

⁶ Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

⁷ Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

⁸ Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

¹⁰ But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

¹² For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

¹³ And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

What I have been seeing is that there is not enough love among people. The world around us needs to see love among Christians and we so often fail them. Without love we will not be a light in dark places.  Without love, there isn't anything we can do to reach out to those in need.

Love should  be evident between all believers. We need our focus to  be on Jesus. Our focus can only be on Him if we let go of any unforgiveness and love whole heartily.

We waste time by putting our focus on the things we don't like in others.

Lord, I pray...  Take me to a deeper level of your love, and pour it out through me in a greater  way.

Allow God to Revive us again, with HIS  unconditional  love by which He gives us eternal life.

©Nancy wall

How Great, The Love of God

As I study the scripture on the topic of love , I feel more and more that we cannot fully apprehend God's love.  So, how can I  even begin to write about love?  

 Our human eyes  only see glimpses of what it is. As we grow in our faith, our view on love becomes broader, but we still don't see the complete picture.

From what we do perceive, I think most of us would agree that love is a marvelous existence. The thought of love is an abating thought.  Naturally, we all long to be loved.  We are  on a  journey in search of love to fill the hole that is in each heart without it.  Only God is able to completely fill that space and meet all our needs.

Here is the glimpse I caught in my own journey of God's love and wrote a poem about it:

 

God's  Love

Deeper than the deepest ocean

Wider  than the widest sea

Higher than the highest stars

Is God's love for you and me

Who can ever grasp this love

Full of mercy , that never fails

Seasoned with his special grace

Guides us through life's rocky trails

Always forgives and hugs our hearts

A gentle hand God reaches out

Seeing always our every need

Hearing every whisper; every shout

God's love is by far, much more

Than we can fully comprehend

Loved us so, He gave his Son

His love so great and without end

Love , Who can  know it, I will ask

Too, amazing for my mind

But see  the evidence all around

A gift in us , to the world must shine

His love is perfect. It does not end. Full  of compassion, forgiveness, peace and joy. His love gives grace by which we are saved.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Isaiah 54:10 - For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

May the Love of God become more and more real and evident in all of Jesus' followers . May all those who do not know Jesus personally realize their need for him as their personal Saviour.

©Nancy Wall

How did God Provide?

Here it is ! The van God provided...

In my last post, I told you about our need for a new van. We wanted to wait on God to provide the right one for us.  Doing so has been quite a journey!

Many times we found one  we thought we would buy, but things just weren't working out. Some vans were not in very good condition, didn't have enough money or it sold before we got to it.

We got a few anonymous surprises which  gave us a higher budget  to work with.  Thank you so much to whomever God used in that way!

A few days before buying a van, my husband was thinking of his dad, who passed away a few years ago. He was telling me if  he were still alive, he would probably have made sure we had a van by now. The next day he goes to visit his mom. His mom hands him an envelope and says , "this is from dad." Inside there was $700 dollars. He had put money away for each of his children, which his mom was to give to them some day.

Not only was this a very special gift , but also turned out to be exactly what we still needed!

The very same day he got the money from his parents, someone called us back, who was now willing to sell the van for exactly the amount we had. We were amazed! Took it as direction from God that this was the way to go.

Oh ya! Still have to pay taxes on the van.. Now what? My son had worked for my cousin the week before. He had made enough and volunteered  to pay this. That made the decision to go get this van final.

Out of the money we received, we had tithed $200. Another very neat thing happened! When all was said and done, we ended up having $210 dollars left over.  Could hardly believe how that all happened and were so excited and thankful.

More test came on our way home. The transmission broke down on us!

We couldn't understand why God would have so clearly directed us to this van if this was going to happen! As we sat there and prayed, I really started to see beyond the here and now. First of all, this was only a van and not our treasure.

We didn't know what would happen.  The money we paid for this van was God's not ours. He had provided it and could do as He saw fit with it.

When we claim to have faith, we will be tested on that. This was one of those test.  It took me some time to meditate on all of this. I had moments where I just didn't know what we should do next.

Thankfully, the van was taken back by the previous owner and he was willing to fix it. He paid  the transmission and did the labour himself.  We only paid for towing.  We realized, he could have refused to help us in any way but didn't.

Once more God provided all that we needed. We now have a vehicle to get us where we need to go.

We pray and ask God to teach us to trust him more. He uses circumstances like this one to do just that!

©Nancy Wall