All you need is love.....

Our God is a God of Love.  Our God is an awesome God.  

Everyday of our lives He teaches us how to live a life of love.  He fills our hearts with His love, if only we let Him.  He wraps His arms around us, encircling us with His love through the presence of His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Living God, the one whom our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ asked the Father to send as a comforter.  

Because we have the Holy Spirit we are never alone.  When Jesus died for us He did not leave us.  He said, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you." John 14:16

Over the past year I have really began to understand love.  The love of my family.  The love of my son.  Love from those whom I believed did not have to love me.  How to give and receive love, and most important of all, the love of God.  

I am blessed to have been born into a loving family.  Like all families we've had our ups and downs but there was never a time when I would have doubted their love for me.  I don't think I can say them same in regards to my demonstrations of love towards them.  Sadly I recall my childhood, teenage and adult years, throughout which I was never able to really understand or show my love for my family.  I shied away from much physical contact and did not really interact in a loving way at all.

Even my ex-husband, whom I have always considered my first love, used to feel that my love for him was more of an obsession than a genuine true love.  Now I think perhaps he was right.

It was only after the birth of my beautiful son Xavier that I started to feel real love.  That all encompassing feeling, that wonderful bond between mother and child.  It was the most exhilarating and terrifying feeling that I had ever felt.  Love felt scary, amazing, but incredibly scary.

I think almost every day I was fearful that something would happen to take my Xavi away from me.  This fear only left me when I found my faith in Jesus because as it says in His word, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."  To know, understand and feel God's love is a wonderful thing. 

Before finding my faith our old enemy Satan used my fear to dissuade me from trusting in God.  The evil one used scripture in an attempt to convince me that if I turned to God He would ask me to give up my son just as He had asked of Abraham in the story of Isaac in Genesis 22.  This was of course one of the many lies that the deceiver told me in order to distract me from my increasing faith.  After coming to know Jesus there was nothing I wanted more than to entrust my son into the loving care of His creator.  Who can love us more than our heavenly father?  It was He who entrusted me with this precious boy so to surrender him to God was the most natural thing in the world.

One of the most amazing things that happened to me after giving birth to Xavier was that being a mother not only taught me how to love my son but it also filled my heart with so much love for my family that I felt my I would burst.  This subsequently also prepared me to accept God's love and the love of those who were to welcome me into the family of believers.

Over the past eight months, since I started this blog, I have often written about my amazing church family at Rivers of Joy who have welcomed myself and my son into their lives and supported us through many trials and spiritual upheavals as we have grown in Christ.

They have been more than a tower of strength.  A favourite verse which was given to me by my great friend Sharon Linde from psalm 40 was such a wonderful prophesy that God has fulfilled in my life "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand".  He really did take me out of the pit at a time when it looked like I would again lose everything and He set my feet upon the rock that is Rivers of Joy.  

Now God is teaching me to lean on Him more and not to be so dependent upon people.  This is important for my spiritual growth and I relish every opportunity to bask in His love, but the love shown by believers, both to other believers, new believers and to non-believers is not to be under-rated or underestimated.  

It is how we can best show the love of Christ.  The love that is in us because we are in Christ.  When this love is reflected into the lives of others God is glorified.  This is one of the most powerful ways we can share the message of Christ in this world and in particular in this region, through living out this love, by loving others as He loves us.  

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

How much was God prepared to sacrifice for us?  How much are we prepared to sacrifice for God, and for each other?  

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13

Many churches across the world are currently praying for and trusting in God for revival.  I think that when are hearts are filled with the kind of burning love for God and for each other  that happened in the Moravian Revival during Zinzendorf's time we will know revival.  One of their members recounts how "their hearts were set on fire with new faith and love towards the Saviour and likewise with burning love towards one another, which moved them so far that of their own accord they embraced one another in tears and grew together into an holy union among themselves".

It's the whole idea of unity being born out of love that is what God has placed in my heart.  Love is the central theme of the Word of God and should be the focus of our walk with God and how we reflect into the lives of everyone whom we come into contact with.  

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  Colossians 3:12-14

"Put on love"!!  What a great phrase.  Wear love, let love be the what we are identified with, let it be the uniform of the believer - a garment of love.  

Love is more than words, how we respond to the needs of others is a demonstration of our love.  Jesus shows us many beautiful illustrations of such demonstrative love in the bible but most of all I like to remember what the book of James teaches us in Chapter 2:14-17

 "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

To love is God's greatest commandment and therefore our main "deed" must be to love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 emphasises the importance of love beautifully:

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Dear Lord,

I pray that your love will descend like a raincloud over this nation washing away our fear and our reluctance to embrace cultural differences.  As your living water cleanses and refreshes I pray that your Holy Spirit will bring revival into this dry and arid land.  I pray that you will equip us to "put on love" and to bring your love into each others lives, into the workplace, into our schools, our families and our churches.  I pray for unity, Lord.  For the love of Christ to inspire unity throughout this land and amongst the churches Lord so that we can stand side by side as the true body and bride of Christ.

In Your Holy Name I pray,

Amen