The topic of Love so far has been one of my favourite parts of life's journey. Love inspires people, encourages people, brings people together and makes sacrifices, amongst many other things.
Love is what motivates me, more specifically the love that I have found through my ever growing Faith in my ever loving God. In the Bible, the greatest commandment relates to love.
'Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs from them.' Matthew 25:37-40
Do we love ourselves? If we do, how well? We weren't created to hate or dislike what we are, for we were created IN love, through love, BY love. (1 John 4:8) The image we see in the mirror is a reflection of our creator, when He looks at me, He loves what He sees. He promises that nothing can separate me from the love that He has for me, (Romans 8:38-39) and I have learnt to embrace that. I am full of life because of that fact. We have to accept that, because that is truth, and truth brings freedom. None of us should be bound by anything, rather we should be living in freedom of acceptance, knowing that we were made exactly how we were supposed to be. That doesn't mean we don't have our down days, trust me! But this is something that needs to be constantly grasped.
One of my favourite pieces of the Bible is here:
"So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11
I find these verses so fascinating - it's all well and good wanting to love absolutely EVERYONE we ever meet, but sometimes we have to understand that though we may love people, we may not always be the right person to help them. Sometimes we have to back away from certain friendships or relationships and focus more time and energy on others. It is ok that friendships may come to a natural end, it does not mean you do not love that person, because recognising that a season is over is part of life. We must love WELL, this is rich and deep and is not shallow or surface-level. Jesus focussed a lot of his ministry on hanging out with those who were cast out by their society, and at times, sacrificed his reputation to be with them. That, is love. He gave them his time, his words and truth. That is our job. We don't have to be known by everyone, we have to be wise and understand that sincere love has more of an impact than offering a sprinkling of love here and there because it is 'what we should do.' I would much rather have a positive, deep and meaningful impact upon 3 people that would change their lives than love 300 people a little bit and make no difference whatsoever. We are not here to make a song and dance about this fact, we are here plainly and simply as instruments of love, showing people that this God we believe in is actually pretty great.
For me, loving God's creation is the most natural response in the world after what I believe He did for me. How could it not be?
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