All in Love, or Fruit
This morning I am asking myself the same question that the resurrected Jesus asked Peter... “Do you love me?” And, in so doing, I think about what love truly is. Then I measure the depths of my love once more when asked yet again… “Do you love me?” Finally, I explore what Jesus desires of me as He asks one final time... “Do you love me?” Am I committed to worship, obey, and follow what He expects of me when I answer Him? How about with the same type of love He asked Peter if he had?
Today let's think about how completely God gave of Himself that we should find forgiveness of our sins and an everlasting life with Him. Then, let's ask ourselves if we are willing to give ourselves to Him just as completely and with the same abandon.
The fruits of the Spirit are many, and wonderful, but the first of these fruits that Paul mentions in his letter to the Galatians is love, and rightfully so. When we first believe, and receive the Spirit, love is the first of the Spirit’s fruits that we are filled with. After the love of God comes upon us then the rest are made possible, and the fruits of the Spirit begin to set us apart as Christians. Without love the others can’t exist in us. So have we been changed, and opened ourselves up to the love that is offered us through the Holy Spirit?
After accepting God as our Lord, and Jesus as our Savior, we find ourselves able to love those around us as God loves, and to love the Father as Jesus did. We are blessed in this way because we have become the sons and daughters of God, and bear not only His name, and image, but His Spirit within us. Yet, we are still challenged by our old selves as Satan continues his attempt to reinsert it into our daily lives. Are we able to resist the old person, and hold firm to our new transformed self as we should?
As a parent we feel the pain of our children, and as our Heavenly Father, God also feels the pain of our suffering. He not only feels our discomfort, but He intercedes in it by soothing our agony, and carrying us in His arms when we are unable to walk on our own. We should never let Satan convince us that our God is detached, or uncaring, because in truth He loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to share in our bruises, and to become our surrogate in affliction... thus healing, and redeeming us.
We go to our knees, and accept Jesus Christ as our savior, and in so doing we acknowledge God as our Father, and thus we have taken the single greatest step in our lives. We immediately feel the exhilaration, and the joy, as we lift our arms towards heaven, and feeling the Holy Spirit as He surrounds us we think “it is done”, when in fact it has just begun. Now that we are standing atop the mountain we find that we must struggle mightily to remain there. We must keep ourselves in the love of God despite the efforts of Satan, and the sin that desires to blow us from the summit of Mt. Zion.
We may serve the Lord, pray eloquent prayers, give to the poor, and do all of those other commandments and mercies that God’s Word speaks of, but does that make us righteous? Does that make us Holy? At the end of the day are we any closer to our Heavenly Father? The question in doing any of these things should be this: “Am I doing this thing lovingly, and because I love the Lord?”, and if we stutter in our response, or can’t honestly say “Yes!”, then it is time to stop doing them and look closer at our faith, our heart, and our relationship with God.
Is there anything of yourself that out of love you have given to, or for, another? Is there anything you consider so valuable, or so dear to you, that you wouldn’t consider parting with? We often think that the most precious possession we have is our life, but is that true? Jesus gave up His life for us, and for the love He felt for God. He valued these two so completely that His life was considered less, and thus, at His Father’s request, He gave it in horrific fashion to redeem mankind... even for those who would wound Him. He loved, and He loved something He considered more precious than His own life.
The love of Christ, we can only think we know it. When we are saved, and first feel it rushing into us with such an amazing force, we are convinced that this torrential flood must be the fullness of His love, but as we grow in faith we realize that the waters slow, and the river deepens. We then get a sense of the fact that there are seas, and oceans, ahead... and we are overcome by the expanse that is His love for us, and the journey ahead.
God sent His Son, Jesus died for us, we accepted Him as our Lord, and now we are set free from our sin... so what is left for us to do? Some say “nothing!”, that all of this, including eternity in God’s house, is simply a gift. They are right in a way, because it truly is a gift, but once we have accepted these things, it is our place to give thanks for them, and appreciate by our love and service, the efforts of the giver. In many worldly situations we are indebted to the one who gives us a gift, and in faith we feel the same. The difference is that on earth we serve out of obligation, but in faith we serve out of love.
Have you ever been in a situation where praising the Lord was difficult? How about being so encumbered that you had to struggle for the words? Or, perhaps that it became impossible? Probably not, but In such a situation we would find out just how important our God is to us, and exactly how much we would miss being able to speak with Him. Can you imagine living through such a situation, or place?
To what ends will your faith take you as you seek the presence of Jesus? Are you so confident in Him that there is nothing more pressing than to be at His feet? Does His love for you drive you to a great, and possibly heroic faith?
We have knowledge of Jesus, and often think that is enough; we study and know of Him and think this is the pinnacle of righteousness, but it isn’t. We think that by our understanding we can find the fullness of God but we are mistaken. Loving God and Jesus Christ surpasses all else, and our knowledge, and the other things, are only meant to help increase our ability to love them more. Loving, and being loved by Jesus; this is the way we can experience the fullness of God.
Do you love God with no less intensity, or walk with Jesus with the same vigor as in days gone by, and yet the sense of joy, and satisfaction seems to have waned from your relationship? Do you feel like you are losing the intimacy you once experienced in your faith? Well, do not lose heart because you are no further away from God than you we’re at the height of your zeal... in the days when you first believed.
How great is your love for Jesus Christ? What would it take to separate you from Him, and His love for you. Poets have long sought to capture the intensity of their love, but try as they might it always falls short of describing that pool of emotion bubbling up within them. Our love, and faith in Jesus is similar in that we who love Him can’t satisfactorily express the fullness of our love either. So, how do we praise Him?