Love Letter from God

 

 

It's that time of year again! Valentine's Day is around the corner.  Love birds will be flocking together going on dates, buying flowers, cards, and candy and just making their PDAs all over the place.  Businesses rack up with their red and pink designed merchandise (yes Stanley, I mean you!), and the public goes rushing last minute to get a token of something to show their significant other that they love them.  Here is my shameless plug: if you don't want to be one of those procrastinators left at the last minute scavenging empty shelves check out these Valentine's Day Gift Ideas.  

Now that we have gotten over what the world thinks and promotes regarding love, let's talk about God's unconditional love.  The Bible says that love is patient and kind; it doesn't envy or boast. Love does not dishonor others, and its not proud or self-seeking.  Love does not easily anger and it keeps no record of wrongs. 

 

When we look at this definition of love I'm sure we can get deflated pretty easily.  Most of us can a recall a time where we were keeping tabs on the wrongdoings of our husband or boyfriend (wife or girlfriend), just waiting for the next time so we can tell them about themselves! We can also recall a time where we were stubborn and did not care to compromise because we were being prideful or self-seeking in that moment, whether it was work related, date night related, dinner related, children related-- you fill in the blank.  By these standards love seems to be pretty hard, if you ask me.  So how can we measure up to the love that the Bible tells us and shows us is true?

1) Follow the Example of Love

The greatest and most purest form of love was demonstrated on the Cross.  Jesus said, "greater love has no man than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13).  Not only did Jesus lay down his life for his friends, but he laid down his life for the whole world.  For those who rejected and mocked him, for those who followed him only for the benefits (the fish and bread), for those who even today would find it hard to believe the miraculous story of his life and death.  He died for all of those people.  John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." It only takes a mustard seed size faith to experience the full magnitude of his love and to receive all that His love has to offer.  Despite having done no wrong, Christ willingly assumed his position on the Cross to bare our sins.  It was a selfless sacrifice.  He sought our well being before his own.  He ignored his own suffering to look at the bigger picture.  Can we take this example and ignore our selves and put our loved ones before us? Can we ignore our own plight and issues, or our own desires to see the bigger picture?  If so we can take the first step in following the most noble example of love ever shown to man. 

2) Love Others as God Loves Us

God is our Father and loves us with an unfathomable immense love.  God's love is akin to a mother's love.  If you have any idea how a mother loves, whether you are one or have experienced the love of a mother, it most generally comes with no strings attached.  A mother cares for you in their womb and knows your heart beat even before you enter the world.  It truly is an amazing connection that mothers experience with their offspring.  God is our heavenly father who formed us in our mother's womb.  So if a mother who carries us can have a special love toward us, how much more can the Father who placed us in that womb.  He knows us even before we walk this earth!  The Bible tells us in 1 John 4: 7-8, "let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."  Once we experience the Father's love it is just a little bit easier to love others.  Once we understand that the love that God has for us is undeserved, we can extend the grace we have received to them.  None of us is more important than the other and we all fall short of the grace of God (Romans 3:23).  If we choose to remember God's love for us in the moments that we find it hard to show love or extend grace to others we can be more forgiving.  Love after all is from God and is God.  If you have been born again and know God, love is now a part of you.  Love is a verb and needs to be practiced.  "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

3) Remember God's Love Letter to You

We were once lost in this world without a hope and without a second chance to life.  We may have lived our day to day lives but before Christ that is a melancholic and hopeless trudginf of the day to day.  In Christ we can find purpose.  In the story of the prodigal son we see that the Father was very joyful when his son returned home.  Despite the son treating his Father as though he were already dead and asking for his inheritance early.  No matter that he went into to the world and squandered all of his money, to the point where he desired pig food to eat.  His father still ran to him and welcomed him with open arms.  Luke 15:24 provides the father's exclamation, "My son was dead and has come back to life. He was lost but has been found."  In the same way God has welcomed us with open arms.  He is the good good father who runs to meet us in the road when we leave him and act as though we can go through life without him.  Here are a few things to remember as part of God's love letter to us: 

a) He will never leave you nor forsake you! Deut 31:8

b) Nothing can separate us from God's love! Romans 8:38-39

c) You were made in God's image Gen 1:27; Psalms 139:14

d) You are here with a purpose Psalms 57:2

e) You are fearfully and wonderfully made Psalms 139:14

f) We are his legitimate sons and daughters Galatians 3:26

g) He gave his only Son for you and for me to have eternal life! John 3:16

Because we are made in God's image and are his legitimate children there is nothing that can take us away from God's love.  God has made us with a purpose and we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  That means that God loves us unconditionally.  That love was proved to us on the cross.  When we remember all that God has done for us and how much he loves us, we will treat others the way we want to be treated.  We will understand that God created others in the same way, and loves others the way he loves us.  Although we are all special in our own way, no one is better than anyone else.  God's love letter is for everyone and it is important to remember that for ourselves but also for the way we interact with all of God's children.  

This season of love, when you are buying your gifts for your loved ones, remember that the real demonstration and test of love is how you treat people who you do not know or maybe don't even like.  Make showing love a daily practice whether you know the people or not.  It is easy to love on the people we know and choose to have in our lives.  Can you love and show God's true love no matter the situation? I pray that you reflect on that and practice that during this season.