Before I begin this writing, I would like to say that I have come to know and experience God’s love; that it is He who keeps me in every area, and yet I know there is much, much more and I yearn to receive the more! He poured His love into our hearts the minute we asked Jesus to be Lord of our life. How much? He wants us all to be filled with all the fullness of God. God is love.
Paul prayed for the Ephesian church and us today to be filled with His love – Ephesians 3:17-19 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. NKJV
No one knows all there is to know about God’s love, but we can be continually filled with it as we grow in Him. He is infinite.
We will always be in a state of learning and growing, and getting more revelation about how to allow God’s love to enhance our faith walk.
Christians are at different levels of growth in love. What you do shows where you are on that big love scale. Some believers can carry a grudge, be offended for years. They will say words that cause love to not minister to them, and the enemy gets in and causes trouble, just like non-Christians. But that’s where they are; not realizing that the issues they are dealing with may be because they are hindering God’s power in their life.
“True love never changes,” I heard this when I was growing up. Later, I wondered why so many people are wrong about that since so many couples end their marriages. They end up in divorce courts almost hating each other; myself included. With this disillusionment about love and marriage, many people have opted to just have a family without the covenant of marriage. This, unfortunately not only breaks down the family unit, but it often sets the stage for a cycle of the same in the children as adults.
In the book, “The Hidden Man of the Heart” by E.W. Kenyon, he wrote about a couple who was very much in love. They got married and had a wonderful life and they began having children. After a while the wife began to feel overwhelmed and resentful, thinking she had not signed up for all that is required for her to do. (Not the exact in wording). The husband also began to feel the weight of being responsible for taking care of a household Kenyon said, someone gave the husband a book he had written prior explaining the two types of love: one is called Agape and the other Phileo, both are Greek words and both mean love. He explained that Agape is the God kind of love, and Phileo is human love. When the husband began to read the little book about this new love, he began to change his attitude and actions. The wife took notice and wanted to know what that book is that he had been reading. He told her and left the book on the table. She began to read it and desire this new love. When the husband returned, he told her that he wanted to do this; would she be in agreement and they called their children explained what they were doing and their life took on a new fulfillment, even though their work, responsibility and commitments were still the same.
Human love is not bad love, but as you can see, it falls far short. It’s faulty compared to the love God gives. It is His original intent. He loves His creation and He has gone to great lengths to prove it by sending Jesus Christ to the cross to die as our substitute. You see, when Jesus died as our substitute, he took on our sin nature and gave us His righteousness. It was a divine exchange. However, the exchange is not automatic. An individual has to ask Him to 1) forgive them for their sins and 2) ask Him to come into their hearts and be Lord of their Life. Then God’s love is poured into the heart of man.
Look now at the condition of the world today and imagine if we all could just choose the love of God as our standard for living; all the hurt, terror, murders, stealing would be non-existent. Some years ago, a minister said that God gave us the one tool that is designed to make the whole world work together in perfect order (not exact wording). As days of old and is so today, too many people will not accept this great love gift, but the rest of us can take advantage of it to make our own personal life run smoothly, our families and be a God-influence to the others. When we choose the love of God way of being, instructions (the Bible) comes with it showing us how to walk in victory because love, agape love, never fails. Will we miss it sometimes? Of course, but God in His love and mercy corrects us and tells us to get back on tract. To God be the glory!!
By Donisha Worsham