Category: God’s Love

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Love Gives

Why do we do the things we do?

Why do we do things like dishes and cleaning, baking and bathing, nursing and washing, listening and comforting, going to work and then to after-school activities? Do we do these things because we have too? No.

Love gives!

“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.” I Corinthians 13:3-7 MSG

Our actions can’t earn us love. If they could, then our lack of action would be reason for us to lose that love. Love isn’t based on our effort or the effort of those around us. True love is unconditional. Our actions are simply an expression of that love.

Love has no room for self pity or a poor me attitude. In all honesty, I have to admit that I have my times of whining and feeling put upon. But then, God’s word will correct me and I get on with loving my family and those around me.

Jesus said this to His disciples: “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. ” John 13:34 MSG

The love that Jesus has for us is unearned and unconditional. He showed his love for us before we were even born. He gave all He had for us. He gave up His life in heaven to come to earth; He gave up a good reputation and took on ridicule. Finally, He gave up His life to save us from death. Jesus gave all!

Let’s follow His example and His command. Let’s love the way we’ve been loved.

Love gives!

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My Favorite Place

Where do you abide?

Abide is an old fashioned word that isn’t used very often anymore. A person’s home was often referred to as their abode. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word abide as this: “to remain stable or fixed in a state; to continue in a place”. In other words, it means to stay put or be established, to put down roots.

Putting down roots is different than just going for a visit. Abiding has a sense of permanence. It implies that we are established or settled in. It can be a physical place such as our home or our city but it can also be a place of emotional stability.

Did you know that we can settle in to, be established and abide in love? We are encouraged to make it our home.

As a child I moved frequently. My dad was a construction worker; he operated heavy equipment and for years he was employed on road construction projects. As the road advanced toward the next town, we moved. The one thing that always moved with us was the love of my parents. We lived in a trailer but love was our abode.

Life surrounds us with things that are temporary but God gives us a permanent abiding place.

“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home (*abide) in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain (abide) intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home (abide) in his love.” John 15:9-10 MSG

*abide is the word used in the old English, King James version of the Bible.

We can look at God’s love as if it were a home, our home. We can open the front door, walk in, sit down and know are welcomed there. This home of love provides us with protection and security. It protects us from life’s storms. It is a place of well-being.

“Those who live (*abide) in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him.” Psalm 91:1-2 NLT

The door’s open – you can move in today. God’s love is a permanent place to abide!

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Start the Day with Love

What’s the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning?

I look for my robe and slippers. Then I take Glory out of our room, close the door so we don’t wake Dave and head to the back door to let her out. I bring her back in, feed her, get my coffee (the auto start feature is wonderful), grab my Bible, my computer and I sit down for my quiet time. However, the first thing I see is the clock. If it’s too early I try to roll over and go back to sleep for a while. That’s the way every morning has started for the last eleven years.

But, the first thing I do each morning is take time before I get out of bed to say my I love you’s. “I love you Father, I love you Jesus, I love you Holy Spirit. Good morning.” I start each day with love.

As I was reading in the Psalms I found a comment by King David at the end of Psalm 17.

“When I awake, all I want is to see you as you are.” Psalm 17:15 CEV

To see you as you are! Psalm 17 is another one of David’s psalms of praise – thanking the Lord for being his strength, his defender, his protector, his creator. How much better would our day go if we just focused physically and spiritually on seeing God as He is?

“I pray to you, God, because you will help me. Listen and answer my prayer! 7 Show your wonderful love. Your mighty arm protects those who run to you for safety from their enemies. 8 Protect me as you would your very own eyes; hide me in the shadow of your wings… 14 You provide food for those you love. Their children have plenty, and their grandchildren will have more than enough. 15 I am innocent, Lord, and I will see your face! When I awake, all I want is to see you as you are.” Psalm 17:6-8, 14-15 CEV

Today there may be many things fighting for our attention but when we focus, when we set our heart and mind to see God, we can start our day with our loving heavenly Father and see Him as who He is!

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Made New by Love

Yesterday morning I was out for a walk and there it was, crossing the dirt road in front of me. It was a wooly worm, as we used to called them when I was little, better known to all as a fuzzy caterpillar. He was enjoying the warm sunshine just like I was.

I’m not an entomologist and I make no claims of knowing how long it takes for the life cycle of a butterfly to go from egg to caterpillar to cocoon and emerge as a butterfly but I do know the process is one of complete transformation and the end result is beautiful.

Am I the only one who has caterpillar days? We get up in the morning and for some reason we just can’t shake that feeling of being small and insignificant. None of our friends really notice us; so we crawl into our shell (our cocoon) to hide. But while we are in there something amazing happens.

God speaks to our heart. He tells us that He has something wonderful and amazing planned for us. He tells us how much He loves us and that He wants to make us new; never again will we be just a caterpillar, crawling around in the dirt. He is transforming us and giving us wings so we can fly. His love is making us new.

“It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.” Titus 3:3-5 MSG

We emerge from our old life beautiful. Our Father takes our old, wooly, ground-crawling life and His love makes everything new!

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Playing Favorites

Yesterday there was lots of excitement at our house. First thing in the morning we learned that our first great granddaughter had been born. She is five weeks early but perfect in every way.

A few hours later our youngest daughter, son-in-love and three youngest grandchildren arrived for a weekend visit. My ninety-six year old mother is here and they came to spend some time with her and with us.

A busy house indeed.

There was a short space in time during the mid afternoon that Mom was resting and so were two of the grandkids. The youngest, 3 1/2 months old, was in my lap while I was looking at a text message with pictures of our first great grandchild. WOW! I was overwhelmed by the blessings I have received from the Father. Three children, their mates, five grandchildren and one great grandchild! My heart is full and my cup runs over.

After our first daughter was born I wondered if I would have as much room in my heart for a second child as I did for her. I found that with each child my heart grew and there was always enough love to go around. The same holds true with the grandkids; my love capacity increases with the size of our family and there are no favorites. Each one is unique, each one is treasured and each one is loved with the same depth and intensity.

Did you know our heavenly Father is like that? He has no favorites. He loves you and me as much as He loves Jesus. We are His children too. He adopted us and placed us in the family as joint-heirs with Jesus. Listen to Jesus’ prayer on the night He was taken to be crucified.

“I pray not only for these followers but also for those who will believe in me because of their teaching. 21 Father, I pray that all who believe in me can be one. You are in me and I am in you. I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me. I gave them this glory so that they can be one, just as you and I are one. 23 I will be in them, and you will be in me. So they will be completely one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you loved them just as you loved me.

24 “Father, I want these people you have given me to be with me in every place I am. I want them to see my glory—the glory you gave me because you loved me before the world was made. 25 Father, you are the one who always does what is right. The world does not know you, but I know you, and these followers of mine know that you sent me. 26 I showed them what you are like, and I will show them again. Then they will have the same love that you have for me, and I will live in them.” John 17:20-26 ERV

I highlighted in bold type face two specific incidents where Jesus mentioned that we have been given the same love from the Father that He received. Imagine that! God, the Father, creator of heaven and earth; all powerful, ever present, all knowing God who loved Jesus, HIs Son, and loves us with the same depth of love. We know this is for us and not just those who lived in Bible times because Jesus said it was. Those are His words, not mine.

We may feel that we have been treated unfairly in life, that our path has been skewed by partiality and favoritism. That very well may be. We may have been the last one picked for the ball team, overlooked for a promotion or completely ignored because we didn’t attend the right school or live on the right side of town. People make judgements based on prejudice, they shouldn’t but they do.

But God…God doesn’t play favorites! He loves us with an everlasting love!

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Keep Looking

Only another week until Valentine’s Day. I’m so glad that I don’t need a single date on the calendar to tell me that I should express my love to others. What makes a difference is the little things, the day-to-day expressions; the determination to never give up.

“Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” I Corinthians 13:7 NLT

Jesus told a beautiful story of enduring love to his disciples.

“Then Jesus told them this story: 4 “Suppose one of you has 100 sheep, but one of them gets lost. What will you do? You will leave the other 99 sheep there in the field and go out and look for the lost sheep. You will continue to search for it until you find it. 5 And when you find it, you will be very happy. You will carry it 6 home, go to your friends and neighbors and say to them, ‘Be happy with me because I found my lost sheep!’ 7 In the same way, I tell you, heaven is a happy place when one sinner decides to change. There is more joy for that one sinner than for 99 good people who don’t need to change.” Luke 15:3-7 ERV

This is not a story about proper animal husbandry. It’s a story of love. King David often drew a correlation between the Lord’s love for us and a good shepherd caring for his sheep. In fact, one of the most quoted Bible references is Psalm 23. “The Lord is my shepherd”.

Jesus referred to himself as the good shepherd who cares for his sheep. He said that there is a thief out there who wants nothing more than to steal, kill and destroy us. He, as the good shepherd, came to give us life to the full. That’s why, when we’ve lost our way, He goes looking for us. Love never gives up, love never fails. He keeps looking until He finds us and then carries home and has a party.

Imagine that! We are God’s reason to party.

I want to be like that with the lost sheep in my life. I will keep looking for ways to find and heal those situations. Prayer, kind words, an attitude of never giving up will go a long way in the recovery process. Ultimately it is the Shepherd who brings back what was lost and then it will be time for a party.

Love never gives up, never loses hope. Keep looking!

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You ARE Loved

I’ve not met anyone yet who never felt like they weren’t on their own and all alone at least once in their life. It might be just a moments thought or that thought could lead to depression that lasts a few days/months/years or it could be such a devastating thought that they come to the verge of suicide. I don’t think there is one person who has ever escaped the haunting question of “Am I loved?”.

Let me answer that with a loud and resounding – YES! Yes, you are.

“This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike “What’s next, Papa?” God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we’re certainly going to go through the good times with him!” Romans 8:15-27 The Message

God loves us so much He adopted us; He made us one of His own. We will certainly have tough times, Jesus did too. However, we have God’s promise to go through it with us. He won’t leave us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from God’s love.

“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture…None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.” Romans 5:31-39 The Message

This is the greatest Valentine’s message we will ever receive. As it says in the verse above I am absolutely convinced that nothing – absolutely nothing can get between me and God’s love for me. Nothing! These words were written by Paul, the apostle. The same man who arrested Christians and had them taken to their death. He knew first hand that nothing will separate us from God’s love.

I hope Valentine’s Day just took on new meaning. You ARE loved. I was at a low place once and I heard this message, “with God you will never be alone and you will always be loved”. That changed my life forever.

It’s not my responsibility to make myself good enough for God. Only He can do that and He did it when He sent His Son for me and then adopted me into His family.

Who can separate you from the love of God? Absolutely no one or nothing, you ARE loved!

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First Steps

Many of us have had the experience of watching our child take their first steps. What a joy! But let’s remember all the coaxing and encouragement we gave leading up to that momentous occasion.

“You can do it!” ” Look at you – you are such a big girl (big boy)!” “I’ll catch you.”

Words of love, kindness and pride flowing from a patient parent’s heart. No chastising, ridicule or harassment. No! Taking first steps is a big deal and we wrap the step-taker with arms of love and then praise the accomplishment.

But this isn’t a one off experience. It will be repeated again and again with each new surface beneath their feet – tile floors, carpet, sidewalks, grass, wood chips and the ever shifting beach sand.

I remember the first time we took our youngest daughter to the beach. She had just learned to walk and I didn’t think anything about it when we walked out on the sand. As we stood there a small wave washed over our feet and then receded. When it did the sand beneath her toes began to move and shift. The expression on her face was one of perplexity and amazement. She picked up first one foot and then the other. But she kept her balance and we all laughed and clapped for her.

Love is patient, Love is kind!

“Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude.” I Corinthians 13:4 CEV

All throughout life we experience many new things:

  • talking
  • walking
  • sleeping through the night
  • sharing
  • eating
  • reading
  • writing
  • operating the TV remote
  • learning a new computer program
  • driving
  • surfing
  • dancing
  • cooking
  • sewing
  • loving
  • forgiving
  • understanding
  • encouraging

And these are just a few of life’s basics, they are some of our “first steps”. As we learn, we all need someone’s encouraging words to keep going, keep trying, don’t give up! If we don’t receive that encouragement anywhere else we will always receive it from our Heavenly Father. He is love incarnate!!

“All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” I John 4:15-16 NLT

He cheers us on each hour of every day. He is patient with us and His words are always kind. If we listen with our hearts we will hear Him encouraging us every step of the way.

Our first steps are important to the Father!

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Love Doesn’t Keep Track

Have you ever had one of those people in your life that think it’s their job to point out all the things you’ve done wrong or if it isn’t wrong they tell you how you could have done it better? They just have a way of letting the wind out of our sails, don’t they?

They not only have endless “good advice” but they are generally the people that have very long memories and often remind us of past failures and embarrassing moments.

Our God doesn’t do that!

“Love does not give up. Love is kind. Love is not jealous. Love does not put itself up as being important. Love has no pride. 5 Love does not do the wrong thing. Love never thinks of itself. Love does not get angry. Love does not remember the suffering that comes from being hurt by someone. 6 Love is not happy with sin. Love is happy with the truth. 7 Love takes everything that comes without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things. 8 Love never comes to an end. ” I Corinthians 13:4-8a NLV

Our God, our loving heavenly Father, looks past our faults and sees our need. Our need for redemption, our need for renewal, our need for hope, our need for mercy, our need for victory, our need for love and He meets those needs, physical, spiritual and emotional. His grace, marvelous grace, placed us in right standing with Him and in Him our needs are met.

“You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. Now keep on following him. 7 Plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, just as you were taught. And be grateful…9 God lives fully in Christ. 10 And you are fully grown because you belong to Christ, who is over every power and authority. 13 You were dead, because you were sinful and were not God’s people. But God let Christ make you alive, when he forgave all our sins.14 God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.” Colossians 2:6-14 CEV

Have you ever been to the beach and written something in the sand? How long does that message last? It only lasts until the next wave comes in and washes it away. I imagine God’s love and forgiveness to be like that wave – He wipes out our sins and He doesn’t keep track of our failings.

Thank you Father for giving me new life in Christ. Thank you for not keeping track. Help me to be more like you and love without limit.

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Being Loved – Caring For Others

There are so many things that we do each day to show the people around us that we love them. In our house, it starts with having the coffee ready first thing so when Dave gets up he can grab a cup on his way from the bedroom to the office.

Have you ever considered that the menial things we do are actually acts of love as we care for others?

The household chores like laundry, cleaning, cooking, dishes, grocery shopping, baking, mending, yard work, car care are all a way of saying I love you, I care. Then we have the things we do outside the realm of home duties: business trips, accounting, working from home, going to the office. These say the same thing; I love you and so I work to provide for our needs and am diligent to care for our finances.

If we look at our daily tasks as expressions of love we will be able to do them with joy and not resentment. Each school lunch we make, every load of folded laundry, each floor vacuumed and meal cooked can be a testimony and an example of our love. Every business call and appointment are a tangible expression of our love.

When we experience an outpouring of God’s love we will want to share that with those around us. His love for us is what gives us the ability and the desire to care for and serve others.

Jesus said: “I give you a new Law. You are to love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. 35 If you love each other, all men will know you are My followers.” John 13:34-35 NLV

Our acts of serving, our acts of love shouldn’t be limited to just our family and a few close friends and neighbors. We should reach out to touch any of those we may encounter whether they appear to have a need or not.

“Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, “When did we give you something to eat or drink? 38 When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear 39 or visit you while you were sick or in jail?” 40 The king will answer, “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” Matthew 25:37-40 CEV

I pray that we all look for opportunities to serve others and show the Father’s love!

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