Picture this:
You are standing and holding a tiny baby for the first time. Whether
you are that baby’s parent or grandparent, or perhaps a close relative
or friend, you are suddenly and intensly affected with a feeling of
such
Love that it is almost painful to experience and very difficult to
describe. You only realize that you would certainly give your life for
that child - without a moment’s hesitation.
What you have just experienced is what is referred to in God’s Word
as a "quickening";
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an intense, life-changing, life-giving, realization of just how powerful love can be. You have realized that love of this magnitude is more powerful than anything you could have possibly imagined. We hesitate to speak of this Love because there are few words which can adequately express its intensity.
God allows us to experience this Love for very brief moments only because the level of intensity would become a burden too painful to bear in our natural bodies. We are only capable of the giving of this Love on a spiritual level and few of us are spiritually mature enough to sustain Love of this magnitude.
Few of us dwell on the matter long enough to realize that this Love which I have just described is the Love that God has for us continually.
And we have known and believed the Love that God hath to us. God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him.
I John 4:16
Today, we speak so casually of love and readily equate spiritual love with the carnality of sexuality or the enjoyment we might have of good food or pleasant circumstances. We might say, within a very short period of time that we "love" pickled pigs feet, a favorite soap opera star and a favorite athlete, then with the same careless regard tell our children or our spouse we "love" them and then say to our friend who is experiencing a crisis, "God loves you."
Should we wonder then, why we are unable to grasp the meaning of Love as it is used in God’s Word?
Let your spirit recall, then, that quickening - life-changing - Love you "felt" in your spirit when you held that tiny baby as we read the following scripture:
He that Loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is Love. In this was manifested the Love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
I John 4:8-9
Let your spirit continue in that recollection of life-giving Love as we read and meditate on the familiar scriptures about love in I Corinthians 13.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity,
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I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
I Corinthians 13:1
In other words, the Love of God which is "Shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost" has been given unto us, not as a "Catch-phrase" or a trite, meaningless expression, but as a powerful force, directed, focused and purposful.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, God’s Love should be considered as not only a precious gift, but a dangerous force if misdirected and misused. God’s Love, when correctly understood and applied, is the basis of the ability to change those things in this evil world which are so damaging and so difficult for human beings to bear.
We are running out of time. We can no longer speak casually of Love. If you haven’t been able to truly believe in God’s Love for you, go to God’s Word and let Him tell you about Himself and how He has always reached out to those who are lost. Even if you don’t understand it at first, let God show you:
How He took pity on Adam and Eve when they lost their covering of His Glory through their own willingness to disobey him, and covered them with the skin of a slain animal
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- preparing mankind even then for the coming slaying of his own son, Jesus Christ, to not only cover but to remove all our sins.
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How He saved back not only those who were righteous, but pairs of all the animals which were on the earth when He finally had to destroy His own creation because of the sins of His people.
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How He chose a man who had shown he would obey God to raise up a nation for the express purpose of receiving His Promise - The Messiah.
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How He brought those people out of bondage to Egypt
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and gave them His Commandments to protect them from themselves and Satan.
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How He allowed His people to learn from their mistakes and didn’t destroy them although time after time they turned away from Him and went their own way.
How He "so Loved the World, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting Life."
John 3:16
As you go through each day, let yourself meditate and dwell on that Love.
Charity never Faileth.
I Corinthians 13:8
Everything will cease to exist except Love.
Behold, what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us
I John 3:1
The realization of God’s Love should always generate a feeling of wonder.
There is no fear in Love; but perfect Love casteth out fear
1 John 4:18
If we Love one another, God dwelleth in us and His Love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:1
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
I John 4:11
As you study the Word from now on, please remind yourself to read the word "Love" with greater understanding and greater desire for revelation from that word. Let God’s Love dwell in you and shine through you.
As you go through each day, guard your heart
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and watch your words.
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Your heart is your spirit and that is where you have your life. Fill your heart with the treasure of
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God’s Word, the embodiment of His Love. Then speak of those things in your heart.
Speak of God’s Love with purpose, with revelation knowledge, with expectation that the words, "God Loves You", will bring blessings, peace, knowledge, hope, mercy, and grace. Those Words, "God Loves You", can then convey the power of Love which God has always intended.
By the Leading of the Holy Spirit and to the Glory of God,
Merrellee Moore 7/22/99
