It’s a word that stirs up different images and feelings for each of us. Show A word defined by culture. I think our grandparents or great-grandparents would define it differently than we. But what is true love? According to an article on the site Life, Hope, and Truth, by Eddie Foster,
When mixed with the world’s definition, love gets misconstrued, distorted, foggy or fuzzy. I always thought loving people was a strength of mine until one day Holy Spirit revealed to me that fear of people and the desire to please ruled my actions more than love. It’s something I’m still working through. But that opened my eyes to the distortion of “love” in my perspective. Eddie Foster continues to explain in his article,
How do we do that? The love we emit on our own looks like our worldly definition of love. And through those lens we perceive other’s actions and emotions toward us. To love with agape love, we must have help. Just like an apple tree doesn’t produce bananas, so we can’t produce good fruit love without the source of LOVE Himself. We are grafted into the tree of God. His nourishing Holy Spirit feeds and waters us, and the Spirit produces the fruit of untainted love. What is true Love?
For me, the word “love” evokes a warm feeling in my heart. Security, acceptance, provision, and desire. To be loved is to be desired. But both the Greek word (agape) and the Old Testament Hebrew word (chesed) define a tangible type “love.” And as the quote above states, it’s more of a decision or choice than warm fuzzy. David wrote, “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you” (Psalm 63:3).Though I know from personal experience that God’s love—His acceptance, security, provision, and desire for me frees me to live a life of eternal proportions beyond myself, and that makes life so much better… And I know that God’s love somehow takes me out of myself, my neediness, my holes within, and breathes new purpose into my limited time on earth. And I know His love gives me a greater capacity to love. Greater compassion. . . . . Though I know the power of love, I also know that my vision of love is flawed as seen through mortal eyes. David wrote: “Because your chesed is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” This is the definition of the word David used:
Sometimes we think we can earn somebody’s love—even God’s love. But mercy cannot be earned nor can kindness. Chesed is not earned. It simply flows out of the heart of the giver. It’s in His DNA. It is who He is. [bctt tweet=”God’s Kindness, is better than life.” username=”wordsbyandylee”]When I exchange the word love for the word kindness the focus goes straight to God and who He is. His kindness is better than life. When Bad Things HappenWhen life gets hard, tumbling out of control and one bad thing happens after another, what are your first thoughts of God? Do you immediately think He’s punishing you, or He is angry? Does it seem He is withholding His love? What would happen to those thoughts if you remembered that His DNA is kindness? He is God. He is just and righteous too. C. S. Lewis masterfully portrayed God’s character with these words from Mrs. Beaver as she tried to explain him to Susan in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: (One of my favorite books.)
He is good. He is the King …and His kindness is better than life. He is so good. He’s made a way to share this chesed-agape-love with His children by His Holy Spirit, so we too can pass on the merciful kindness. Let’s dig deep into Scripture that tells us about love. Bible Reading PlanSneak Peek and Printable2 John 1:6: And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Matthew 22: 37-40: Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Philippians 2: 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,
Luke 6:35: But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
1 Cor. 13:4: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 4: 7-8: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Download and print the printable for the Bible Reading Plan on Love. Let’s Pray“Dear Lord, you know how desperately I want people to experience your love for them. Your love gives us new purpose beyond ourselves. But if we don’t really understand your goodness and kindness, it’s hard to get to that point. You’ve gotten some bad publicity in the past from people who didn’t know your DNA. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you that you are a God of mercy, a God of chesed who acts on behalf of His children even when we don’t deserve it. You can’t help yourself. Kindness is who you are. Help us know this beyond our heads to our hearts. And let it change us from the inside out so your Holy Spirit fills us and produces the fruit of this love. Amen.” Daily Broadcast!Join my daily broadcast on Facebook. (Just follow me.) It’s live at 8:20 AM ET. Come on over to my kitchen and sit around my table for some soul nourishment as we dig deeper into each “bite” for the day. You can watch them later on YouTube too if that’s better for you. What’s the hardest thing about “loving” people? Digging Deep to Love, Andy PS. If this was encouraging, and you don’t want to miss any Bite of Bread reading plans and posts, subscribe today! You’ll receive a 22-Day Devotion on Psalm 119 called Finding the Beauty {Full} in God’s Word.Just click here to dig deep to live fully. 🙂 |