Faith, hope and love.
I’ve written about faith in the last two entries of this blog. I briefly touched on hope in the blog entry
about serving a life sentence. But I
would like to address love in this blog.
The many expressions of love I
experienced this week have buoyed me up.
I was speechless as so many reached out in love to me. A friend built a beautiful water feature in
our back yard as I lay in the hospital.
Another friend I haven’t seen for several years called to assure me of
his prayers and desire to come see me.
Another young man took time from his vacation to come by and pray for
me.
But when I think back, this week is really no different
than most weeks. My church family
surrounds me with assurances of their love constantly. My children tell me of their love
regularly. My grand children also
express their love for me in some amazing ways.
And my dear wife of 46 years tells me she loves me every day.
As grateful as I am of all these assurances of love from
people, I have to say I have been most surprised by the depth of love I have
felt from my Father in heaven. I have
known the Lord all my life. I never went
out into a life-style of rebellion. But
growing up in the Family of God all my life, I got used to God’s love and probably
even took His love for granted. I don’t think I really appreciated the depth
and power of His love toward me until recently.
Taking time to be in His presence in a special way the
last few weeks has opened up a whole new world to me. I’ve always known God loved the whole world
enough to send His Son to redeem it through His sacrifice on the cross. And there have been moments when God’s Spirit
broke through to me and I have had a revelation of God’s love that has
overwhelmed me. But there is something
about walking through pain and trusting my Father in a whole new way that has
opened up new realms of God’s love I never knew before.
Man was designed for intimacy with God. It was the chief activity of Adam and Eve in
the garden—to walk with Abba Father in the cool of the evening and just be with
Him. This surely is a lost art for most
of us. We are never silent long enough
to hear Him speak. If it is not the
television, it is the ipod or the computer that fills our ears and minds with
clutter. This inability to be quiet
before God creates a vacuum in our spirits that is not content with the noise
of the world. How long has it been since
you took a half hour, turned off every appliance, read His Word and just
listened? That last part—listening—is the
crucial part. Even our daily time in God’s
Word can be cluttered with thoughts and “insights” that, valuable as they are
in themselves, still do not satisfy that place in the heart that can only be filled
with focused intimacy with Father God who loves you. This is one of the things He is looking
for: Jesus said there will even be those
who call themselves by His Name, but who will be turned away because they never
“knew” Him. And the Father earnestly
seeks those who will worship Him.
Why? Because He is a megalomaniac
on steroids? NO! Because He knows that is what we are created
for and what will fulfill us best.
I urge you to take a new look at some old, familiar
scriptures about the love of God. Take
out your concordance and begin looking up every scripture that mentions God’s
love for us. Of course, start with John
3:16, but really meditate on the profound depth of that verse. So often our view of Abba Father gets tainted
by the world that looks at God as a tyrannical judge who can’t wait to mete out
punishment. But the point of verse 17 is
that Jesus didn’t come for that purpose—He came to show us God’s love.
Have you ever thought about how close Jesus is to His
Father? Is there anything they wouldn’t
or couldn’t share? What do you think
their time together looks like? John 17
holds one of the most amazing promises of the entire Bible: Jesus says of you and me: “The glory which
You have given Me I have given to them that they may be one, just as We are
one; I in them and You in Me that they
may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and
loved them, even as You have loved Me."
Amazing! God the
Father, Creator of the universe, Eternal Lord of all, loves you just as He
loves Jesus, His Son. Stop and
consider that. Love is at the core of
your existence and it comes from your Father God. Have you taken time to just soak in His
love? If you find it hard to accept that
love because of past hurts in your life, ask Holy Spirit to heal those wounded
areas so that you can live in this reality of God’s love.
Now faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these
is love.
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