Can I pray for you in any way?
Send
any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-10
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
I want you to think about how you learned about love.
If asked, I believe almost everyone would say that it began at birth, at the time when they started to experience things with a developing mind.
Parents, especially mothers, hold their children close to them, cuddling and nurturing them as they grow up and along the way to adulthood, children are seeing love modeled to them. Unfortunately, not every upbringing is like this and there are some episodes where youth don’t receive the love that they should but in most instances, the first learning about love happens from birth through a child’s developmental years.
As people enter adulthood, and you could probably say in the teenage years just prior to that, they begin to learn more about love through personal experiences. There is a natural tendency to want to find love outside of one’s parents and so men and women seek relationships, something God naturally intended all the way back when he created Adam and Eve:
For Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Genesis 2:20-24
Here, we find God designed marital relationships as a man and woman depart their parents, coming together as “one flesh”. Their intimate love (aka sex) could then be shared with one another to grow their love, bring enjoyment to the marriage, and of course, procreate.
Now, that is marriage but there is love outside of that which is prescribed for every person to have and show others. In fact, love is to be central to the way everyone lives every day.
First, we are to love God with every part of ourselves.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:9
Note the repeated use of the word “all” here and keep in mind that this is a command that God gave. He demands that we give Him all our love before we love anything else.
Why?
Because only He is worthy of getting our complete attention and love. We wouldn’t even have a life where we could be loved and love others if it wasn’t for Him so He gets honored with all things first and that included love.
Guess what happens when we love God with every part of our being before anyone or anything else?
His love becomes our love.
In other words, God is our great and divine love Instructor.
Need some support for this statement?
Consider this from the scriptures:
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them...We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:16b, 19
God is love; innately, we as human beings are not.
And so we need to tap into the Lord who is love with all our heart and soul and strength so we can learn how to love others the way He desires. We only can love because we first were loved by Him. He is the source of our love that allows us to then love our neighbors as ourselves, another command God has given us (Leviticus 19:18).
With this, now look at Paul’s words to the Thessalonian Christians in the fourth chapter of his first letter:
Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all of God’s family throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more. Vv. 9-10
Did you catch how the Thessalonians learned to love one another?
God taught them and Paul encouraged them to grow in that love so they could love others from “God’s family” in Macedonia and beyond.
No one loves perfectly when left to their own devices but when we allow God to teach us how to love, everything changes because we will love just like the One who first loved us.
Are you having trouble loving others today as you read this?
If so, you now know what you need to do. Turn to the Lord first and give Him all your love so His love can be yours. His love will always ensure you love others the way He wants you to love because you are sharing His love, not yours.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment