1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love,”
Love. What a powerful word. Did you know that in the NIV of the Bible the word “love” is mentioned 551 times? You think maybe God is trying to make a point?
Since moving to Haiti God has really been giving me a lesson on love. The love He has for me and others, the love I need to have for other people, the love they need to have for me and the love that other people should have for other people. So I’m going to break down each of these and share some lessons I’ve learned for these topics of love. So first…..
1) The love God has for me.
As you can imagine, leaving behind everything and everyone you know to move to a poverty stricken country isn’t the easiest. But, through it all God has provided a lot of things that I’ve needed in order to fight my demons. He has provided me with two amazing housemates, Aggie and Chelsea who have really involved me in their friendship and have reached out to me when I needed it most. They are both so selfless, caring, passionate, loving and I couldn’t have been more blessed to move in with anyone else! So if you’re both reading this, I love you so much and thank you for following God’s calling for you, because without doing that we would have never met! God has also provided me with some new friends and some new kids to love on. He shows me everyday in little or big ways that He loves me and is guiding my steps. Even though I sin daily and am very stubborn sometimes! I just have to follow His guidance.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
2) The love I need to have for other people.
I can honestly say that this is something I’ve never really struggled with until recently. I’ve always been one to love and love hard. To give someone my all even if sometimes they weren’t deserving of it. I looked past the sin, and went straight to loving the sinner. This isn't a quality that I have lost, per-say. It is one that I’ve unfortunately become more guarded with. In ways that I dont like. Some things in my life recently have forced me to be more careful and put my guard up, but I think I pushed myself to far back in this subject. After talking with my mom about how it was bad that I was loving a child who would never be mine she was quick to remind me that God calls us to love ALL. No restrictions or fears. No matter what happens, we are called to love all people. After this conversation I decided to let down my guarded walls and continue to love as I once had. And let me tell you, I have never felt so free! God definitely used my mother to remind me that I need to love NO MATTER WHAT! Just as God does for each and every one of us! So mom (I know you're reading this,) thank you so much for reminding me to give all I have whether the person is mine to keep or not!
Hebrews 13:1 “Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.”
3) The love others need to have for me.
Without sharing any details I will simply say that recently I was in a situation that was full of a toxic kind of love. After stepping away from it God really showed me how others should love me. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 He gives a straightforward view of what love should be. The kind of love that we should have and should be given. He has taught me so much about how I, as a fragile human being, should be loved by others. It’s also important to remember that others are also fragile human beings that are just as flawed as you are. We can’t expect the love we are given to be perfect, but we should expect it to be a lot of the things mentioned in the verse below. Sometimes the devil takes love and twists it, he uses it to play with our minds and our hearts. He manipulates us into believing that love is not what the Bible says it is. So friends, beware because the devil is cunning and will make toxic love look just as enticing and as Biblical love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking. it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves. Love never fails…..”
4) The love other people should have for other people.
This kind of ties into all of the other three lessons I have learned. Love is such a strong emotion, it can get into your head and mess with your thoughts, it can mess with your heart and it can do a lot of good or a lot of damage. Many people use that reasoning in order to withhold their love for others. But, something I’ve learned here is that when you freely give your love to everyone around you and truly care for one another and watch out for each other everyone around you is so much happier. Unfortunately, this is something that’s very rare around the world. Maybe it’s something we can all work on?
John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. BY THIS EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES, IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.”
So here have been some lessons I’ve recently had on love. Hopefully this post spoke to you as well, so go out this week and show the world your love. And don’t hold back, because God can do amazing things for you and others when you love just as He does! Amen!
