Love Never Ends

This morning I had something happen to me that I have heard other people talk and write about. As I was praying this morning God opened my eyes to understand something more than I ever have in the past. This was not during meditation on a verse, or during the study of a verse or passage. This was through prayer. God opened my eyes to just how crazy in love he is with us.

If you don’t mind I am just going to write what I wrote in my prayer (I tend to write my prayers instead of speak them verbally):

Lord, you are a God who helps in times of need. You help those that you have called to yourself eternally and you also help us as we need it on this earth.

(even now, I need your help in this early hour to free my mind from all of its distractions).

You even help us when our love for you is not where is should be.

Your love compels you.

You love compels you so that even when we fight your call, you continue to pull us toward you.

If you were not compelled by your love, then whatever else compelled you would not be as great, as eternal.

“Love never ends.” – 1 Corinthians 13:8

Your love sent your Son.
Your love sustained Him.
Your love nailed Him to the Cross.
Your love allows us to participate.
Your love gives us the hope of nailing our sins to that cross.
Your love allows us to beat death with your Son.
Your love promises a future resurrection because of His.
Your love promises eternity with you, through your Son.

Words alone cannot adequately express the thankfulness in my heart.

“But be doers of the word.” – James 1:22a

Lord, I am beginning to understand.

Thank you for helping me to understand why you require and desire action from us. Thank you for sticking around while it took me a wile to see this truth.

God, please forgive me for a lifetime of not demonstrating love towards you!

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8

God, help me to walk this way for you. Help me to not only demonstrate love for you through my thoughts and words, but also through my actions. Help me to be bold.

-Amen.

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“Little Children” – I’m Humbled

Image by dead_squid via Flickr

1 John 3:18 – “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth.”

Wow.

When I read this I did a double take. First, “little children” did its job, I was humbled. Then, don’t just love by “word and talk” but instead, love by “deed and truth.”

I love a call to action.

But only when I am doing the call to action already…I am not doing this. But I need to. I needed to hear this.

“Aaron, what are you doing to show your wife that you love her? What are you doing to show the homeless in your city that they are loved? What are you doing to show my church that I love them?”

The answer ofcourse to all of these is a big fat NOTHING. I tell my wife I love her, and do things for her around the house, but what else can I do? I write checks to my church every month and I’m sure they use some of that money to help the homeless ministries in my city, but what else can I do more directly to help both? Teach a class at church and volunteer in a soup kitchen come to mind…

I am so caught up in my life and figuring out where I am to go and what I am to do that I forget that I need to demonstrate my love to those around me.

I am so thankful that I read this passage tonight.

Joseph: A dreamer, a Man of God

Genesis 50:20 (New International Version)

20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

I am amazed at the entire story of Joseph!  God had a plan for his life, and even though it may have seemed quite opposite in Joseph’s eyes, God executed that plan with the perfection that only He has.  Joseph’s brothers hated him (Gen. 37:4) and wanted nothing to do with him, so they plotted against him (Gen. 37:18) and sold him away.  Now, if i were Joseph, i would loose all hope at this point, but that is not what we see in Joseph. All through his life, from his brothers selling him to being accused of rape and thrown into prison, Joseph is faithful that God will deliver him and protect him from harm.  I believe that it is that faith that Joseph had in God that eventually placed him in a position of great authority (Gen. 41:41) and gave Joseph the opportunity to save the lives of many people and through it all forgive his brothers for what they had done to him!  

God blesses those that put their trust in Him for everything!  This is evident in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now Joseph.  The Lord provided for all of these men and blessed them for their strong faith, trust, and love in and for Him.  That is the kind of faith that i want: strong, bold, and steady faith!