God’s Love Is Action Oriented, Not Feeling Oriented

THIRD IN A SERIES OF THREE BLOG POSTINGS

The way you love others right now is a direct reflection of your current belief system regarding love. It also reflects your love of God.  God doesn’t require us to give out anything He hasn’t already provided to us. Therefore, you can only give out God’s agape love, in its true form, by receiving it first. We must learn what it means to walk by grace. Moment by moment, day by day, we need to focus on how God loves us, meditate on His promises to us, and establish a new foundation based on Him.

 

 “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”  (Philippians 3:7-10)

Encountering Real Love

According to Philippians 3:7-10, we convert our unhealthy love system to the love system God intends in the following ways:

• We must have our heart broken to self, including self-efforts, self-sufficiency, and more.
• We must realize our deep need for God to live in us and receive His grace and forgiveness.
• We must discard our outward acts by which we try to prove our worthiness to self, others, or God.
• We must adopt a new system where we find our worthiness in Christ alone.
• We must personally identify with Jesus Christ in order to “know Him” and “be one with Him”, including His sufferings, His death, and His resurrection power.
• We experience the type of love that will suffer and sacrifice for the benefit of someone else in order to accomplish the will of God.
• We are able to die to self, including the selfish intents of our heart (we don’t die to the authentic person God created us to be).
• We are anointed with the power of the Holy Spirit to live our life through Him – this is the same power that resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead.

The truth of God’s love means little or nothing in itself if we never activate it in our lives. We must receive it and open it like a gift before we can use it. We need a personal encounter with Jesus where He reveals truth to us. In this transaction, we must be able to stand before God and realize we are empty handed, bringing our empty ‘love cup’ and acknowledging in His presence, “I need your love – even though I have nothing to give you for it. Please do for me what I cannot do for myself.” We simply stand in His presence, allowing Him to mentor, guide, teach, counsel, instruct, nurture, comfort, and heal us. We don’t do anything other than simply make ourselves available to Him and learn to trust and obey Him. We find that in Him, we become His love. This is the mystery of God, and it is the longing we all have in our heart. This love then translates and spills over into our relationship with others and ourselves.

The Test of Love

How can we identify the presence of authentic, agape love in our life? The Bible tells us that when it is operating in our lives properly, it will be evident. (1 John 3:16-19; 4:9-21) These remarkable scriptures tell us that love is action oriented, not feeling oriented. They explain that we are to love just as Christ loves us – sacrificially – even if it hurts or costs us. When we find God’s love, it transforms our heart. It helps us properly see ourselves through God’s perspective, and eventually pours itself out to others.

A Prayer To Discover The Authentic Love Of Jesus

“Dear Father. I realize I’ve focused on myself and what I can do for You and others in order to make my life work. I realize now that I have little to offer apart from You. I also know that my life is about what You did for me when you saved me. And that You want to use me and work through me to touch others. I realize I have not always loved from a pure heart. I realize I don’t always love myself.  And I realize I often do not love You first. Apart from You, I am completely powerless to change. I acknowledge, confess, and repent of any negative love systems I have created in order to survive. I am ready to allow You to love me deeply and heal where I wasn’t loved properly or was hurt by others. I embrace and receive the truth of Your love for me from today and forever more. In Jesus name I pray.  Amen.”

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