Day 85 "Love as God First Loved You!"

Here is comes, again! The rising of the volume in our voices. The increasing intensity. One person trying to edge out the other person's last word, determined that the other person is blinded to what you are trying to say. Feelings get hurt. Defenses go up. And suddenly, you find yourself saying things in the "heat of the moment" that may have nothing to do with where the conversation first started. You find yourselves at an impasse- completely deadlocked. Ever feel this way in a relationship with someone? It's so easy in a relationship to sometimes feel that your rights are being violated, that the other person is totally being unfair. "Why try to communicate further, we keep rehashing the same point over and over and it gets us no where?" Frustrated and hurt, the walls go up and the isolation begins.

It's a good thing that God doesn't love us that way! Throughout man's existence, God has loved man with an everlasting love.

"The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Jeremiah 31:3

And time after time, man has turned his back on God and wanted to live life to what he has deemed the best way-his own way! And time after time God has come back to man desiring to have a relationship, desiring to care for his creation, desiring to protect and provide for man through his love. In the Bible, what we believe by faith is God's word to us, we see God trying to shepherd his flock through laws and regulations. According to the books of Romans and Hebrews, man has failed at that, too. The only thing that the law did was to condemn man for not keeping it, for showing man his inability to live a lifestyle that opposed his selfish heart.

"We all,like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

Man was never capable of living up to God's standards on his own. God knew that when he gave us the commandments and the law. The law was put into place to show us our hearts and for us to come to an understanding that we needed a savior, someone who could do for us what we were unable to do for ourselves.

"The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more," Romans 5:20

God, in his love, provided us with mercy and grace through Christ, forgiving all our rebellious and sinful nature that was being held against us.

"He forgave us all of our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:13-14

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." 1 John 4:9

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:10

"But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Here is something to ponder: How do you think God felt watching his one and only Son being humiliated, spit upon, whipped, crucified upon a cross for a people who had been ungrateful for God's love. The condition of man's heart could easily been seen in the willingness to exchange Jesus, the noble and loving one who spoke about caring for one's fellow man, for Barrabbas, the murderer.

"So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Matthew 27:17

"Barrabbas!" they answered. Matthew 27:21

"What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked. They all answered, "Crucify him!" Matthew 27:22

And, yet, God still continued to love by constraining himself and allowing Jesus to die. There was a greater purpose to serve than meeting one's own needs and desires-even the heavenly Father, the creator of everything, exhibited and demonstrated such things as to allow love to run it course. And living within his Father's love, Jesus washed the disciples feet of his disciples, an action usually left to the servant of the house to perform, and then declared to them, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13;34)

"I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you." John 13:15

"Love does no harm to it neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.

Romans 13:10

To truly love is to align one's heart beat to beat in the same rhythm as God's heart beat, to love as God first loved us.

"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19

The apostle Paul lays down a great progression of thought concerning how we should live out our lives in the love of God:

"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relation-

ships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he hum- bled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!"

Philippians 2:1-8

And, again, the apostle Paul eloquently describes love as the most excellent way:

"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 perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

"Follow the way of love..." 1 Corinthians 14:1

Coming full circle, back to where we started off today discussing having a disagreement in one of our relationships, I ask you to consider and ponder this question, "What really is at the heart of your confrontation? A heart yielded to love does not seek that which is right or wrong, only to love and put the interest of the other person before one's own. Love does what only love can do, it inspires us to be our best self and to look for the best in others. Jesus died on our behalf to take away our anxiety of making mistakes and being imperfect beings. Love does no harm, therefore, it is, indeed, the most excellent way. The great challenge in life is not so much about doing all the right things and avoiding the wrong ones, it is about learning how to lay down our own self-interests and learning how to love like God first loved us. In love, there is freedom.

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Whose interests do you serve?

In his love, see you back here tomorrow...

"Carpe Momentum in Love" (Seize the moment in love)