Hello there and welcome to the 5th edition of ‘Living by faith in Christ Blog written by Lelo.’ In this post I will sharing snippets of love powered by the Holy Spirit.
Always remember that grace allows us to do what God desires us to do through our belief in Christ Jesus.
Introduction
We sometimes have a lot on our plates and move from 0 to 100 real quick. Well, I sure do that sometimes. In fact many people may characterise me as being feisty and downright rude.
I won’t lie, this has been something I had and continue to work on in my life, and believe me powered by the Holy Spirit I learnt to move from 0 to -100 real quick. I have had to grow, especially if I count myself to be a child of God, ‘for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power, love and self-discipline.’ (2 Timothy 1:9 NLT).
For the duration of our time together we will be looking at
- What is love?
- About me
- What it looks like to love people with the love of God
What is love?
Love does not have one direct meaning, instead, multiple characterisations are used to define love.
For this post we will be looking at (1 Corinthians 13 NLT) to guide us in our quest to learning what God is saying through His word.
SO what does 1 Corinthians 13 tell us about love?
- You can have spiritual gifts, be giving and have faith to move mountains, but if not accompanied with love it is nothing
- Everything we do should be powered by love, without love we are nothing
- Looking at the Gospel, it is founded and executed in love, the basis of doing is in love
- ‘for this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16 NLT)
- Love IS patient and kind
- We need to be patient with people, no one is perfect including ourselves, we all have strengths and weaknesses, treating each other with that understanding helps us to endure each other
- Imagine a world where no one thought their weakness was better than someone else’s?
- Imagine a world where we were patient with ourselves and each other?
- Love is not selfish, jealous, proud or rude
- Love isn’t about what we can get get out but rather what we may contribute towards, it’s not only about us but also about the people around us
- We learn so we may enrich others, we have so we may give, whatever God does for you is not for you but for the benefit of His children
- We all have and give differently
- Difference should not be measured but should be cherished
- If we all had the same thing to give, what would it solve?
- Love keeps no record of being wronged
- Love requires us to begin afresh every morning
- No strings attached kind of love, no vengeance type of love
- Love does not rejoice in injustice
- When seeing someone being wronged, whether we feel they may have deserved it or not, rejoicing in their injustice is not practicing love
In totality, for us to know the heart of God is to learn to love. Point 1 has really stood out for me, whatever we do, if it is not through and in love it is nothing.
Which of the point(s) have stood out to you?
About me
When it comes to love, I never thought it would be something I would need to be taught. I always assumed I knew what is was to love.
I used to think that love was earned and reserved for certain people, people whom I have allowed into my life. I got to choose who got the best and worst of me. I controlled my love, I had it on lock down.
I thank God that through His Holy Spirit He showed me to love, one lesson I learnt is understanding that the Holy Spirit enables and teaches me to manifest the love of God.
My flesh on the other hand is not dependable to show love in its entirety. ‘But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is the Holy Spirit—He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.’ (John 14:26 NLT)
Whatever we do or say needs to be powered by the Holy Spirit and we should allow Him to assist us on learning what it means to love with the love of God.
What it looks like to love people with the love of God
Loving people with the love of God is sacrifice and realising that it’s not all about you.
While the above statement is true, what is also true is that we shouldn’t put ourselves in toxic relationships because we have that love to give. Giving and sharing love is applicable to all, not just you.
I have often experienced many people expecting me to entertain toxic and when called out on their toxicity, they conveniently reminded me how I am a child of God and how I am no longer acting like a Christian.
My short opinion to this is, ‘just because I am a Christian, it does not give anyone the right to abuse love’. Just as much as I can not go around sinning just because of grace.
In addition to ‘What is love?’ there are some steps we may follow to guard our hearts
- Practice boundaries
- It’s okay to say no, love is not forced
- We are allowed to cut off toxic relationships
- It’s okay to expect reciprocation
- You can not be the only one giving
- Forgiveness does not mean forget
- If I’ve been exposed to a serial liar and manage to forgive them; it does not mean I can trust them again
Conclusion
We all have emotions and are required to practice self-control.
No one, and I mean no one should be given the permission to alter your mood, note I wrote permission. Blaming someone else for your short fuse is deflection and not love, you are responsible for how you show love, yeah things may be said to anger you, that you can not control.
You know what you can control? Your reaction to what they have said or done. So let us practice through the power of the Holy Spirit; self-discipline.
I hope that this post has shed some light on love. Loving people with the love of God is something we can all do.