LOVE

this is a post from almost 4 years ago that i put on facebook. just as good of a lesson for me today as it was back then:

God's love for us: what does that really mean? What does that include? How does it work? This week, I have been challenged with these questions. God has laid heavy on my heart what it really means to serve Him minus the desire or feeling, but to serve with an obedient heart; to do what He has called us to do for the sake of furthering the kingdom of God, with the purposes of saving souls and glorifying our Creator. 

God has revealed to me that His love is a relational love, a mutual and reciprocal relationship, in which there is benefit if we participate and abide. God's love requires action by us, His creation, if we are to fully receive the blessing of it. 

In John 15:10, Jesus says, "If you obey my commands, you will abide in my love"

Loving God is not just saying, "I love you". Loving God requires action and obedience. Loving God in action is obeying His commandments, just as it says in the Scriptures. Loving God in obedience is moving when the Spirit compels and staying when the Spirit stays; it is simply doing what God has told us.

1 John 2:3-6 says, "We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."

"But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them."  All we have to do is to obey his word to receive the fullness of His love. The fullness of it. That means that God loves us NO MATTER WHAT. God's love for us is not dependent on our actions. But if we do not obey or abide in Him, we miss out on the full blessing, the outpouring of all the good God has for us. 

John 15:7-11: " 'If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.' "

We keep His commandments not for God's sake, but for our benefit, because in keeping those commandments, our joy is filled to overflowing. Notice how John 15:11 says, " 'These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and thatyour joy may be made full.' " Jesus did not say these things so that He may benefit from His obedience: He said these things so the WE, His children, His friends, may be complete in God.

God's love for us is reciprocal; it is not one-sided. It is a mutual relationship where both the Creator and the creation are in union, of the same heart, of the same mind and of the same spirit.

John 15:12-17: " 'My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.' "

We are FRIENDS of Jesus. How rad is that?! Jesus knows us by name and has chosen US. In the dictionary, the following definitions of "choose" are given:

1. to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference

2. to prefer or decide (to do something)

3. to want; desire.

We are chosen because we are preferred, we are desired, we are wanted. We are wanted by the all-powerful, mighty, sovereign God of the universe. I don't know about you, but being wanted feels awesome, especially when I am wanted by someone I want just as much! 

The reciprocality of this love is expressed through the response of our hearts in the relationship: if we actively respond to His love, we are promised by the Savior of the world that we will bear fruit that will last. By obeying and abiding in His love, we are empowered to do greater things than we could ever dream of for ourselves. Bearing fruit is a natural consequence of abiding in God's love and by abiding in His love, we are sharing the love of Jesus Christ with those that are searching to fill that God-sized void.