All We Need is Love, Love, Love.......

"At the moment of death we will not be judged according to the number of good deeds we have done or by the diplomas we have received in our lifetime. We will be judged according to the love we have put into our work." - Mother Teresa

Leviticus 19:18 - "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD."
Deuteronomy 6:5 - "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."
Psalm 23:6 - "Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

1 Peter 1:22 - "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart."

John 13:34-35 - "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Romans 12:10 - "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves."
Romans 13:8 - "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law."

Ephesians 4:2 - "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."
Galatians 5:13 - "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature ; rather, serve one another in love."
Hebrews 10:23-25 - "Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works."

1 John 3:11 - "This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another."

1 John 3:23 - "And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us."

1 John 4:7 - "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."

1 John 4:10-12 - "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

The word "L-O-V-E" has consumed by being for the past couple of months and has been stirring up feelings and thoughts about something that seems so simple but in reality has become very complicated for me. In the past, I'd never really thought too much about what LOVE meant to me. It was one of those feelings that I assumed I had no control over. I either loved or I didn't love. I either wished I loved or wished I didn't love. It appeared that it wasn't up to me, although at times I wished it was. I'd never really meditated much on what the feeling of love looked like or truly meant; God's love, my love, in love, loved by Jesus, love the way God loves, love your neighbor, love one another. These were all concepts that I thought were pretty elementary and not necessary to focus on. Love is a simple feeling, right? You either have it or you don't.

Well, what the Lord has taught me over the past few months is that love is not a feeling, it's a choice. He calls us to love one another like brothers and sisters, and not just to think kindly of them, but to truly love them like we love ourselves. That applies to everyone; our friends, our family, our neighbors, our co-workers, and total strangers. But love can be complicated, and if you're me, love can have stipulations. God's love is truly unconditional, but mine definitely has some conditions. It wasn't until I started reading two books by Heidi Baker, "There's Always Enough" and "Compelled By Love", that I even began to question my ability to love. Heidi & Rolland Baker are missionaries to Mozambique, Africa and the founders of Iris Ministries. If you know anything at all about Heidi Baker, you know that she LOVES! I'm pretty sure LOVE might even be her middle name! This woman personifies God's love in a broken world. She gushes about her love affair with Jesus as if it's straight out of the juiciest romance novel I've ever read. She embodies God's love for the poor, lost, helpless and forgotten. She doesn't know how to do anything else. She believes that it really is as simple as learning to love. Until reading her books, I never realized how crucial it is to learn the art of LOVE.

When all of this became so apparent to me a couple months ago, I immediately found myself in situations where God was trying to teach me how to love; to love despite the flaws and failures of others, to love instead of hate, to love when I wasn't feeling loved, and to love like he loves, unconditionally. But I failed. I failed every single time! And every time I failed, another opportunity would arise to give me another chance to do it right. But instead, I became bitter and hard-hearted towards others. My opportunities to learn to love backfired! I found myself loving less than I'd ever loved before. I found myself refusing to love anyone the way God loves them. How could that happen when I had just heard so much about the importance of love? Why is something so simple so complicated at the same time? I mean, all we need is love, right?

So what I've learned is that I need to acquire God's love, the kind of love that oozes from a heart made of mush laid down before Jesus, the lover of the world. Until I am able to allow my heart to completely melt with love for my Savior, then my heart won't be able to melt for the world. I've learned that love is a choice that I have, not a feeling that I can't control. I've learned that God cares more about the amount of love in our hearts, then he does about anything else. What I've learned the most is that I still have a lot to learn.

My heart yearns for the ability to love like God loves but I know until I am able to personify God's love in the world, then I'm pretty close to useless to Him. God needs hearts that know how to love, and hearts that love anyone and everyone, unconditionally with no stipulations or requirements. God calls us to LOVE MORE!! We can't touch the world, we can't bring people to freedom through Jesus, we can't save the broken and dying if we don't know how to love. Jesus came to love the world, and he loved it so much that he willingly died to save it. Does our love look like this?

So, Lord, show me how to love! Give me your heart for others. Help me to see their hearts the way you do. Teach me how to love, Lord, so that I may leak your love onto everyone around me. I promise to deliver your love to those in the world that desperately need to know your love for them. Teach me your ways and please never stop perfecting me. Trim the branches that no longer produce fruit, Lord, for apart from you I can do nothing. Change my heart so that I can be consumed and compelled by love! Amen.