More on Love

Since being home, I've had more time than I need to process through lots of thoughts. The main thought I've thought about is Love. What is love really? Many people throw this word around so much that I feel it loses its value. Many times people say "I love you" and they just met the person. Do they really love you then? I remember this one moment a few years ago before I really started living my life for Jesus and one of my friends told me she loved me. Now this was after one of our first nights really getting to hang out and it honestly caught me off guard. What, how does she know she loves me? I was so confused. I even questioned that she even meant it. But I would soon find out and I am continuing to learn, she meant it! She meant it on a much deeper level than my heart could comprehend in that moment. You see the Truth is that God IS love. It is God in us that allows us to love. Outside of God there is no love. There simply can't be love without the presence of God in our hearts. We cannot fathom what love even is, without Jesus being the very center! In 1 John 3:16 it says this, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." In order for us to love, we must lay ourselves down just as Christ did for us. I've seen this played out numerous times in my life. I believe this means more than just physically giving up our last breath for someone, but dying to ourselves daily. We must die to our flesh and our desires to put others above ourselves. This summer I learned a lot about love. I learned a lot about this selfless love that Christ calls us to act upon. One example of such love happened to be when I was sick. It was in our last city and I happen to catch a stomach bug and one dear friend "laid down" her desire to want to sleep to pray over me. We slept in the same bed and the whole night she kept her hand on my back. Every time I moved, she would start praying for me again. It didn't matter that she wouldn't get a full night of sleep, but she wanted to do what she could to make sure I did not get sick again in the night. That was nothing of her, but ALL of Christ. Another example this summer was by my leaders. Yes I know this may seem small, but to me it was huge! The last day is usually when the team gets a shopping day. On most other trips the MOMs and POPs took their small groups out in groups and the leaders were together. But..my leaders blessed me tremendously by allowing me to spend those 3 hours with Linda, (one of our translators who has become closer than a sister to me) and just let the 2 of us hang out! Now I know they wanted to spend time with us leadership, but they "laid down" their desire to love me and Linda through even the smallest thing. I have countless stories about people in my life who have "laid down" their desires, their wants, their needs, to love me. I have never understood but my heart is starting to believe that I am worthy of this love. That Christ thinks of me as His beloved! My heart is grasping onto the simple but oh so deep love of my Savior! Probably the biggest lesson I learned this summer and I am continuing to process, is God's love for me, but more importantly, God's love for HIS CREATION! He longs and desires for each and every person to know Him. And not just to know His name, but to know Him intimately! To have a relationship with Him and allow Him to change your life! My prayer is that you would seek Him. I pray that you would find out for yourself the power that Christ offers to change your life! I pray that you would ask questions, be bold with Jesus, and allow yourself to open your heart to Him! Once you do, I promise you this, your life will NEVER be the same again! To be romanced by Jesus and in a life long dance for your heart, is the greatest dance you will ever take part in! :) 


Think about it. Let it sink in. Someone loves you so much He humbled Himself by coming to earth, taking on human flesh, offering up His life as a sacrifice, and rose again so that you may have never ending joy and eternal life!