Not long ago I was speaking to someone about love, about how after I came to know Yeshua as my Lord and Savior my idea and depth of love changed. I have actually been thinking about that and speaking on that with others a lot recently, if I am to be really honest. It started a week or maybe close to two weeks ago now, I'm not really sure when, with someone commenting on a Christian post and speaking against the Lord. I can't remember all that was said now but at some point in the conversation with this person I said that the Lord had taught me to love, that before God I didn't truly understand love and I stand by that statement. It's not to say that I didn't love people before, but the love was different, it was shallow and selfish in comparison. Before God became my central focus I did love people, and I have always been the type of person to take other's burdens onto myself, but I never knew how deep love could run, or the joy and peace it could bring because I always guarded myself to some degree.
I have thought over, and over about how my idea of love and depth of love has changed since coming to know the Lord, and as I meditated on that thought I started to think about how Jesus promised us life more abundantly in Him, (John 10:10) I thought about how He said we will be known as His by the love we show for others (John 13:34-35) and I the thought came to me that the two go hand in hand.
What I mean is this, as I have learned to love more like Jesus did, the serving, open, honest way and to take down my protective walls guarding my heart from others I have started to have a deepening connection with the people around me. I have more love and respect for my husband than ever before, and it is because I have realized that loving him is loving Yahweh, it is service to the Lord and act of obedience, being obedient is an expression of our love for our Creator. This breakthrough in my marriage led to breakthrough in my relationship with my parents, with my mother-in-law, with my friends, and strangers I meet because I realized that it was the same, by loving them I was fulfilling the command given to us by the Father to 'love your neighbor as yourself' (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19 & 22:39) and showing my love for God. As this philosophy took hold on me the love grew deeper in my heart, and my selfish motives for loving people started to slip away. I no longer loved the people around me just because I had too and they are my family, or because they might love me in return or help me someday. Instead I started to love them because love had taken up residence in my heart and it poured out to them without expecting anything in return.
At the same time that I was experiencing this shift of my understanding and practice of love another change occurred in my life. When I began to love people just to love them, without selfish motives my worries and anxieties started to slip away too because I no longer feared being hurt or disappointed by unreturned love, I understood and feel the love of the Father and no longer need or desire the approval of men. This lack of worry has led to me enjoying life more, to experiencing life more abundantly. I have peace and joy in my heart because I know the Father cares for me, even if things don't go my way I can trust Him because He is love, because He is good and He will use even the worst situation to bless in the end. I found freedom in loving Jesus and learning to love like Him, and I am think that is abundant life, tat is what Jesus meant not money or things, but the freedom to love and trust in the Lord, the freedom to experience life in fullness. Be blessed brothers and sisters, in Jesus name.
Joshua 22:5
Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Proverbs 8:17
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
John 13:34-35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 Corinthians 16:14
Let all that you do be done in love.
Colossians 3:14
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
1 John 4:8
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
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