All about Love Baby!
MY FIRST BLOG! 'All about LOVE Baby!!!"
As a disciple, I strongly believe in LOVE. That includes loving your friends, family as well as your enemies. Funny enough, the first time I heard about loving your enemies I almost choked with laughter with a question of "How God? Why?"
STORY TIME:
The first time I read this verse; Matthew 5:44 "But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!" I surely was challenged. In fact, at the time I strongly disliked a girl in my class because she was too loud and annoying in my site. Just because she was not in line with my personality nor my norms and values, I failed to find her beauty. Even her breathing made my blood boil. Funny enough, in all the classes I had with her, she was placed next to me. All I wanted was peace and God said "LOL". Reading this verse gave me a challenge of loving her. With the help of God, I began to be renewed in mind and even though it was not immediate, the process showed great results. After a few weeks, I began to see the beauty in her. Just because I was willing, God saw my need of help and renewed my thinking of her. Before you know it, we became great class mates and a good tag team especially. I eventually discovered that we had a few things in common and she was actually quite funny.
Now... Why am I saying this? I am sharing about love to encourage the importance and the process of loving. Loving people around us is actually much more beneficial for us than it is for them. Have you noticed that when you hear that someone doesn't like you it does not bother you, if not, possibly not as much as it is bothering them.
Understand that loving is a process. As my good friend always says "Love is not a feeling, it's an act". Love begins with actions. Start by showing kindness and understanding towards the person. 1 Corinthians 13 is the best guideline for loving and Jesus Christ's death is the greatest example.
A little word about the Growth of Love:
1John 4:17 “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of Judgement, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world”
1John 4:4 “But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won the victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world”
Now I have clocked in the verse is says “our love grows more perfect”. When we are commanded to love, we should not expect immediate results in loving people, but instead understand there’s a process required. Therefore, we should not condemn ourselves when we fail to love perfectly, but understand we are victorious and are able to grow the love required.
If love is something that requires growth, it suggests its need of being nurtured and being fed. Since God is perfect love, by feeding ourselves with his word (which is love because the word is also God), we allow love to grow perfectly. By also practising the word, it is a way of nurturing love because you’re strengthening it through practising until it is perfect.
Overall, we should aim to be led by the Spirit of God and to grow love in us. Don't ever view it as something impossible because we are to be VICTORIOUS over everything that seems impossible.
Written by Rue .,2017
Inspired by The Holy Spirit
Image featuring Tatenda a.k.a Sister and best friend