Morning Devo!

This week, I was chosen to share a devo with our ministry team in the morning! I felt God put the topic of His love on my heart, and I wanted to share it with all of you as well!

Love sounds like a pretty elementary topic, doesn’t it? We all know God is love (1 John 4:16) and we all know what love is, don’t we? But this is actually such a monumental topic, and I want us to spend a few minutes going over what exactly this means for us and our relationship with God and everyone around us.

Let’s start with saying God isn’t just love. He is perfect love and the source of all love. In my team book, Practicing the Way, it says God is 3 persons because God is love, and love needs to love (if that makes sense?) It describes God as Lover, Beloved, and Love itself. All at once, all the time.

What does it mean for God to be perfect love? Well, let’s look at the attributes of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:

“[4] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [5] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not angered, (pause in the verse reading. Some versions of your Bible might say easily angered, but in the original copies, “easily” was not included. Some people can’t fathom love not being angered at all, so they feel compelled to add the word “easily”.) it keeps no record of wrongs. [6] Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [7] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Love holds all these attributes, and God perfectly fulfills all these attributes! He is never the nevers and always the always! If, for one billionth of a second, God were to hold a record of wrong, for example, then He would no longer be perfect love.

How can God be perfect love, never holding a record of wrong, if He’s also a perfect judge? In order to judge justly, one has to remember what was done against the law, right?

God made a way to forgive everyone’s sin through Jesus. He doesn’t exclude anyone from this option. Maybe you’ve had an experience where you’ve forgiven someone for doing something against you. Have you ever had where they believe they don’t deserve your forgiveness, so they act like they haven’t been forgiven? The fact that you’ve forgiven them doesn’t change, but they are still judging themselves like you haven’t. It’s the same with God’s judgement. He set the standard long ago, and people will either accept His help in reaching it, or fall short and condemn themselves.

(Just a heads up, this is how I understand the way God can be perfect love and the perfect judge at the same time, but it’s a concept that doesn’t follow logic, so please pray about this and ask God if this is true. I believe it is, but I can’t point you to any verses, and I just want to be very clear when I’m quoting the Bible, and when it’s revelation I hear from God.)

Another point I’d like to make is God’s love towards us never changes (Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8). He will never love you less, no matter what you do, or have done, or will do; and He will never love you more, because He already loves you as much as is possible, and for an infinite God, it’s never ending!

Perfect love casts out all fear, right? (According to 1 John 4:18, it does) Did you know that almost all negative emotions have a root in fear? Anger is fear of losing honor. Jealousy is fear of losing worthiness. Anxiety is fear of losing security. The list is never ending.

But if love casts out ALL fear, that means it casts out ALL fear. And if a weed is pulled up by its roots, it dies. Now, weeds are stubborn, and it takes a lot to get rid of them, but you don’t have to do it alone, because the more you let God into your life, the more His perfect love will cover every area of your life, and the more the weeds will die off.

It feels natural to be afraid in some situations, or to have anxiety, so I want to just point something else out before moving on to our relationships with other people. Is your body you? Of course not! If it was, we’d have a problem, because so many things can threaten our bodies, and then we’d be in danger. But we are spiritual beings in a physical body, and our true, spiritual selves cannot be threatened by anything, because God made us in His image (Genesis 1:27), and He can’t be threatened by anything. So any fear is simply a misunderstanding over who we are and who God is! There’s no need to condemn yourself about when we slip back into fear, because fear creates more fear, and love creates more love.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about why we love. We love because God first loved us. That means we looked at His example and thought, “I want that. To receive it and to give it.”

Since we live in a broken world, sharing perfect love has never been easy for us, but because we have a perfect example, we can live a life of love! Towards God and towards others!

What would happen if we loved everyone the way God loves us? What if we looked at everyone (friends, family, acquaintances, enemies, people we admire, and people we disagree with) and we only saw them through the eyes of love? Let’s go over 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 again: “[4] Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. [5] It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. [6] Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. [7] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

If we saw everyone this way, all the time, people would look at us like we were crazy! But they would also want it, because God created us to love and to be loved! This is the surest way to spread the Gospel, and the only way to live that will bring us into perfect alignment with our Father, who is love.