How it must grieve the Father's heart of Love to think we would accuse Him of being the source of all our heartache and grief. To think that God loved us to such a degree that He sent His Only Son to die in our place, yet we would believe that He's the source of our grief and sorrow.
We read in God's Word about the things that Love has done to set us free, but we continue to believe He is responsible for all the world's troubles. The world has all its troubles because the world is afraid to Love. If as a whole, we would trust in this Love, then there would be no trouble. We cannot make the world trust in and be unafraid to love, but we can open up our own selves, break down the walls and allow ourselves to love and be loved.
God so wishes to show His love in the fullest to all who would allow Him to come in. We're still afraid to trust Him with everything and His love cannot be fully manifested in our own lives. We strive to be like the stoic John Wayne or Rambo example seen in the movies because we would look weak if we loved.
We're afraid people might take advantage of us if we walked in Love. There are some who believe we are trying to take advantage of God because of His Love. No one can take advantage of God because He has already "Given all things liberally that pertain to live and Godliness." He isn't some elderly Man Who doesn't know any better. In His great Love, He has given everything He has for us. Romans 13:10 (Amplified) says, "Love does no wrong to one's neighbor (it never hurts anybody) therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfillment of the Law."
Once you understand the power of His love, you will never dread the "punishment of the Law." Love covers the multitude of sin. It's been extremely difficult to "love the brethren" like God's Word instructs us to do because we don't trust His love. We're afraid to love because we fear that it won't work. There are those who would take advantage of you if you walk in love, but if we walk in love, then if will work to your advantage even if their motive was wrong. Love never fails.
Love isn't what Hollywood portrays is to be or what we've always heard it to be. Love isn't just a feeling. It's true that emotions play a large part in Love, but love is supposed to control the emotions and not the emotions controlling the love.
We looked at love as an emotional thing instead of A Person. And, because we've failed to allow love to really reach its potential within us, we've never known the depths of it. 1John 4:8 (Amplified) says, "He who does not love has not become acquainted with God (does not and never did know Him) for God is love."
We "fall in and out of love," ruled only by emotion. When the emotion changes, love changes. True Love (God) never changes according to Hebrews 13:8(Amplified) which says, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Emotions certainly play a part in our love walk, but not to rule it. When we only walk in the emotional part of love instead of the Person of Love, we always fail at some point.
Throughout the years, some have reached the point where they're afraid to love. They have been disappointed by parents, grandparents, friends, siblings and/or spouses and are now afraid to love. God is Love, but we're even afraid to walk with Him without putting up walls and without fully trusting Him. Any time you decide to walk in Love, you must be aware that there's a chance of getting hurt because you're opening up your spirit and the depths of your soul to others. Unfortunately, people aren't always trustworthy and not always in a position to love you back. We must fully trust God to fully walk in love.
Time after time, we've opened our hearts to others only to get hurt. After awhile, we begin to close off our spirits and souls to a small amount. We close off our hearts. Nobody wants to keep getting hurt and wounded over and over again, yet this is what love must endure.
Philippians 3:10 (Amplified) tells us, "(For my determined purpose is) that I may know Him (that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understand the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly). And that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection (which it exerts over believers) and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed (in spirit into His Likeness even) to His death (in the hope)."
We've often wondered and thought about being sharers in "His suffering. Some think it means we're to be sick and poor, but I believe that to be "conformed to His sufferings" means being open by Love to the point where you're vulnerable. I've never found in the Word where Jesus was sick or poor or at the mercy of anyone or anything that He couldn't overcome. He wasn't only walking in Love, but He was actually Love walking. The only suffering I saw Jesus do was on the cross and He did that for us.
I tried placing myself in the position of Jesus, like Paul said,sharing in His suffering. As I watch Jesus through the Word, I find that He suffered the pain in His heart of love from being denied and betrayed. He could have closed off His heart, but if He did, then we would all have been lost. 1Corinthians 13:8 says that, "Love never fails." In order to make the new birth available to all, He had to be willing to be hurt by some.
I saw Jesus cry over Jerusalem when they rejected Him. His great heart was broken by their unbelief and rejection. I saw Jesus being betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane by a "friend" who betrayed Him with a kiss. We saw Jesus placed on trial for His life and never speak a word on His Own behalf. If He had spoken out, then we would still be lost in sin. Love never mouthed a word even when He was beaten and mocked.
This Love is God living through us in it's fullness. As mere men, we can never walk in this kind of love. Only God living through us can accomplish this. Every time we are hurt, we want to back off. It's destroyed some homes and marriages, as well as some churches. We feel like we were spoken to wrongly or treated unfairly, so we leave and speak badly of someone who wronged us.
We are called to a much higher place to walk in other than our feelings. I don't mean we should go around hurting others in the Name of Love, but that we, in love, should know and forgive the wrongdoings of others. This is walking in "faith" and in "Spirit." There are many times we offend other and are offended by others. The only way of avoiding this is to "shut down" our love walk and cease reaching out. The Bible way is to love as He loves us and walk in forgiveness.
Walking in love is the hardest part of Christianity. It means that self must take a backseat and that Jesus is in charge. When we're afraid to love, we're handicapped to the point where we're just religious instead of real. The scribes and Pharisees could walk in that without any problem at all.
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