Love
Are we all these things that Paul say’s love is in 1 Corinthians? Of course, we are not. We fall short of love everyday. So then how can we love each other? How do we love our spouse, our children, our parents, and our friends? I believe the answer is in how close our relationship is with the One who is love. God is love!
Here are three ways to help us grow closer in our relationship with God. First, spend time in the Scriptures. You see the subject of the Scriptures is God. It is a witness to God’s interaction with God’s people in different times and places. Listen to how God chooses to act in the variety of circumstances. Don’t look for the rule but instead engage in the relationship and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you in your specific circumstance. Where is God leading? Ask questions and listen for the answer.
This leads me to the second way to grow closer to love. Pray! I don’t mean ramble on through your list of wants. Instead, listen to the Holy Spirit speak to you. Take time out to be quiet during the day, the week, the month, and the year. Take a retreat for a weekend or even a week. Allow yourself time with your Creator. God loves you. God wants the best for you. Listen to what God has been saying throughout your everyday life. What was so important about that interaction with the person the other day? What has God been teaching you? Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to the mind and the heart. The temptation will be for you and I to fill our time with even more voices through people, or books, or television. STOP! Listen for the One who knows you and loves you. I am not saying that what God has to say is easy for you to hear. It may be God is showing love by challenging you and pushing you forward. Yet isn’t that what we really want? Somebody to believe in us enough to move us forward when we are often to fearful too take a step forward.
Third, surround yourself with the fellowship of God’s people. God is present through and in his people. Find the people that reflect God’s love to you. This may be one person or a hundred. Some of us need more people than others. We may not be love itself, but we can reflect that love to others so they may see God’s love for them today. We are a mirror of God’s love in this world. The problem is if we are not in relationship with God, then what do we reflect. What can you see in the mirror if it is dark? We can only reflect the light we have received from God. The more time we spend with God, the greater light we are able to reflect. This is the way we can love others.
The temptation we face is that the mirror of God’s love becomes the object of our affection. We make another person out to be the love itself. Then when the other person falls short of patience, kindness, or anything else, we feel that love has left us. Yet the truth is none of us is the love itself.
So take some time today and each day to spend time with the One who is love. It is there that we will find the light we are able to mirror to our family and friends so they may know the love of God.
Take some time to reflect on God’s love for you as you listen to this song by Allen Levi from his album Bigger Picture —Songs in the Key of See.
