May 11, 2010
Yes, Jesus Loves Me...
An awkward and uncomfortable situation can arise when someone tells you that they love you, but you don’t have the same feelings for them. And yet, that’s exactly what the Lord says to us. For some, expressing love for the Lord doesn’t come naturally or instantaneously. Even though a new believer may be unable to express heartfelt love for Jesus, the important thing is for them to know is that He loves them.
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Gail;
-----The bigger part of God’s unconditional love for us is expressed through forgiveness. We are caught up in this miserable condition of havening to labor and plan for our own survival. That was God’s duty in the beginning. He would have done it abundantly had Adam and Eve understood what was in the forbidden fruit and left it alone. Ever since then the amount of involvement each person must invest in simply maintaining survival grooms the heart and mind for attachment to the self more than to others. And for most of us, the amount of goods and service remaining after securing survival is embarrassingly insufficient for sharing with others. We have much to be forgiven.
-----That is why Jesus told us we must forgive to be forgiven. It is the only supply which does not run dry. And living in an ocean of people making mistakes and outright mistreating one another, there is ample cause for applying it. Love is not a feeling to be had. It is a closeness to be attained through at least attention given. Forgiveness is the first door opened for that closeness - forgiveness for self, others, and not that God has done anything at all wrong, but that the natural tendency of the deceived heart is to blame Him for its troubles, for Him as well.
-----So forgiveness is the first attitude of love. It is not an emotion as much as it is a way of thinking. Hatred separates, but love combines. Whether or not love begins in emotion or thought is irrelevant. It begins where it is needed in the moment and works toward overcoming the obstacle at hand to achieve another step of closeness. Forgiveness removes the charge of guilt for placement of the obstacle, whether by self or others, so closeness can remain the standing goal.
-----Having secured a pathway for love by forgiveness, how good or bad other people are or how guilty and responsible for our troubles the deceived heart might find God becomes irrelevant. The issue of love at heart and in mind becomes the true well being of the other. Hallowed be Thy name, therefore Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done is the acknowledgment of God’s true well being. It replaces the needless forgiveness for God of the deceived heart. Humble trust in the complete goodness of God enlightens a heart to know the goodness of His kingdom and the kindness of His will. So God’s love does not fill us up and return to Him through the same channel. It flows to us through mercy, but it can flow back only through trust.
-----Jesus told us we give drink to Him when we give drink to others; we feed and cloth Him when we feed and cloth others; we meet His needs when we meet others’ needs. Therefore we love Him when we love others. It is hard for us to imagine that our connection with God is through our connection with others. They are not holy and righteous. They are decrepit, pitiful, and always stepping on our toes. We want a loftiness for our love of God. Yet we must trust Jesus, to love others is lofty. It is His kingdom and will. Without flowing to them our love does not flow to God. And without forgiving, our love does not flow to them. How natural is it to forgive? Neither is it very natural to love God.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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