Done In Love…
sandy willoughby
How many references to love are made in the Bible? I’m sure there is someone out there who has this information on hand… I’m not one who does or desires to. I do know that it would probably take a long, long time to manually count the times we find “love” of all kinds in this Book provided us by God.
There are just as many things on our daily “to do” list as there are mentions of “love” in the Bible and we need to see how we are doing these things. Are we doing everything in a state of love --- an act of love --- choosing to treat and perform with love in our hearts?
When we get up in the mornings we choose to greet the day with loving gratitude to God for giving us this bright and new chance or choosing to count everything wrong and all the tasks which must be faced in the hours ahead.
When we cook breakfast and start about the daily chores… is love from our hearts pouring out into each thing we do? Food preparations become mundane to us after doing them meal after meal and day after day. The Bible mentions MANY times the preparations of foods because this is important. Preparing food must be done in order for those in our homes to be properly fed. Preparing meals offers us the beauty of routine…structure…and consistency. We can tie other routines and tasks in with meals and have a well managed home by habit.
When we answer the phone… reply to an email… pen or type out a letter… or open our doors to a knock… is our immediate and ending response one of love? When we are driving the kids to school or appointments, meeting with teachers or doctors and so on… does love flow from us? While helping with homework… talking over dinner… or anything else… is there love in you? In me?
I would so love to say that love just rushed out like a waterfall in every encounter of my ever day. It isn’t the case. I always, always, always fall short. Why? Because I daily have to remind myself that it isn’t “my” love to give. I have no love to give… any “love” I could dig into my soul to find of my own would not be love at all. Drawing from Christ in me is a totally different story! HIS love is so grand and such a strong, true, and endless that there are not enough chances to pour it out in one day! If I remind myself that I don’t have to manufacture or create this love --- that
would be an impossible task --- All I have to do is open up my inner doors of reserve to that glowing and pouring love of the Lord.
What happens when I throw aside myself and exalt the love of Christ? When I’m washing the dishes, communicating with others, making beds, dealing with and disciplining our kids, preparing our meals and on the list goes (?)… I am doing so with inner peace and tranquility only experienced when God is loving THROUGH me and that love flows from me and into every one who I come into contact with.
We are called to walk in love. “…and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Ephesians 5:2 NASB. May we give ourselves up for Him, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma! Walking in love, sisters, and living in love. Not our love… His love.
We can love our God because He first loved us by giving His only Son up for our eternal lives. We can love our husbands ---even when it is hard --- because our example is Christ and the church. “32For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 33This is a profound mystery – but I am talking
about Christ and the church.” Ephesians 5:32-33 NIV. We can love our children through all the ups and downs and show them that love and we can train other women to do the same. (Titus 2:4). We can love others ---all others --- See I John 3:11.
How can we love others all the time? We can because love COMES FROM GOD. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” I John 4:7 NIV.
Love is not a feeling. Feelings come as a reward of love… but love is an action. Love is a choice. Sound wrong? It probably is compared to what the world teaches. The world teaches that real love is felt and when we don’t feel it anymore it is gone. The world tells and teaches us to not do something in love unless we “feel” it. The Bible seems to point us in a different direction. The Bible says that we are to love… period. “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” I John 3:18 NIV
I encourage you to focus for the rest of this day (we learn to take things ONE day at a time, don’t we?) on walking in love. I urge you onward to remember that love is always a choice and it comes from God. I pray that everything, everything, yes, everything you do… will be done in love.
JLoveJ Sandy
