God Is Love {pt. 4}

     In the past several weeks we've talked about how much God loves us, and we've talked about opening ourselves up to feeling that love. But now we need to think about one more thing. Are we keeping his love to ourselves? Or are we showing others that it exists?

     
     I'd like to start off today by reminding us of something. God's love is incredibly powerful and it is life changing. Not just for us, but for anyone. God's love is not some puny joke. His love is real. It is powerful! Why would we keep that to ourselves?

     I heard a pastor talk about something a while back that went straight to my heart. He talked about God's love in comparison to ocean water. Imagine with me for a moment that all of the world's oceans are suspended above you. Now, one ocean is a lot of water, but all the world's oceans? Yikes, that's a LOT of water!! This water represents God's love. God's love is suspended above you just waiting for you to acknowledge that you want it so it can come pouring down on you. Wow! Imagine that... Being overtaken by God's love. How incredible! But you know what gets me excited? We get the chance to be instruments in God's greater plan by showing this kind of love to others. The kind of love that will leave them in awe and total satisfaction.

     Since each one of us so desperately desires to feel love, our natural response is to go looking for it. With the best of intentions we go off gallivanting and wonder why the heck we can never find it. There are so many distractions and so many things that appear to be love from the outside, but then sooner or later we discover it was in fact not. The search in and of itself is not a bad thing. It simply means we're looking for something we know we need. But often the way we go about searching is what ends up hurting us. And some of us stop trusting real love because of that.

     Let's say a child goes missing and the police start looking for her. There are many factors involved in the search. They try out every possible theory and test it out to see which one will hold up. They collect evidence from all over and use it to determine what, how and why it happened. Then with all this information they are then able to successfully grab the culprit. But we have to take note of something else too...

     1. This entire process is a careful one. They realize their choices have a huge impact on both their lives and the victim's.

     2. They realize at the beginning they will make mistakes. However, they decide then already to not beat themselves up for it.

     3. They are wise and thorough in their search. They don't go in unnecessary directions that they know will only bring more problems.

     4. They know what the ultimate goal is, and that is to find the child and bring down the kidnapper. So they strive to find one solution!

     You may be wondering what this has to do with anything. Well, this scenario has a lot in common with our search... In our search for love we need to be careful, forgive ourselves for our mistakes, be wise and thorough, and strive to find one solution.

     This however, does not mean we should go in every which direction to find love. Like I said earlier, that will only end up hurting us and bringing more unnecessary problems. There is something so much better for us out there then the dark holes we sometimes crawl into, myself included.

     So why am I saying all of this? Because, if we know what the human tendencies are we can better understand what role we play. Ultimately God is the Restorer, but he has given us the incredible opportunity to be his hands and his feet to show love to a hurting world. We get the chance to be a part of someone's search for love, and encourage them along the way. We get the chance to display the love of Jesus in a very real way. All people want is to be loved. 

     Loving someone is as simple as giving them a smile or a hug... 

     Helping someone with their groceries, or giving food to a beggar on the street...

     Buying the tired cashier at the till a chocolate bar, or hanging out with your
grandparents... 

     Helping out at a soup kitchen, or sending an encouraging Facebook message... 

     It's all about the little things! 

     Considering that this is the last of the God Is Love series I challenge you to pick one or two things this week to show love to someone. And you know what? When you show love, you'll experience something interesting. Love will become even more real to you personally, and you will see it in a whole new beautiful light. I'd love to hear how the challenge goes for you - just let me know down below in the comments. I hope you have a great night, and a great week ahead of you! God bless you!