The Conclusion part 3
It's easy to get stuck on something. Believe me. It's easy to get caught up, swept up, and the next thing you know your molehill has become a mountain. You find yourself trying to overcome instead of resting in the One who already overcame. This life becomes about anything BUT living. Because to live is to love, and to love is to live. When we lose sight of that, it's easy to get lost. But look at 1 Peter 4:8. In the NIV it reads, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." In the NLT it reads, "Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins." Above all. Most important of all. The conclusion. The solution. Love each other. Ecclesiasties showed us that the conclusion was to fear (reverence, be in awe of) God and obey His commands. We know His New Commandment is to love one another as He loves us. That's it guys. That's the simplicity of Christ that 2 Corinthians 11:3 speaks of. That's our rock. Our foundation. When we build at love we are starting at the end, just like God does. He knows the beginning from the end because He IS the beginning AND the end! Love is the beginning and the end! And everything in between! Love is the conclusion. In the book of Hebrews we learn that God once spoke through His prophets, "but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son..." (Hebrews 1:2 NIV). Jesus IS the Word of God. When God spoke, He said Jesus. That's His first and final Word on every subject. Let there be light. Love lights up the world. But we seem to use love as a last chance instead of first choice. We seem to try everything in OUR power before we're willing to give God room to operate. And that, quite frankly, is why things are the way they are. Because we made them that way. Because we allow them to be that way. I don't think we honestly have any idea how powerful we are. The living God lives inside us! But we seem to be content to just scrape by. To put up scraps from the master's table. To beg for healing when we've been given divine health. To ride the roller coaster through the valleys and over the hills when He has made the way straight. We make things so hard on ourselves when we really don't have to. All we have to do is believe. That's the "work" of God. The work of God is to rest. That fits right in with the upside down, backwards economy of the Kingdom, doesn't it? The conclusion is the beginning. But we always want to start where WE'RE at. We tell God how big the storm is instead of telling the storm how big God is. We try to do everything in OUR power, instead of understanding that HIS strength is made perfect in our weakness. But we can't show weakness, right? Heaven forbid we be vulnerable. Heaven forbid we show ourselves to be the REAL people that we all are. Because if we did that we might be rejected. But love isn't rejection. It's acceptace. Love covers THE multitude of sins. ALL sins. Love opens His arms in an embrace that never lets us go. And when we know and believe that we ARE loved... we can love. Which, above all, most importantly, is all the matters. Love is all that matters in this life. Because love IS life. Abundant, eternal, everlasting, Resurrection Life!