Walk in Love part 3
Love is what matters. Truly. Living a life of love is really the only way to experience life to the fullest. Because living and loving aren't just connected, they are the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. When God gave us His only begotten Son (Himself, His Spirit, His heart, His life), He gave us love. Because God is love. When you understand the concept that there are only two men who have ever lived--Adam and Jesus--you can see the difference between the two. Jesus is God's beloved Son, not because God loved Jesus and not Adam--of course He loved Adam. God is love. He loves everybody--but because Jesus let Himself BE loved. That's what "beloved" means. Jesus accepted God's love. He didn't try to earn it. He simply received it and released it. In the same way, we must receive and release God's love. Know it and believe it. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has filled us with. Yesterday we talked about how in order to walk in love you have to walk. You have to put your money where your mouth is. You can't just say, "Oh, you're hungry? I hope that works out for you." You have to see a need and, if at all possible, meet it. If you have two coats and someone is cold... give them one. Don't freeze to death because you gave away both your coats, but live out of your abundance. You are blessed to be a blessing. It's the idea of paying it forward. Giving what you've got. But you can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So you have to know what you've got, in order to give what you've got. If you don't know you have love... you can't walk in it. But when you know that you are loved... that changes everything. The affirmation of a Father will always empower a Son. God's love inside us will equip and empower us to live! To love Him back by loving the people that we come into contact with. And that's what life is. That's what life is all about. We were created by the God who IS love, to be loved and to love. To experience love by giving it away. Because love IS giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. So when you're walking--and I use that picture of walking as a picture of living. How you walk is how you comport yourself. It's your lifestyle. And I believe it starts with that attitude of gratitude I'm so fond of preaching about. Being grateful for what you have instead of always being upset about what you don't. Experiencing and enjoying what you've got by giving it away. By sharing it. Things are ok by themselves... but things are always better when they are shared. A meal that you can share with someone is better than eating by yourself. Watching a TV show or movie with someone else who will appreciate it makes you enjoy it even more. What I'm trying to say is, it is not good for man to be alone. We are social creatures. SOME solitude is ok. Alone time is not a bad thing. At the same time, life is about relationships. It is about love. Connecting with people. That's why Paul wrote about being all things to all people. Finding that way to connect with someone. It's like when I'm at work. Some people I talk about our respective kids with. Some people I talk about music with. Some people sports. Or whatever. You can find that common ground and build your relationship from there. And that, to me, is what it means to walk in love. You don't have to walk the same speed with everybody. You just have to find the rhythm and pace that matches each individual person. And that, friends, is love. Loving people the way THEY need to be loved!