Agape Love

I was in the store today looking at all the Valentine gifts and cards already put out for February 14th and of course thought about love. It is special that a day is specifically set aside to celebrate love, but it is sad that a special day has to be set aside to remind people to do something for the one they love.

I am very blessed to have a husband who tells me he loves me every day many times. Of course, I tell him I love him many times also during the day. My son and I sign off our telephone conversations with, I love you. I tell Jesus I love Him and He tells me He loves me.

The point I am making here is that we as Christians should not need any special day or reminder to tell the Lord we love Him, and to tell our loved ones we love them. And the love I am talking about here the world knows nothing about. It is agape love or God’s love, which should be the foundation for all our other love. In John 17: 23 and 26 we are told by Jesus that the Heavenly Father loves us as He does Jesus and He has placed that same love in us. In Romans 5:5 we are told that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that awesome! We have the same capacity to love that God does after we are born again because He comes into our spirits to dwell. What a wonderful knowledge that is to have. You and I can love as our Heavenly Father, as Jesus loves. So, the next time you make an excuse that you can’t love that person, stop and think: Wait a minute; God has given me His love with which to love that person.

And, of course, if you have been around me very long, you know that the love of the Lord is always uppermost in my thoughts and in my speech and in my preaching and in my teaching. As a friend of mine says: Kialeen always gets love into the teaching somewhere before the night is over. And she is correct. It is an unconscious thing for me.

I tell you, you do have the ability to love beyond what you have ever imagined because residing in you is God’s ability to love. And remember what the characteristics of God’s love are (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Amplified Bible)

Human love will fail you every time, but God’s love never fails. Human love looks for accolades, for returned love. God’s love looks for nothing in return. God’s love just gives because it can’t do anything else. When we are operating by God’s love standards, we can’t wait to do something for our enemies; that’s how great and overflowing His love is. So if you want to know whether you are operating by human love or God’s love. There’s the test. Are you wanting to do things for those who hate you and persecute you without forcing yourself to do it because you are expected to do it? We need to meditate on the love scriptures until that becomes a reality in our lives. I know I am not there yet but I am getting closer every day. How about you?

Humans say they love all kinds of things and attach the same word to it. I love your new house. I love that food. I love my cat. I love my new job. I love my husband. In other languages there are different words for love, depending on what it is you are talking about. God’s love, agape, is the highest form of love, the purest form of love. It has no strings attached.

You have deposited in you (if you are born again) as you read this message, the love of God, agape love. That means that you are patient and kind. You are not envious or jealous or boastful or inflated with pride. You are not rude or unmannerly. You do not insist on your own rights. You are not touchy, fretful, or resentful. You take no account of the evil done to you; you pay no attention to a suffered wrong. You do not rejoice at injustice but you rejoice when truth prevails. You bear up under anything. You are always ready to believe the best of every person. Your hope never fades under any circumstance. You endure all things without weakening. God’s love in you causes you never to fail. You keep on playing until you win.

Now, that is what is in you. You don’t have to strain to make it work. All you have to do is yield to the Holy Spirit instead of your flesh. The yielding to the spirit will be a task at first because your flesh has been used to doing what it wants to do. But each time you practice yielding to the Holy Spirit in your spirit, rather than allowing your flesh to win, you are coming up another notch. Practice makes perfect. And in this world today we have plenty of opportunities to practice. Let’s make a decision that 2007 is our year to walk in God’s love and not our own fleshly, human love. It is a much easier and restful life.