We call ourselves Live Love for a reason and it isn't just because it has a catchy little ring to it or because we have a cool little logo, but because God commands us to Live Love daily. It's the life style He desires us to have. As a group we talk about Love quite often, but it is important for us to remember and to continue to be reminded how Jesus wants us to love... even if we do feel like we overuse it sometimes.
I was thinking back to last summer when we had our God Girl book group, before Live Love even existed. As a book group, we focused on becoming the girl that God sees and who God wants us to be. We discussed different topics such as "The Girl who knows Love", "The Girl who knows True Happiness", "The Girl who knows Herself", etc. As I was thinking about how we've come over the past year, I thought back to the section of the God Girl book that focusing on Love. Repeatedly, it states that Love takes practice! We are naturally sinful people and we are prone to making mistakes. We are not going to be able to begin this life style of Love perfectly... especially on our first try.
Our Live Love Group focuses on the Bible verses 1 John 4:7-21 so I returned to my Bible to see what I could dig up on Love. I found that we have spent so much time focusing on those verses specifically that we have kind of forgotten that we have the rest of the chapter, not to mention the rest of the Book! I glanced at another chapter in my Bible and the title of the section caught my eye. It said "When we practice Real Love". I began to read that section...
"My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves." -1 John 3:18-19 (The Message)
Love takes practice. We're not perfect and we're gonna make mistakes! There will be times when our feelings will win us over and we won't feel like having a good attitude or loving our neighbor. But when we set our hearts and minds on wanting to follow God's command to Live out Love, then He constantly walks with us and helps us to improve and share more of our hearts and His heart with others around. By desiring to live our lives the way that Jesus wants us to, we begin to lead healthy and holy lives.
When we focus on loving our neighbors, we do NOT love them because of who they are but we love them because of who Jesus is and what He has done for us! I just finished reading the book "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis and he makes a great point. He says that God loves us but He doesn't always like us. He loves us in the fact that He created us and we are His masterpiece but He doesn't always like the things we do or the things we say. It's the same with ourselves. We love ourselves but we don't always like the things we do or the way we look or the things we say or the habits we have. We have to do the same for our neighbor. We need to love our neighbor even if we don't like our neighbor. Naturally, we are drawn to people who we are fond of, those people who have great personalities and we feel like we can relate to. But, what is the point of loving the lovable in a dying world?
When I think about the word 'Love', I immediatly think of heart-to-heart talks, snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie kind of thing. That's not what Jesus is commanding us to do. He is commanding us to show kindness and compassion to those around us. To treat them like we would want to be treated.
& when we truly begin to practice this love, then we become to breath of Christ in the world. When we all come together, as a body of Christ, we will be the hands and feet of Jesus to the lonely, the rejected, the freaks, the unlovable. Soon, our world will change and the love of Christ will come naturally.
The world does not recognize us by what we tell them. Just because we call ourselve Christians, doesn't mean they will believe us and it doesn't mean that we live it out. The world will recognize us by our actions... even when we feel as though no one is watching.
"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." -John 13:35
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