May 18th, 22

HIS LOVE KEEPS US STRONG

Our reading today are I Kings 4-5,  II Chronicles 2,  Psalm 101, and II Thessalonians 3.  We are reading from the New Living Translation.

Love leads to service and generosity.  When we fail to experience the love of God we grow despondent, we become idle, we do not serve,  and we are not generous.  Working, serving, and giving become hard to do.  We want to take what we can get rather than give what we have gotten. 

We can’t give what we don’t have. That is why we must experience God’s love if we are to show love.  We must be filled and grow in our understanding and expression of his love if we are to give that love to others.  So Paul prays for us.  

May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.  (II Thess 3:5 NLT)

Do you know that you are loved?  Sometimes it’s hard to remember that you are.  It takes patient endurance to hold firmly, to that truth. But we must hold to it.   But God’s love is exactly what emerges from the Gospel when we look at Jesus and see what he has done for us.  Each day we need to open up our hearts to the Spirit’s working in our lives. We come to His Word, day after day, to be reminded of who he is, what he’s done, and what he gives us. And what we have become in him. Through His presence in us, we begin to be led into a full understanding and expression of the love of God.  We learn to patiently endure when it seems like the heavens are silent.  We know that this walk with Christ is a long obedience in the same direction.  He is with us and we can grow and experience His love.  Out of this will come a life of service, generosity, joyfulness and hope.  

Let God grow you into a  fuller understanding of His love. 

You are loved!