Defined By His Love

Defined By His Love

John 13:34-35

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

 

 

As women, one of the most tendered areas of our lives is our hearts.  Not the beating organ that pumps the blood, but the heart or the center of who we are and the emotions that often set the pace for how we respond to others.  The Lord told us He will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7) if we will give them to Him. Why is this important?

We are to have the heart of God beating in us to enable us to love others unconditionally.  Our sinful flesh will all too often get in the way of obeying this command from God to love others and so we must lay down our hearts before the Lord and then ask Him to pick them up anew; Allowing Him to keep it beating in harmony with His. Then we will be ready for the greater work He has called us to do. 

 

What is that work? In the Love Dare Devotional Book I really like how this question is answered.  “Our love for each other is supposed to be how people distinguish us as Christ’s disciples (Look up John 13:35, write it down. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________)  It is the root and ground of our existence (look up Eph. 3:17, write it. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________), meant to be expressed with passion and fervency (I Peter 4:8 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________). It is a quality that we are to ‘abound’ in more and more (I Thessalonians 3:12 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________), always getting better at it, becoming increasingly defined by it.”

 

Wow, defined by His love; that is powerful! Now what if this love God commands us to have is rejected?  What if it has been defiled?  What must we do?  Give an example of a time when you showed God’s love to someone and they rejected it. How did you feel and how did you handle it?  Be honest! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________We must pray for the one who has rejected or defiled the love we have shown.  Look at Ephesians 1:7 and write it down. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This verse shows us the model of Christ’s love that was rejected and yet remained faithful. We too must show love anyway. We need to check our own hearts to make sure they are beating with His Heartbeat of forgiveness, mercy, grace, unconditional love and praying for those who mistreat us (Read Luke 6:27-28).

 

God’s heart beats with Forgiveness, Mercy and Love for each of us, so much so that He died for us, and He wants us to choose His heart to beat within us for others as well. How we choose will determine how He will use us and how effective our ministry and witness will be.  So the questions we need to ask ourselves are: What is my choice today?  How is my heart beating, with my own heart’s desires or with His desires? Is my heart beating with the unconditional love of His heartbeat? Who do I need to forgive? Am I willing to forgive? Write down the name of at least one person you need to forgive, why, and when you are going to take the step to forgive them. Ask for God’s help. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The final question to ask is this; “Is my life being defined by His love?”

 

Be honest with yourself, because the truth of your answer will be clearly seen by others and God.