Gifted with Love

Love is the greatest gift of all. It is the reason that all the other gifts have been given. If you have received faith in Christ, this is no accident. Long before any of us were born, God loved us and chose to save us. For the sake of love all of the other gifts have been given. It was for love that the Father sent Jesus to die for us. It is for love that the Father sent the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. So great is the mystery of God’s love for us that Jesus said the Father loves us even as much as He loves Jesus!

For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. John 16:27

All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.

The Love of God

Fortunately, not all of our moments are embattled by trouble or temptation. During those times the love of God has unhindered opportunities to lift our hearts and lead us out into the many positive things that rightly inspire our action or give us pleasure. Nothing grows the love of God better than a grateful heart, so try to keep His goodness in remembrance. Warm your heart by thanking Him for the many ways He has blessed you in the past and ask the Holy Spirit to help you see fresh blessing in previously overlooked things that God does for you. With that in mind, seek to learn how to thank God in all things and for all things. This carries genuine praise and gratitude into whole new dimensions. (For more on this see the Pick Ax of Praise and the Bring the Hammer Down.)

There are two sides to the love of God as a motivation: one is soft and tender; the other is tough as nails. The soft and tender side is primarily a feeling. We love Him because He first loves us—this is a natural response of our hearts. We also love Him because He gives us a love to love Him with—this is supernatural assistance. Scripture says that God sheds His love “abroad in our hearts.” [1]  However little we may actually feel His love, this is the deep wellspring of an unending desire in us to love and please him.

Consider how deep the love of God really is: His feeling of love for us is an ocean compared to ours; His passionate affection a torrent like Niagara Falls. Not only is His love in us as a love for us; it is in us as a love for God and for others. This river wants to flow!  Because it can easily be blocked by unforgiveness, doubts and fears, our job is to keep our hearts cleared of these obstacles. (See our lesson on Spiritual Strongholds.)  [2] By “un-damming” our hearts of anything that obstructs the love of God, we not only allow feelings of peace and love to resurface; we are actually fulfilling our Number One assignment—to love God first and foremost! Paul gives us a sparkling vision of what that can be like.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19

As Strong as Death

Since not everything in life is “sweetness and light,” true love has to grow a tougher dimension than simple feelings of affection. This “tough as nails” side of love is best described as loyalty. We want to be loyal to the One who took that beating and died that death for us! We want to show Him how much His sacrifice means to us by being willing to lay our lives down for Him. Above all, we don’t want to disgrace the One who brought such saving grace to us. This is a fierce loyalty that would rather die to self, or even die in this life, than turn against or stray away from the Greatest Friend we have ever known. Hear the heart cry of the beloved in the Song of Solomon and make it your own.

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. Song of Solomon 8:6-7

This motivation operates by a higher desire than the fear of God which is inevitably attached to our own self interest, no matter how enlightened it may be. The love of God in us wants to become as self-forgetting, self-giving and self-sacrificing as that love that we see in Jesus. Because we love Him, we want to live under His leadership and stay intimately united to His Presence. Since we love Him because He first loves us, it is essential that we keep putting our spiritual eyes back on Jesus and the grace He supplies.

Next "Free Gift" to Open

Gifted with Propitiation  This is definitely an old fashioned word, a relic from the ancient past which sounds as if it can have no relevance to our life and times. Certainly it is a word which we never use anymore, but is it an action that is no longer done? In fact it is done all the time! Whenever we try to gain someone’s favor, placate their anger, or appease their demands we have been “propitiating” without even know it. Yet, God did it best of all when God did it for God...

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Love of God Scriptures

For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died; And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 AMP

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20 AMP

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians 3:7-8