Love Is In the Air
It’s not hard during the month of February, to talk about Love. Cupid is constantly working his magic with arrows of love puncturing the hearts of would-be relationships. The smell of candy and roses permeates the air we breathe during this month and it’s always a good thing! The reason is that people are at the very least being cordial and loving towards one another; some relationships will mend, others will end with broken hearts….never mind all that! This isn’t even the subject of this post (well sorta…)
I just finished a series entitled “Love is in the Air”, and while it wasn’t about relationships as many churches and ministers might afford themselves the opportunity to talk about, NO this series circled around one(1) relationship, in fact, it is the MOST IMPORTANT relationship we can have– a relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
For us, the most important decision we can make is to RETURN to our First Love! For two years now, the body of Christ has been bogged down with concerns over COVID, which has limited our engagement with our community, fractured once-solid relationships, and brought progress to a near-screeching halt. Mostly due more or less, to the reality that we haven’t forgotten our first love, nor abandoned our first love, we have LOST the loving feeling towards our first love. Jesus and our relationship with him are more what we do than who we are becoming; it becomes “old hat”, so common that it is cast aside. I do that with old hats you know…when I get tired of wearing them and they just more or less make my head itch, I cast them aside and look at them every once in a while just determining when I will get rid of them or give them away for second-hand use by someone else! It’s a terrible thing to do and pretty sure Jesus doesn’t feel the love when we do it! John 3:16 (a common thread in this post) is filled with awe and wonder at the power of God through Jesus. The verses around it form a very important notice for us too: We have been saved from ourselves, and the old sinful nature which has so often kept us held down, and even more than that, have defeated DEATH, the one item man continuously attempts to defeat but never is able to do; ALL THIS THROUGH JESUS WORK IN COMING TO EARTH, DYING ON THE CROSS, AND RISING FROM THE GRAVE–NOW SEATED ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER IN HEAVEN ABOVE!
Another realization for us is that God’s Love Is…worth living through in this life in the world! Scripture declares that God’s Love is a refuge. Refuge, a place of shelter and help, and more importantly, the writer of Psalms 52 where we find this tells us that his love is UNASSAILABLE; that it cannot be attacked! God’s love for us can’t be attacked? That’s right you heard it here! That means that any attempted attack ends in failure before it begins! It is WE who allow it to be attacked, and in our minds render it defeated at times when it is still standing untouched and undaunted by the enemy. His Love is boundless, strong, and unmoveable! AND it was given to us and according to Scripture is “shed abroad” through us!
The funny thing about Love is that it is hardly ever represented right, and yet it is the KEY to the church making a real impact in our communities today! That Love is “shed abroad” in our hearts, implies that it isn’t for us to soak up like a sponge and hold onto (it is good to walk in and hold to but don’t miss the point…), it is to be shared with others. The reason: the CHANGE that it makes in All of us! This love is the great notifier of discipleship when expressed amongst us as believers, and this Love is THE game-changer when shared in the community at large. The truth is “we all want to be loved“
When thinking about February and that Love is in the Air, don’t go into it with thoughts of candy and flowers, rings, hearts, cupids, or cards, GO into it reminded that God Loves You, that Jesus is our FIRST Love, and that we should be sharing God’s love through our hearts because God’s Heart = Jesus’ Heart = Our Heart!