And the greatest of these is ... LOVE!

Everyday I am continually in awe of the way God speaks to me through His Word when I give Him my time and my attention. Some days it may be a few minutes, while other days I really am starving to stay in His Presence and in His Word.

But, this morning, the time in His Word ranks as one of the greatest manifestations of the power of the Holy Spirit I have experienced during my quiet time in quite a while.

Let me explain.  For those that know me, I am a very emotional person. In fact, one of my greatest struggles is managing my emotions and putting the biblical above the emotional in all areas of my life. It starts with the heart that I have for people. God has born in me a true love and passion for people from all walks of life…wealthy and poor, mean and nice, atheists and believers. I love to be around people and meet new people.  In fact, I thrive spiritually, physically and emotionally when I am immersed in social environments that connect me to others.

But just like anyone else, sometimes we come across people that are hard to love or that do not really love us. Maybe they have a different personality, maybe they have an addiction, or maybe we do not know why we struggle being around them but we just do.  One of the greatest gifts God has provided to me in the last five years of business ownership and non-profit work is the opportunity to work for people of all types of personalities, social and economic levels, and intellectual capacities.  The power of Christ in me to see beyond the person and allow His Love in me to come through has been a true supernatural work.  I used to invest myself in how people felt about me. You can imagine and probably relate to what a roller coaster this creates because there is never a person that is loved and appreciated all the time by everyone. I put my identity and value in what other people felt about me and how they responded to me and for me.  I was always trying to change peoples minds about me and crying in the quiet when someone misunderstood me or did “not get me.” I seemed like I was always in a fight – and I WAS! I was in the battlefield of Keri versus the world. Well, this is NOT God’s best for us.

In fact, God started to show me in His Word that we are to live with our point of reference in the Lord, and not in the world. Well looking to those around us for fulfillment and validation is looking to the world, rather than looking to God. How many of us get derailed when we work really hard and still experience rejection or discouragement from someone we are trying to serve?  The frustration comes when we move our focus off of the Lord’s call on our life to people’s position and the opinions of others. I started to realize that God’s way is certainly more fulfilling.

One of my prayer partners would always say to me during my struggles, “Keri, God knows your heart. He knows who you are when no one is looking and rest in that. Your heart is good. “  This is biblical. 1 John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence, whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, ad He knows everything”.  WOW!  Isn’t that all that matters? Our position in the hidden place of our heart on our knees before the Lord.  My heart is one full of love.  My true desire is to esteem others above myself and serve the way Christ had a heart for serving….unconditionally and with joy. “Those who obey his commands live in him and we n them.  And this is how we know that he lives in us. We know it by the Spirit He gave us”.  1 John 3:24 –

You know what is so interesting to me about what God’s word says about our command to love? It is “unyielding” and “burns like a mighty flame”. It is not based on what others think or say about you or do to you. It is in Christ, from Christ, independent of actions and behavior of others. We are to love. No matter what happens to us, we are to exhibit Christ’s love from us towards others. This really is “Amazing Grace”, isn’t it?  And another thing that really helps my heart rest, is that who I am in Christ and the Spirit He gave me is known to me by my obedience and position in Him – not dependent on what others think my position in Him is. HOW MUCH FREEDOM is there in that?

THIS REALLY SETS MY HEART ON FIRE!!!  In Christ, I can love by His power greater in me (1 John 4:4) in a supernatural way that does not exist in any worldly thing or person.

You see, this is the way God loves us. Read Psalm 139. When I realize how intimately God loves us, it makes all the worldly warfare seem so small and insignificant. God adores me and I am His daughter. He made me and knew me before I was even formed. If God believes I am fearfully and wonderfully made, then this is the only point of truth I need to rest my identity in to experience His best for me.

How do we rest in the freedom of our identity in Christ? Paul shows us how in Ephesians 3: 14-20.  “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being”. Okay stop right here:

Paul says first to “kneel before the Father”. So, get on your knees. Then pray that He strengthens you “with power through His Spirit in your inner being”.

Then Paul goes on to say “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” See, faith and growing in your faith is spiritually impossible without getting on your knees before the Lord. We have to humble ourselves to receive the strengthening of our inner Spirit. “And I pray that you, being rooted, and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ”. Okay, take a look at this!  The growth of your inner Spirit and Faith CAN NOT happen without being “rooted and established” in love. LOVE!!!  “and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” 

I LOVE this verse because it shows us how to walk with Christ to experience the “fullness” of God, a fullness that is unattainable by any other path, person or thing. Only through Christ can we experience fullness. Another reason I love these Words from the Lord via Paul are because He spells out for us that it is impossible to harbor anything in opposition to love and experience fullness. So, gossiping about someone, judging, speculating, assuming, questioning others sets you apart from the path towards the fullness of God. So, now when I experience people questioning me, challenging me in an ungodly way, or talking about me behind my back, I stop and pray for them and their heart. I also ask the Lord (Psalm 139) to identify any offensive way in me that I not harbor the power of His Love and Spirit coming through me. And you know what else is interesting? Paul mentions  “love that surpasses knowledge” – and for me this is powerful. Because I realize that regardless of what I “know” or “believe” about someone, I am commanded to love them. To love the way Christ loved, we have to love from our Spirit and not from our mind. We have to see others the way God sees them. We have to come from a position on our knees underneath the foot of the Cross seeing people the way Christ saw us and our sin and gave His life anyway.

This journey in God’s word today really blessed me and grew my heart. I can abound spiritually knowing that the hidden person of my heart in Him is full of love. Anything condemning on the periphery of this world, peoples behavior and actions, is really meaningless. What matters is the inner heart that only God knows.