True Love

Hello ladies, I would just like to share for this month of February on the topic of Love. It’s a huge topic but I would just like to draw out a few points that are on my heart.

When I was growing up, in Sunday school we used to sing a song called ‘It’s love that makes the world go round’. There was another verse – ‘It’s you that makes the world go round’. Can you imagine the world without love. It would be a very dark, bleak place. We think of our loved ones, our family, our friends who bring light into our world and joy to our lives. Even our pets become part of our family and they can bring joy to our lives. Love is so powerful.

In November we lost our precious dog Holly. It was such a loss. She died suddenly, and we had had her for a number of years. There was such a sense of pain and loss, and the pain and the loss was so much stronger because our love, our affection and our attachment to her was so great. She was part of our family, and so the sense of loss was even more strong. I remember thinking about the saying which says, ‘It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all’.

Love is so powerful. It brings so much light, it brings so much warmth, it makes the world a brighter place. That is the power of love. Love brings connection. Connection is so vitally important.

In John 15 Jesus says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” It is so important that we are connected with Him, that we are ‘plugged in.’ Jesus also said “Abide in me,” and “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”

I believe that “Abide in me” is not just a piece of advice. It is a word in season for times such as this – that we need to abide in Him. We need to be plugged in and connected with God. We need to be anchored. In the uncertainty of life that we’re facing right now, the storms that we may be facing, the world that we’re living in and the crisis that we are in, we need to be anchored in God. We need to be anchored in His Word. We need to be rooted and grounded in Him.

One of the most powerful scriptures on God’s love, which really is the gospel in a nutshell:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” I love this – God SO loved that He GAVE. This stands out to me. He loved SO MUCH that He GAVE. This is the kind of love that we want to have in our hearts, where we love so much that we give. Our love compels us to give. We cannot help but to give. This is the gospel in action. The scripture also goes on to say that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world, but that the world through Jesus might be saved. It is so easy for us to point, the finger, to condemn, to judge. But how does this measure up with God’s love? We live in a world where a lot of things seem to be turned upside down, so many things that maybe we grew up believing to be wrong, and now society is saying ‘it’s okay. It is easy for us to want to judge people and to point the finger. What do we do? We demonstrate the love of God at all times. Love is an action. Our demonstration of love is love in action. We may not agree with the worldview, but our actions will speak louder than our words. The greatest way to show God’s love is our demonstration of His love.

What is God’s love like? It is unconditional. God always forgives, God never turns away, God never rejects. The greatest example of love is in 1 Corinthians 13 known as the ‘Love Chapter.’ It tells us the kind of love we need.

It tells us that ‘love is patient, and is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud’, etc. It also says that love always protects, it always trusts, it always hopes and it always perseveres. Finally, the scripture says “These three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”

If we want to have a Christlike love, a love that demonstrates, then we need to apply 1 Cor 13 to our lives. How can we demonstrate God’s love? We can care, we can show empathy, we can have compassion, we can be understanding and we can be accepting. Accepting is a hard word, because when we think of accepting, we may not agree with with what someone does, but we can accept the person. We love the sinner but not the sin. There is always a person locked in behind sin, a human being that God loves as much as He loves us. To reach them, we need to demonstrate God’s unconditional love. That is love in action.

I just want to share a prophetic Word for all you women in your situations right now, and that is:

Ladies, arise, shine, flourish and advance the Kingdom. That is our mission. Whether we are in a pandemic, in lockdown, or wherever we are, we can arise, above our circumstances, we can shine, we can flourish. How can we flourish if we are in lockdown and can’t fellowship with others? We can flourish in the presence of God, by being plugged in, by being connected with Him. We can bloom and blossom, so we are ready to advance His kingdom. We may have limited resources and cannot meet together as we would like to, but one thing we can always do to advance the kingdom, is prayer. Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons God has given us. Prayer is the highest calling of God. It can cross boundaries and oceans. It can have such a powerful effect. We can advance God’s kingdom with prayer.

When we in Ireland joined Western Europe recently, it delighted my heart that our Women’s ministry Director Kathy Swift contacted me and she said to me, “I am praying for you every day.” That touched my heart probably more than if she said “I will come and visit you.” That to me, was such a demonstration of love. That is the power of prayer. I would urge us to demonstrate love, to pray for one another, to pray for those in our care, and to pray for our nations and to pray for our Church of God worldwide that we, together would arise, shine, flourish and advance God’s kingdom in these times. Let’s spread the love of God in every way we can. God bless you!