LOVE'S ROOT - May 13th

Have you thanked Him?
Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)
1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Commentator Ray Stedman explains, “After all, joy is love enjoying itself; peace is love resting; patience is love waiting; kindness is love reacting…
He goes on with the other “fruit”, but I wanted to pause today at that last line.
“kindness is love reacting”.
I will be very honest. Sometimes when my “love tank” gets a little low, my kindness quotient most definitely suffers. So I can definitely see the correlation.

Where Stedman is going with this little quote is to reiterate to each of us that those characteristics like kindness and energies like joy GOD promises to pour and develop in our lives when we follow Him and are in tune with His voice; when we are led, founded and rooted in love. Love is where it all has to start.
Galatians 5:22-23
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

And just what is “living GOD’s way” really entail? It entails a commitment to LOVING for GOD himself is love.
1 John 4:16
English Standard Version (ESV)
16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

I know in my own life when I start to feel “low” in these areas of my life, when my patience is running thin or my agitation is running thick, when my exuberance or serenity are waning, the first thing I need to do so is “reset” my love. Because when I do that, then all these other “things” I need to be an effective ambassador for Christ, all the things I need to demonstrate HIM are provided.

And just what does that LOVE look like? You know...
1 Corinthians 13
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end. Love never dies…
…Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

So I encourage both you and me today. When we start to feel weary in our well doing, when our kindness is taking a backseat or our patience is frayed, remember LOVE; GOD’s love for us manifest at the Cross of Calvary and His call on our lives to LOVE others.

And that LOVE will reset and energize both you and me!
Hebrews 12:2-3
When you find yourselves flagging… go over that story again…That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

I love you all!
HAVE A BLESSED Day!
Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney