Friday, June 22, 2012

Do You Love?

1John 4:12
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
 
It is good to say that you love someone when you feel it. I believe if you are a man or woman who truly loves God, then it means that He has filled you with His Holy Spirit. The scriptures say in Galatians that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. He has given us the capacity to feel and demonstrate all of those virtues. It is the greatest demonstration of the fruit of the spirit when we can say that we love someone because we want to and because we can. So never be afraid to love.
 
Most of the time we measure our love for others based on how they treat us. But the foundation of God's love is merciful and gracious. With God's love, feelings of frustration, perplexities, disappointments, discouragement, hurts and woundedness are minimized. The source of all of those feelings comes from unrealized expectations of the other person.
 
If we allow true love for someone to increase, it does not come from us, it comes through us from God. It is because we have stretched our capacity to receive more from Him, which can then pour out through us. Just as this happens for love, it also happens for the other fruit of the spirit – joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. Never be afraid to allow the virtues of the Spirit to flow from you to someone else. You are not the source, God is. The Lord says that we are the vessels of the Holy Spirit. When we represent Him as His vessels, He uses us to pour out those virtues to those who need what you allow Him to give to them.
 
Christine Brooks Martin, Author
"Pray What God Says"
"Talk to God with Affirmations of Faith"
"Christine's Short-Shorts"
 
 
Areli MediaWorks  2012
 
 

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