Little Pay-Pay (Paisley), is 20 months old. When she comes to my house she usually does 2 things. She heads straight to the 'girls' room' and finds her baby doll. Then she grabs her little stroller and puts her in and begins to play. I will see her stoop down and talk to her baby in a nurturing way. She will get a blanket to keep her warm. She will hold her in her arms and love on her. She will share her food with her. It is most precious to witness! What a perfect example of a child reflecting the love and nurture she has received. What goes in most certainly comes out. That love and nurture will prepare her for the rigors of the wily ways of the toddler world, (church nursery, pre-school, kindergarten), and beyond. It will most likely prepare her to accept the notion of a Heavenly Father whose love and nurture go far beyond anything she has experienced here. But it alone, isn't enough.
We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19 That's the bottom line. The love my mom has for me didn't transcend into my darkest moments. It didn't pick me up off the floor when I hit rock bottom. It didn't prepare me and bring a blanket of peace when my loved one was near death. It can't cut through spiritual oppression, reveal my darkest secrets, help me put one foot in front of another when I don't think I can get up in the morning...it isn't supernatural. And there is only 1 kind of love that is...the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit! We've all experienced it, whether we attribute it to Him or not. It's even in the movies, it's the 'good feeling' we get when good triumphs over evil, love conquers injustice or prejudice, or integrity rises in the face of opposition. It's the spiritual stuff we're made of, the good longings that only He can fill...the ultimate desire to find, experience and fall into the arms of perfect love!
And without it, let's just admit it right now, we're poor lovers. Oh, we're a mixture of good and bad. Kindness and meanness. I can love you really well today, but tomorrow I might be hormonal or something and watch out! So how is it that I can 'tap into' this divine love and love those around me well? how do I love with consistency,integrity, kindness and goodness? Yesterday's blog tells me that humility is first and foremost. Admit that I need help. Ask of God. Do you wanna hear what He whispered in my ear this morning as I was going about my normal morning prayer? I was thanking Him for being my Father and what that means to me when this word dropped in my spirit. Benevolent. It felt good. It brought with it the sense of warmth, bigness, tenderness, fatherly-ness. And then as 'coincidence' would have it, I came across the word again in my daily reading. Okay, Lord, you're going somewhere with this one. First of all, the dictionary defines benevolence as: a disposition to do good, an act of kindness, a generous gift, goodwill toward others, an inclination to perform kind, charitable acts: characterized by or expressing goodwill or kindly feelings, desiring to help others; charitable, intended for benefits rather than profit, big-hearted.
Benevolence is the heart of God toward us. We get to open our arms and receive it..."because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5) The word for love in this passage is agape. Here is what it means: "agape denotes an undefeatable benevolence and unconquerable goodwill that always seeks the highest good of the other person, no matter what he does. It is the self-giving love that gives freely without asking anything in return, and does not consider the worth of its object. Agape is more a love by choice than philos, which is a love by chance; and it refers to the will rather than the emotion. Agape describes the unconditional love God has for the world."
Ahhh, let's just sit back in the benevolent arms of the Father today. Let's ask Him if there is anything standing in the way of receiving and believing that He has this kind of love for us. And if He shows us something that is in the way, let's just ask Him to remove it, and show us how to receive who He is to us. Ask Him to show you a true picture of how He really feels toward you. For me personally, this has been a continual process. But it's good to stop and ask Him these things, because He wants us to experience the love He's poured into out hearts and then guess what? What goes in will come out to those around us. Woo Hoo!
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
John Bunyan
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