Unconditional love

Be a Love-Spreader

   The world is starved for love. It doesn’t take a survey or a study to figure out that a root cause of many social ills is a lack of genuine love. For those who do not know the love of God, the empty space in their hearts gnaws at them continually, regardless of whether they consciously acknowledge this void…

   With a Savior and Friend who attends to every need and covers your life with His promise of eternal care, you have His unlimited resources at your disposal. In difficult circumstances, under stress, in times of confusion, you have a relationship with the one with the answers and the strength to see you through. Now you have the opportunity to share this love with others…

   Before you really can be an effective love-giver, however, you must learn to love yourself properly. How you treat others depends in large part on how you love yourself…

   “And a second [command] is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

   Jesus is talking about treating others with the same respect and concern you naturally give yourself. If you have a low self-esteem, devaluing your worth in God’s eyes or paralyzed by a sense of inadequacy, then you are not equipped to reach out to someone else. You are a needy person yourself, and your interactions with others often become attempts to fill your own wants rather than satisfying theirs. You run the very real risk of becoming a “user,” perhaps even without knowing it.

   The best treatment for a low self-esteem,…is to supply your thinking with truth about your “Jesus-esteem.” Find verses in the Bible that reaffirm your value in His eyes and memorize them. (Psalm 139, Matthew 10:29-31, and 1 Samuel 16:7 provide a good start.)…

   Let the Lord pour His love through you. Being the vessel in His capable hands relieve you of countless stressful burdens He never intended for you to carry…

v  Love is not a feeling or passing emotion-it’s a commitment.

v  Love is an affirmation of belonging, competence, and worth.

v  Love continues to care, even when it is rejected or ignored.

   …And you’re right-nobody can love this way on his own…That is why you need to rely on the Holy Spirit to administer God’s love through you. He enables you to go beyond what you want or desire to treat others solely for their good.

   What is the meaning of life? It’s exactly what Jesus said it is-receiving the love of God and allowing him to use you to give it to someone else. (Galatians 5:6)

The Spiritual Foundations Series, The Love of God by Dr. Charles Stanley

God's sacrifice for me

God Spells Love S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E

   “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. This is the kind of love Jesus demonstrated when He came to earth to die for your sins. He gave up everything for a time on your behalf, forgoing the honor and glory that are His due to becoming a human being-God in the flesh, fully God and fully man. (John 1:1)

   Why did He go through all of this for you? He did it to get rid of the one thing that separates you from the love of God-sin. Anything in your life that is displeasing to God and contrary to His law, God calls sin, and all of us are born with sin already in our hearts. (Romans 3:23)

   Sin is the big love-blocker, and only someone without sin can remove it from you. That Someone is Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God. He literally took your place by taking your punishment. When you believe that He did this for you, placing your faith in Him as your Savior, He wipes away every ounce of guilt and wrongdoing. (John 3:16; 13:1; Romans 8:1; 1 John 4:9-10) You are covered by His love and continue to live in His love forever.

   Understanding the absolute, unconditional security of His love is vital to having a free and stable relationship with Him…

…Jesus’ sacrifice is part of God’s agape love; you cannot fall out of God’s favor or lose His love as a result of anything you say or do or think. Ephesians 2:8-9 gives you this assurance: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one may boast.”

   You did not have to perform certain actions to earn His love. God loves you because He want to, and He never changes His mind-no matter what. (Romans 5:8)

“Telling God “I Love You Too”

As you feel His love surrounding you, enveloping your whole being with divine affection and unending attention, your natural response is to show Him love in return. Gratitude, adoration, closeness, respect, affection, a holy awe, tenderness-all these feelings and more can well up inside you, causing you to want to celebrate your fellowship with Him.

   …What you do with God’s Word, how much you jpay attention to His directions and commands, reveals a great deal about your love for God…Obedience is not an evaluation measure of performance but an indicator of priority.

   …As Jesus moves you to maturity and instills His principles into your life, you have the growing desire to do what pleases Him…

   …Obedience is not a mechanical, dull exercise of drudgery; it is the key to a true, godly liberty that knows no boundaries.

The Spiritual Foundations Series, The Love of God by Dr. Charles Stanley

God is love

   You were born to love and be loved. Did you know that?

   Your purpose in life goes far beyond earning a living, taking care of your family, or just making it from day to day. You were created by God to have a fulfilling, one-on-one relationship with Him and to share this love with others. In a complex world, filled with emotional pain and complicated social problems, this purpose statement may sound simplistic, but it is not.

   …A lawyer and Jesus Christ once had a very important conversation: “’Teacher,’ [the lawyer asked], ‘which is the great commandment in the Law?’

“And He said to him, “’ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. And a second is like it, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets”’ (Matthew 22:36-40).

   …From the moment of your conception, and even before that, God loved you. (Ephesians 1:3-6, Psalm 139:15-16).

   …God’s goal for your life is that you come to know him as the one, true God. Through knowing God, you come to worship and serve Him, praising and honoring the Lover of your soul with your words and with your life. God did not have to make you; He does not ‘need’ you in the way that you need food or water or companionship. God is complete and lacks nothing, but He chose to create You. He chose to bring you into being as a person to receive His divine affection and to give affection back to Him. To God, this fellowship means everything.

   …Agape love is the perfect, consuming, unfathomable, unconditional love of God. It is completely unselfish, forgiving, and dedicated to your complete welfare. On your own, you cannot generate or experience agape love; it only can come from God. If you try to think of the most generous or benevolent act a human being could perform, even that does not compare with the magnitude of God’s eternal, unshakable love for you. Jeremiah 31:3

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8). His love is therefore unalterable.

The Spiritual Foundations Series, The Love of God by Dr. Charles Stanley

Surrender to God

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God―this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is―his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Romans 12:1-2

 If our hearts are going to truly surrender to God, we must be willing to allow God to define good and evil and shape us according to His will. We must be willing, not only to do what is right, but to let God define what is right. Good is whatever God desires, evil is whatever God prohibits.

   At first, conforming may simply be an act of the will. We may obey God, not necessarily because we want to, but because we may know we should. However, if we are faithful in surrendering our will to God, over time we will soon begin wanting to obey. [William] Law said, “When you love that which God loves, you act with Him, you join yourself to Him, and when you love what He dislikes, then you oppose Him and separate yourself from Him.”

   This is why it is so spiritually debilitating to ever willfully rebel against God. Obedience and disobedience are both habitual. Our appetites and passions are like our taste buds-we crave what we grow used to. To experience true surrender, we must die to our own desires so that God can give us new desires.

   When God birthed thanksgiving in my heart, my purest cry was simply, “God I want to be on your side.”

Consider this beautiful doxology recorded by Paul in Romans 11:34-36: “Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

   Paul’s amazing confidence in God shines forth throughout history and has affected innumerable generations. No matter what happened to Paul, he had faith in God. He trusted that God’s wisdom and power far outclassed his own.

   Which is why Paul admonished, “I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1).

As Paul, whenever anything happens in your life, it is an opportunity to worship God. You have a choice. Either you will turn away from God because you blame your troubles on Him, or you will turn to God and cling to Him.

Your life can be a song of worship to the God who loves you and has a perfect plan for your life. He is wise and full of love for you.

   Will you depend on God for every area of your life? Will you trust His hand in the most difficult circumstances? Will you reject His ways or sing His praise?

July 2001 In Touch page 27

Freedom in Christ is God's gift

  “Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But not that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?”

Galatians 4:6-9

  Frustration is defined as “a deep chronic sense or state of insecurity and dissatisfaction arising from unresolved problems or unfulfilled needs.”

  Though “frustration” hardly seems like a tool God would use, Romans 8:20-21 reports that it is an avenue by which God teaches us how to enjoy the freedom He so graciously provides: “The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

  Do you experience a deep sense of frustration that derives from problems or needs beyond your control?

  Remember God is in the process of revealing a great lesson to you. He allows frustrations to build so you will be driven back to Him in prayer.

  It is in times of quiet devotion that we hear the Savior whisper to our confused and frustrated hearts words of hope and peace.

  Only God can offer the freedom we need to survive the greatest frustrations. He is the One who knows how to satisfy perfectly our every need.

  Are you feeling frustrated today? Rejoice! God is at work in your life. Ask Him how you should handle this frustration. Never allow feelings of doubt and confusion to rule your emotions. God has set you free!

In Touch July 2001, page 23, July 4

Jesus Christ sets us free from sin

All sin is rebellion against God, but because of Jesus Christ, we can be set free from its entanglement.

  “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

Romans 6:11-18

  There is a sure way to deal with sin and that is by applying God’s Word to whatever temptation you are facing. If not dealt with, temptation will turn into sin, and sin will gain a stronghold in your life. From that point, it will permeate all you do.

  People like to think that sin only affects them. For example, they deny the seriousness of adultery by thinking it won’t hurt anyone else, but it always does!

  Sin destroys families, friendships, but most of all, it destroys our fellowship with God. The aftershock of David’s sin with Bathsheba was felt throughout his family and kingdom. It weakened his ability to rule Israel and cost him the respect of family and countrymen. However, the most dramatic result of his sin was how it clouded his fellowship with the Lord.

  In Psalm 51, David prayed this prayer to God: “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge” (v.4).

  When we cry out to the Lord, He provides the strength and power we need to deal with our sin. He forgives and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. While there are consequences to sin, God will not caste us away. We may have to endure sorrow and embarrassment, but He will walk beside us and strengthen us in our walk with Him.

In Touch June 2001, page 35, June 29

Justification

“…know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Galatians 2:16-20

Perhaps, you thought you had conquered every sinful impulse. That was, until temptation or a new set of trails brought to light some area of your life that you thought had been conquered. This is when you wondered, “How could this happen? I am supposed to be free from sin.”

Oswald Chambers explains, “The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said, ‘I have been crucified with Christ.’ His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him.”

If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, then you are one with Him. His likeness and holiness are present within your life. However, there remains within you a sin nature that must be surrendered to God.

In Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

The gift of freedom that Jesus gives requires faith. We must believe that He can root out the strongholds within our hearts and that He continuously works to make us free from all sin and bondage. Our responsibility is to say no to sin and yes to God as we trust Him to provide the all-encompassing liberty that our souls crave.

In Touch July 2001, page 22, July 3