Love Abounding More and More

Have you ever thought about your love for Christ? I have. I wish I could say I truly love Him with everything that is in me.

I can't help but think about Jesus' encounter with Peter on the beach after His resurrection. Peter was probably still suffering from guilt over his thrice denial of his Lord. Jesus singled him out and asked him, "Do you love Me?" three times. We've all heard the messages about which Greek form of the word "love" was being used both in the questions and the answers. Suffice it to say, Jesus was asking Peter to search his heart in preparation for the commission to feed His sheep. [See John 21:15-19]

Somehow, after meditating on this passage, I connected it with Paul's prayer in Philippians 1:9-11, a prayer I have often used to pray for my loved ones and for myself.

And it is my prayer that
your love may abound more and more,
with knowledge and all discernment,
so that you may approve what is excellent,
and so be pure and blameless
for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ,
to the glory and praise of God.

Admittedly, I had always thought of the word "love" as an entity in itself, which it is in a sense. It is an emotion but it is also and action and it is something that can grow. We understand that in terms of relationships. And when I used it in my prayers, I was praying that we would live out the characteristics of love in our lives, primarily toward others.
But Jesus' conversation with Peter added an extra dimension to that concept: my love for God the Father, for Christ my Savior. Let's face it, our ability to love others grows with our love for God. 

Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is from God, 
and whoever loves has been born of God
and knows God.
Anyone who does not love
does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7, 8

The more we get to know God through His Word, the more we learn to love Him through praising Him, the more we will love Him. As our love for God grows, our ability to love others grows. 

So my prayer is that my love for God will abound more and more as I grow in my knowledge of Him and my understanding of what He expects of me. May I produce more and more of the fruit of righteousness because of Jesus Christ. May my life glorify God and cause others to praise God. May I relinquish self-glorification, self-will and seek only to please and glorify my God! May I be willing to say with the Psalmist:

Search me, O God,
and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139:23, 24

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All for the Glory of God

Matt Chandler, in The Explicit Gospel, writes:      "God’s glory is what drives the universe; it is why everything exists.      "The supremacy of God’s glory is everywhere in the Bible because God’s plan is for it to be supreme everywhere in the world. This is the story of the Bible, not you or me. It is God and God alone, God’s name and namesake alone. The point of everything is God’s glory alone so that to God alone will be the glory." As I let this single fact of God’s glory sink in, I find it affects my thinking—and my praying—about everything. After Moses' first request of Pharoah to let the people go and worship the Lord God, Pharoah  increased the people's burdens, requiring them to find their own straw to make bricks, without reducing their quota. The Israelite foremen complained to Moses and Moses went to God with this complaint: "O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?" Exodus 5:22  We sens
Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

Image
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 I am ever so thankful for so many things: family, health, friends... I am especially thankful for the salvation provided by God through Christ Jesus. But as I thought back over my life, I have to admit surprise at what I discovered to be a main reason for thanksgiving: the trials in my life. I know that must sound strange, but I realized that the major difficulties in my life brought changes in me that cause rejoicing. Let me cite a few: First there was the time my husband was laid off for ten months. I think I've shared before that I used to be a real worrier, especially about our finances. But it was through learning how to worship and praise God during the stress of living on my part-time paycheck plus stretching the severance he received when his job ended. I often turned to key passages (Isaiah 40, Job 38-41, various Psalms) to help me think abo
Read more

Faith Like Abraham's

Image
January cold spell. Winter blanketing the earth with a coat of white. Trees stretching barren limbs outward. Colorful blooms in the garden long since faded away. But spring and summer will come again. We know they will even though there is no current evidence of verdant life. That's faith! Free of doubts because we've experienced this "rebirth" of nature all the years of our lives. But what about those unseen burdens we carry? The AWOL grandson, the antagonistic brother, the deeply personal concerns... Do we have the same faith, free of doubts? Can we trust God because of answered prayers throughout our lives? Is it possible for human beings to trust that completely no matter what, no matter how long, even without evidence that God is working behind the scenes? The Bible is filled with examples of men and women who took God at His word, who believed his promises even when they did not see their fulfillment. Hebrews 11 lists many of them. But I'm thinking of
Read more