SCRIPTURE REFERENCE: John 4:16, And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Scripture helps us understand that God is love (See 1 John 4:16). Intrinsically and inherently, He is love. You might have heard this so much that it now sounds cliché, but God does not have love, He is love. What this would mean is that love is God's nature and person, and all He does is within the confines of who He is. By default, males cannot bear children because it is outside the confines of their natural makeup. Their nature does not support child birth. Even if they wanted to, they cannot because it is outside their reach because of who they are. They do not have what it takes because they are confined by their nature. In the same vein, God is bound by His nature which is love. God is true to Himself. He does not have dual personalities, neither does He have mood swings. He cannot hate or do anything that is outside that nature of love because hatred is not in His makeup. It is not His nature. He is not wired to hate. He does not have the ability to hate.
All He can do is to love because that is who He is. All of the characteristics of love as seen in 1 Corinthians 13 are perfect descriptions of who God is. Everywhere you see the word love in 1 Corinthians 13, substitute it and put God in it's place. It will most definitely mean the same thing because God and love are one and the same, and it goes without saying that the evidence and proof of our rebirth is love. The fruit of the Spirit is love (See Galatians 5:22-23), our mark of identification is love (See John 13:35)
We must understand what love truly is according to God's standards and how it applies to us. We will never come to understand what love really is if we don't see it through God's eyes. The first thing to know is that we derive our ability to love from God. From Jeremiah 17:9, we understand that the heart of the natural man is desperately wicked and is thus unable to truly love anyone other than himself. However, for the man in Christ, Romans 5:5 helps us understand that we have received the very love of God, thereby also receiving the ability to express that love. This would mean that the believer does not have a love problem. By virtue of our new birth, we have been rewired and our nature has changed. We now live The Zoe, and we are therefore within the confines of the nature of God which we received. Therefore, because we are as He is, He is love, therefore we are love. He cannot hate, therefore we cannot hate. We do not pray to receive the ability to love. God's love is already shed abroad in our hearts, therefore we simply walk in love.
The understanding the devil always targets in the life of the believer is the understanding that God loves us. Once he sows that seed in our hearts and we accept it then it's easy to destroy us. That's why the most important message that God did everything to convey is the message of His love. - We understand God's love by revelation. It is revealed to us.
God didn't just tell us "I love you." He showed us. It was revealed. God's love is a revelation and we embrace it by revelation. The Holy Spirit is the one that helps us open our arms to the love of God. We understand God's love in Christ by the help of the Holy Spirit. God didn't just start loving us when Jesus died, but rather, through the sacrifice of Jesus, we see the extent to which God loved us. The word "so" in John 3:16 reveals the extent or degree to which God loves us.
We must be vulnerable enough to receive God's love. Vulnerability is willful exposure. We must understand that vulnerability is a risk; a risk that God first took. He exposed His Son to the risk of being rejected, despised and defamed. We must also be vulnerable. We must come as we are. God's love is to perfect the imperfect people. We will continue tomorrow.
AFFIRMATION: I am God's dearly beloved. The love of God is real to me and I embrace it and demonstrate it by the help of the Spirit. Glory!
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