February,
2003
"How
Do I Love Thee?"
Ah, February, the wonderful month of LOVE! How
very appropriate to celebrate our love for one another –
as a spouse, a parent, a child, a member of the Body of Christ,
and most importantly as a Child of God. For God is love and we
are the product of His divine love and creation. So many of us
have a difficult time accepting the fullness of the love of God
for us. It is so hard to believe that the God Who created the
entire universe loves us. All things that are created are His
handiwork, including you and me, and He does love us.
Isaiah 44:24
“This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, who formed
you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone
stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by Myself.”
Jeremiah 31:3 and Psalm 103:17 are very clear
that God loves us with an everlasting love. As we grow in our
understanding of His love, our lives will be completely changed.
We will lose our fear, we will be bold in our ability to reach
out and love others, we will be able to walk in peace and security
– knowing that we cannot change the love of God or make
Him stop loving us by anything we do. He will not be stopped in
His love for us. He cannot – because He is love and He is
devoted to us! Oh, dear ones, grab hold of this in your spirit!
As I have been thinking about the love of God for us in Christ
Jesus and the many ways God has shown us this love, I was reminded
of the familiar Sonnet by Elizabeth Barret Browning.
Sonnet 43 - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee
to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling
out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.”
This is so like the passage from Romans 8:38-39
which says: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Isn’t that fabulous news! We could count from now to eternity
and never run out of ways that God has revealed His grace, mercy
and love to us.
These thoughts reminded me of an email I got from a friend a
few weeks ago, in which she asked me which of the five love languages
meant the most to me. She was referring to the book by Gary Chapman
called The Five Love Languages (1995, Northfield Publishing ISBN:1-881273-15-6).
He describes five different ways that people are able to receive
love. And depending on your personality you may relate more closely
to one more than to the others. He says it is important for you
to know what is meaningful to you so that you can share with others
the ways that they can express to you their love.
I like to share this example regarding the expressing of love.
Let’s say that your husband loves a nice thick, juicy steak
cooked on the barbecue. And let’s just say that he decided
one day for your birthday to fix you a great dinner so that you
could just relax and enjoy yourself. So he gets the best T-bone
steaks he can find from the butcher and cooks them exactly the
way he likes to cook them – rare. He serves it up and brings
you to the table excited to be able to treat you with this delightful
offering. The only problem is – you are a vegetarian. Hmmmmm…..Well,
I guess you can appreciate his heart and his effort – but
how much can you really enjoy his offering of love? Not at all,
of course.
Chapman is saying this as well in his book. I would highly recommend
this book for you and your family, because it will do wonders
in helping you express your love one to another. We need to find
out how the person we want to love best receives love.
The five languages of love that he discusses in his book are:
#1 Words of Affirmation
#2 Quality Time
#3 Receiving Gifts
#4 Acts of Service
#5 Physical Touch
Now, if this is true, then God would certainly try to reach us
with His love in a variety of ways as well. So, as I have been
focusing on God and His love for us and counting the ways He loves
us, I decided to see just how God might have expressed His love
for us using these “five love languages.” Let’s
take a look at this together now and “Count the Ways”
God has expressed His love for us.
Words of Affirmation
Well I think this one is pretty easy. God gave us the Bible –
His words - to us to tell us how much He loves us, how He chose
us in Him, how He formed us in the womb, how He came to earth
in the flesh to demonstrate His love for us.
John 6:68
Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life.
John 6:63
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words
I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
So, if this is your love language, let me encourage you to read
God’s words of loving affirmation to you.
Quality Time
Quality time means spending time together in activity and communication.
God, Who is outside of time, came into time in the flesh to spend
time on this earth showing us the love of God in all that He did
- teaching, training, living, dying, being raised again to new
life and giving new life to all who believe in Him.
God desires to spend quality time with us. Just as God came to
walk in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:8) to have fellowship with
Adam and Eve, He desires to draw us into His presence to have
fellowship with us. We can spend quality time with God as we worship
Him, read His word and spend time in prayer. And remember that
prayer is not just talking to God and telling Him what we want,
it is listening to Him speak to our hearts. Just sit and listen
to that still small voice within you saying “This is the
way, walk in it.” And don’t forget to set aside the
time for God because it does take planning, we all have such busy
schedules. The wonderful thing is, you will never hear God say
to you, “Come back later, I’m too busy now.”
So what better way to spend our time than with the God of the
Universe Who created us and loves us?
Receiving Gifts
Oh my, there are so many gifts that God gives us…starting
with the gift of His Son Jesus Christ.
John 3
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life in[through] Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–
He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit:
Luke 11:13
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts
to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
The Holy Spirit gives us gifts:
1 Corinthians 12
4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There
are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are
different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them
in all men. 7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is
given for the common good.
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting
shadows.
Well it looks like God covered this love language pretty thoroughly!!!
You can look around you and every minute of every day see the
gifts of God…the rainbow in the sky after a rain, a beautiful
flower, a smile on a child’s face, a majestic mountain peak…..God
is a good gift giver for sure!
Acts of Service
Jesus came to this earth for the purpose of serving. So, receive
the kind acts of service from your God.
Mark 10:45
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.
John 13
12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes
and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have
done for you?" he asked them. 13"You call me 'Teacher'
and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that
I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should
wash one another's feet. 15I have set you an example that you
should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant
is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the
one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be
blessed if you do them.
Philippians 2
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
Yes, He served us new life as He took on our sin and debt on
the cross.
Physical Touch
Now, this one is a bit harder to grasp and receive from God because
God is spirit and does not live in a physical body – now.
But He did take on our flesh and live in a physical body for a
short period of time. During that time He showed us how important
touch is. He touched the children and blessed them. He laid hands
on the sick and they recovered. He healed by His touch. He cried
tears. He hugged his friends and loved ones. He did all that you
and I do and need in the realm of physical touch.
Jesus has ascended to Heaven and is now seated at the right hand
of the Father – but He left us here to be His eyes, hands,
ears and touch. So yes, God can still show you His love through
touch – the touch of flesh from a loved one, a hug, a pat,
a handshake of peace during a church service.
2 Corinthians 1
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts
us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
So, reach out and touch someone in the name of the Lord and be
His hand extended.
Well, those are the five love languages Chapman talks about.
And it seems as if God has reached out to us through all of them.
Isn’t He wonderful? He cares so much about us that He doesn’t
want one of us to miss out on receiving His love.
I think God has summed it all up through Paul in this passage
on love. Read it and see how important it is to God that you know
His love for you. And remember that as you read this passage,
you could change the word “love” to “God”
because God is love.
1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I
have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but
have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor
and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain
nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always
protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease;
where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy
in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish
ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall
know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest
of these is love.
Now that you know the love of God for you in Christ Jesus, why
not go out and share it with others? Find out what is meaningful
to each person and meet them right where they are. That is what
God does for us.
I L.O.V.E. you,
Patty
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