“God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us.”
(Ephesians 2:4 GW)
The other night I was giving the kitchen counters a deep cleaning and listening to sermon/teaching videos. I clicked on a video with Patricia King and Kellie Copeland because Ms. Copeland had been the speaker at our church’s women’s conference and I was curious to hear their conversation. They were talking about our spiritual journeys and a process for letting God help you clean out spiritual/emotional wounds. The process was really quite simple – get quiet, tell Jesus “I love you,” and then listen to see what he says in response.
“Get quiet” is the first hurdle or obstacle for me. I’m always thinking about stuff and doing stuff; it’s really hard to turn off the “stuff” and just sit quietly before the Lord. Not impossible, just difficult.
In a way, though, telling Jesus “I love you” is even more difficult than being quiet. We’ve been told that “God is love,” (1 John 4:16) and that “God lives in those who declare that Jesus is the Son of God, and they live in God. We have known and believed that God loves us” (1 John 4:15-16). I do believe and declare that Jesus is the Son of God and my Lord and Savior. But believing God loves me and then living out of God’s love and then loving each other can be challenging. “Love” is a many-sided word that in our culture has been twisted and warped in so many ways that it can be hard to find God’s love.
A simple search for “types of love in the Bible” yields sources that claim there are three, four, or even seven types of love in the Bible. We have different Greek words to signify types of love in four different situations: eros for sexual and romantic love within a marriage, storge love and affection between family members, philia love as the tight emotional bond between friends, and agape love – the perfect, unconditional and sacrificial love God has for us. Agape is usually considered the highest of these, but we need all four in good balance in our lives.
Perhaps your “love tank” is always overflowing with God’s love and easily balanced among these four, but I find myself struggling to always and completely, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. [And] love your neighbor as you love yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31 GW). Truthfully, I can’t even really love my neighbor that well – in eros, stronge, or philia – if I struggle with loving God and being loved by God. I serve God, I worship God, I seek to honor God and tell others about God. Yet, why is it difficult to say, “I love you, Jesus”?
I may have to sit with this one for a bit. Perhaps you are someone who is so deep-down sure of God’s love for you that your “love tank” is always full and overflowing with love for God and for others. If you are like me and love is a somewhat complicated concept, let us go to God together and ask for his revelation of what LOVE truly is.
Jesus,
We love you.
Speak to us, we pray…..
Amen.