Heart Love

Here is a spiritual principle: We cannot exercise love unless we are experiencing grace. You cannot truly love others unless you are convinced that God's love for you is unconditional, based solely on the merit of Christ, not on your performance. Our love, either to God or to others, can only be a response to His love for us.  Jerry Bridges

I was reading a devotional by Rick Warren and he was talking about loving people from the heart.  He made a statement that stuck with me.  He said that if we don’t love people from the heart then they get on our nerves.  If we react to each other from our minds instead of our hearts then we are not loving with “heart love”. 

What does it mean to love other people from the heart?  It means it is necessary to ask questions and really listen to the answers.  If you hear the hurt and try to understand it, you are moving toward “heart love”. 

There are going to be people in this life who are going to get on our nerves.  So how do we come to love that type of person?  One of the things I do when that occurs is I think of things that person may be going through that I know nothing about.  There may be a tragedy in that person’s life that has broken them.  I run different scenarios through my head.  What if that person lost a son or daughter or maybe a parent?  If I practice “heart love” then my heart will be softened toward that person and instead of getting on my last nerve, I see them in a different light.  The light I see them in is God’s light. 

When God said to love your neighbor, he didn’t mean only when they do what you like or want. I have a neighbor who is volatile when he drinks.  You really never know who walks out of his garage on any given day.  He has a lot of anger in him and he shows that anger sometimes to his kids.  I’ve been the unfortunate witness to this one day when I left my house.  The same person has helped us repair our fence and gate, but he is also the same one who later backed out of the garage and hit that same fence while my husband was standing in the driveway.  Did it aggravate me every day when I walk out to get into my car and my gate wouldn’t open properly because my neighbor knocked it out of whack?  Yes.  But every time I get aggravated I stop myself and think about the issues he has in his life.  If I don’t consciously remind myself of the Holy Spirit living in me, I will never love others as I should in this life.

One of the things that God has provided to help us is the Holy Spirit.  If the Holy Spirit lives in us we will start reflecting “heart love”.  Have you figured out that a lot of what we call love is not really love at all?  Let the Holy Spirit dwell in you and God’s love will be made complete in us.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, there are times when I do not show others “heart love”.  The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was You showing us “heart love”.  That kind of love is not based on how much we love God, but on how much He loves us. I have figured out that there are times in my life when I am unlovable, yet You continue to show me Your love with all the blessings in my life.  Help me to demonstrate “heart love” to everyone I meet.  I worship and praise you forever.        

Scripture: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.  If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.  And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.  And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister. 1 John 4:7-21