Well I'm back for post number 2! That's right, my first one must not have been long enough to scare people away, so I got to come back and write again. (Don't worry, I'll keep this one shorter for you... maybe).
When Leslie asked me to come back and write another blog post, I asked myself, "What's something I should write about?" I could talk about plenty of things of course. I could tell you a bit more about myself, I could tell you about some of the things I've learned, or I could even tell you about things I like to do for fun. But I wanted to talk about something more important than that. And then I started down that trail of "What's something important to talk about?" I'll spare you the original ideas that came to mind, some of which probably shouldn't have fallen in the 'important' category, but eventually I landed on love. I landed here because that is the very nature of our God. And it's the very thing the enemy is trying to get us to forget, and if he can do that, he can hold us back from living the life we're destined to live.
"We love because he first loved us."
- 1 John 4:19
God is perfect. He has everything He could EVER need. This is evident through the fact that:
He created the universe. He spoke everything into being and it was good (Genesis 1:31). This means He can create anything and everything He desires, and He did just that.
The definition of the word "need" is "necessary to exist". We know God is perfect, He's complete, He's whole, and He lacks nothing. Because of this truth, because there is nothing at all that He lacks, He has everything He could ever need, because if He needed something, then He would be incomplete. We need food and water to survive. On our own, without these things, we could not exist (I would not encourage putting that to the test). On His own, however, God is still there. He needs nothing.
Now, despite all that, despite God not needing anything, and also having complete access to everything, we see a beautiful picture: God needs absolutely nothing... But He wants you. He is perfect, He is complete, He is whole, so He doesn't need anything additional... But He still wants you. Wants are different from person to person and are unnecessary, but they usually bring joy when fulfilled. We come to them separately. Even if they are similar, each and every person crafts their own desires for themselves. Wants are entirely personal.
And that's such a beautiful picture of the love of our Father in heaven. He needs nothing, but He still wants you. He doesn't want you because He needs to, He wants you because it's personal to Him. It isn't because He needs you to love Him back or to give Him praise. Of course, that should be our reaction after getting the revelation of His love, but He loves you because He chooses to. He loves you because He desires to love you. He loves you so much He sent His only Son to pay for your sins just so He could be with you forever. He didn't have to, He desired to.
So, that's where 'Love First' comes in. He loved us first. He didn't have to, but He did anyway. Love was the first thing we received from Him, and it's that revelation of love that will truly change how we see the world. If we remind ourselves daily of the love God has for us, then we can begin to understand what love actually looks like. And that brings us to the second point.
How often do we find ourselves seeking to fulfill our own desires first? The world has trained us to be selfish rather than selfless. But love is selfless. Sin is selfish, but love is the opposite. See, God showed us how to love by loving us. He could have made it all about Himself, but He chose to show us love instead. A choice that He absolutely had the power and authority to make differently. Yet He didn't. As believers, who carry the name and presence of the Holy Spirit around with us daily, it is our duty to operate in the same love we were shown. We can do that by choosing love first. That looks like putting other people ahead of ourselves. By choosing others before choosing ourselves, we are choosing to make the other person's desires and needs our priority, not our own desires. That's love.
That's not always easy. As a matter of fact, it's actually often hard. We often stop and think "But this person made my life so much harder" or "This person doesn't deserve my love". But the problem with that, is that it's completely wrong and selfish. We (believe it or not) don't deserve God's love. We actually deserve a lot of really bad things, but God chose to love us rather than just serve us the justice that we were due. And similarly, we are not the judge, jury, and executioner. We are not asked to take matters into our own hands when it comes to who deserves love. Again, loving others first can be really hard, especially when they try to hurt us. But if someone (you, me, and even that person you just really can't stand) deserves God's love, and we are called to love like He loved us, then they deserve your love as well, regardless of how difficult it is.
In the end, if everyone on the planet truly understood what it means to love, and chose to operate fully under that understanding, the world would be so united it's unfathomable. So that's what I challenge you to do this week. Choose love first. You will be absolutely blown away at how much of an impact it has in your own life.
And if you're reading this and it all makes no sense to you, or you've never heard of this "God" guy, or you don't think He cares about you, I encourage you to reach out to Leslie. She usually puts her contact info somewhere around here so it shouldn't be too hard to find. We would love to talk more with you and - if you don't already have a relationship with Jesus - introduce you to Him and the salvation He brings. We both love you all and pray you have an encounter with the Lord this week.
Thanks for having me back this week folks. I'd love it if you checked out isaackandel.com for all kinds of cool films I make. There's even a Christmas short film on there (and who doesn't just absolutely love Christmas???). If I don't scare too many away this time, I will be back for installment number 3 in the near future!
Comments