Day 16- LOVE

Day 16 brought many exciting things for our home. It was mine and Sean's 23rd wedding anniversary AND Sean's first Sunday preaching in our new church.Talk about one BIG day! I couldn't help but reflect back to God's faithfulness to us the past 23 yrs both in our marriage and in ministry. It is ONLY by His grace and power that we have made it this far. Marriage is tough! Ministry is tough!  If you asked me when we first got married if I thought we would ever have the problems we went through the first few years, I would have never believed you. If you asked me at year 7 if our marriage could be what it is today, I would not have believed you either. I could probably say the same things about various seasons in ministry as well. Grace. Pure grace. But what God's greater message to me today was about love.
I thought of 1 Corinthians 13 and how powerful those words are. Read here thinking about the love of God at Christmas.
 God has taught us so much of His love through our marriage and through the church via ministry. What we have discovered the most is the truth that love is an action. It really is a verb; one that God chose to demonstrate to us first. When I am seeking to feel loved by someone else without deeply knowing I am loved by God, I become needy and insecure....unable to be what God tells me I am or live out the life I am called to live. But when I am secure in my love from my Father, I am more able to give love and feel loved. When I replace these words in 1 Corinthians with my own name, it shows me how far I have to go to truly love like Jesus. At the same time, I know He empowers me to do just this, whether it is in my marriage, in ministry, or in other relationships. God's love is my security blanket, and as I reflected on the Christmas story this day, on a day where I was celebrating the amazing love for my spouse and love for serving Jesus in ministry,  I felt so enveloped by the unconditional love of my God. Again, it is HIS love that came to us first. "We love because He first loved us." God loved us so much that despite our constant sin, He made a way to bring us to Himself. Not just any way either. A way that meant He would send us Jesus, His Son. I'm not sure I love ANYone that much-to give my son for them, yet God did that for each one of us. How could we receive such a sacrificial love and in return NOT love Him or others? To have received such a love enables us to love freely, whether the love is returned or not. It allows us to serve and show others the God we serve. God's love has made my marriage complete. There would be so much missing if it weren't for the love God has freely given. Because of His love, my husband seeks to love me as God has loved him and I seek to love Sean and respect him because of God's love for me. God makes the love in our marriage so much greater.  I don't deserve this love, and yet I am given this completely. God's love also makes me want to love others even more. It helps me to see the body of Christ through His eyes, and love others -those easy to love and those who are tough to love. Sometimes, the toughest ones to love just haven't received His love. How much more should we shower them with love?

God's gift to us at Christmas is love. There IS no greater love. If you truly receive that, unwrapping all that He freely offers to you, you can't help but want to be grateful and pour into others. When I reflect on my marriage the past 23 yrs. the love of God continues to teach me to be a better wife. I continue to learn how to love like my Father, putting love into action and not just with words.

Have you reflected and meditated on the depth of God's love in the Christmas story? Read not just 1 Corinthians 13, but also Luke 2 with the thought of God's love to us.  Have you really taken it in, receiving it fully?  How will you, in turn, be able to be a living example of this undeserving love of God? I think it's a process as we continually learn and grow in this amazing love. It's one I am definitely still learning to take in, and pour out.

Lord, thank You for loving me by sending Jesus. Thank You for showing me through Your Spirit how to receive this love fully and for the security that comes from Your love. Empower me to love like You do so that the Christmas story might be something new for someone else this year.