L.O.V.E.

L is for the way you look at me

O is for the only one i see

V is very, very, extraordinary

E is even more than anyone that you adore can

love. hehe thinking about it gives you the butterflies and a great big smile ;P

mm... so God's been revealing to me little by little on how to bear the fruit of love. i didn't really think about it or realize that i wasn't bearing the fruit of love as much. in cell group this week, it really hit me when we were discussing the Philippines bible study questions and one of the question asks, "what are the fruits you are bearing now and what are the fruits you need to bear?" ((something to that...)) so i began to think about this through the fruit of the Spirit aspects.

so as i shared with my CG, God's been really blessing me with joy, peace, and faithfulness in my life. i remember long tym ago i really prayed for these three things so much thinking that i was good with being good, kind, patient, gentle and loving... but boy was i wrong. i mean its not that im not a loving, kind, gentle person [haha] but its not enough to the extent God wants us to be, you know?

i mean the most important commandment is this, no?

"love the Lord your God with all your heart 

and all your soul 

and with all your mind 

and with all your strength.' 

the second is this: 

'love your neighbor as yourself.' 

there is no commandment greater than these." 

mark 12:30-31

heh, just recently God's been teaching me what it means to love -- to love Him with all that i have inside&outt. knowing what it is like to love God, that love should naturally flow down to those around you, especially with the relationships you have with others. but God said i wasn't doing what i should be doing -- in bearing that fruit of love sincerely, genuinely ... in obedience to God's command. like i said before, i really prayed for joy, peace, and faithfulness in my life. it felt like i was lacking in those three areas (including self-control) and i thought i was doing well with love, goodness, kindness, gentleness, and patience. i thought i was a nice, loving person and everything, but i was just a selfish sinner. i was only being a lovable person to those i wanted to be like my friends, but not to those who were closest to me -- my family. but i didn't realize that it wasn't something i can pick and choose who i want to love. that would be out of my selfishness in wanting to do what i wanted to do. key word being me, me, me; i, i, i. but God didn't say you can pick&choose. i mean, did God only pick&choose some people who can be loved and saved? did Jesus do that when he took the cross upon His shoulder and died for just some of those people? no. God didn't.

God loved (and still does and forever will). He loved the sick, the liars, the betrayers, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, etc... He loved EVERYONE. and He's teaching me to do the same right now. honestly, there are some people in my life that i am having trouble loving them the way Jesus loved me, but God's been breaking me deeper and deeper. and if it wasn't for God's love for me, i don't think i would've ever realized that i was bearing the fruit of love in the wrong ways. love should not be selfish -- for the benefit of oneself. but love is loving God first and then sharing that love with everyone else around you because it just naturally flows out of you. i think love is something so much more than we can ever imagine. but we can always remember what God has done for us -- His ministry through love for every single person around Him and through the greatest love of all that was expressed on the cross for us. if it wasn't for the cross, what kind of person would we be like? without love, will we even be alive on this earth?

but love doesn't only bring genuine, loving, warm relationships, but with love comes everything else. and if you noticed the fruit of the Spirit, love is the first thing. and then comes joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control [Galatians 5:22-23]. riiiiiiight?? hehe :P

and as Philippines 1:9-11 states,

"and this is my prayer: 

that your love may abound more and more 

in knowledge and depth of insight, 

so that you may be able to discern 

what is best and may be pure and blameless 

until the day of Christ, 

filled with the fruit of righteousness 

that comes through Jesus Christ -- 

to the glory and praise of God." 

[amen.] if it weren't for love, we would not be able to gain the knowledge that we need to know to be able to discern right from wrong or discern anything. without love, we wouldn't be pure and blameless in front of God, glorifying and praising God. if it weren't for love, we would shrivel away in the corners of the earth and die. if it weren't for love, we would never be who we are today -- children of God who is loved by the greatest of all -- our Lord and Savior.