What if We Just Started Loving People?
What if we just started loving the people God puts before us each day, can you imagine what would spill out of that in terms of opportunity, ministry and even growing fellowship? –Wayne Jacobsen
The following is adapted from articles from BodyLife
Love is often considered an emotion, but for God, it’s a commitment and a commandment!
Everyone alive want to be loved. Its a hole within each of us. Many of us don’t find it–not even in church. We felt disconnected. Sitting in rooms full of strangers on Sunday morning watching the same stage does not build the relationships among believers we desire.
Jesus died on the cross so that he could reconcile all things to himself (2 Corinthians 5). Those who grasp that purpose will also share his passion to see the family brought together in him, not divided by institutions or differences in how we view church. We have had enough broken relationships, enough division, enough of those who worry more about defining their distinctions than sharing the life we hold in common.
Jesus only asked us to love, one day at a time, whoever is before us in whatever circumstance we meet them. Everything else he wants to do will flow from that simple reality.
Unless Jesus is our focus and passion we’ll never discover what life can be like between believers who are sharing that passion together. Here are ways you can connect with the church Jesus is building around the world.
You don’t find life in Jesus by finding the right group; you are connected with the family out of your relationship to the Head, Jesus. Isn’t it sad that people who have ‘attended church’ for 20, 30 or 40 years, have no idea how to listen to Jesus and do what he wants. We have so equipped them to live by principles that they have never learned to follow his voice.
Learn to live in him. Discover how secure you are in his love and how much you can trust his work in you. Read the Scriptures so you will learn to think like he thinks and recognize his voice.
As you grow secure in Father’s love you will find yourself loving others in the same way, and not just Christians but people in the world, too. You’ll come to recognize that God works primarily through relationships
Who has God put around you that you can open up your life to? It may be one person or a handful. They may live across town or work across the hall. Find a way to share God’s life together.
Learning to live as the church Jesus is building will challenge long-held paradigms. Most of us have been taught to be passive learners. If we need something, someone else will tell us what it is. Growth in this kingdom doesn’t happen that way. Those who find life are not afraid to knock, to ask, or to seek.
It may require you to think outside the box, but learning to live in the church Jesus is building is worth every moment of the journey.
I am more convinced than ever that every thing God wants to do in the world will flow from us learning to live in his love and listening to him as we walk through life. This allows the opportunities in our lives to grow organically, rather than through the artificial means of organizing, promoting, and manipulating others. That may be why he told us his new command would simply be to love like we’ve been loved.
For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
If you enjoyed this post you will love Wayne Jacobsen’s books– offered free here
Robin, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I enjoy your posts on facebook so much and Josh Groban song really spoke to me this morning in a way I needed. I am fairly new in the journey of learning to live loved and last night I made the mistake of going online and reading criticisms from people opposed to what I have come to embrace. I went to bed very heavy in heart and wondering if I’m dishonoring God. I don’t really believe this is the case, but when you’ve lived in religion for over 30 years it can be so hard to break the cycle.
Thanks for your life-giving words!
Hi Robin. You hooked me from facebook. I read your blog. Very insightful. Likely you already know this, but if you are like me, you have hundreds of lurkers. But, I have found they prefer commenting on facebook. Sometimes, I copy a good thread from my facebook to my comments in my blog.
God bless!
archie
Good morning, Robin.
I appreciate your facebook entries immensely. Our Father was working in both our hearts this morning when you decided to post on love.
There is a youth pastor on facebook (ours) who posted something about love yesterday and it was quite “in our faces” and it received some response. He likes to make people think. He is like Wayne Jacobsen in the fact that he is feeling the foundations shake. I liked today how he likened us all to team mates. Are we only concerned with our own and the finish line? Do we even look at our team mates when we stop racing at our check points?
Your line about living our lives defining our distinctions is what I am pondering at the moment. I want to be about distinctly receiving His love and giving it and that it be knee jerk, not an afterthought. It sounds so easy but dying to self isn’t always obvious to us.
Love, hugs, & prayers for your strength this morning, Joni
Thank you for giving me something to think about this Saturday. Wonderful post.
.-= Alicia´s last blog ..Friday Follow =-.
you are loved
.-= Penny Raine´s last blog ..Tiger Woods apology =-.
Robin…I’m w/Penney…you ARE loved…& probably taken for granted far too often.:(
Be encouraged, that even though there are only a few comments, at times, there ARE lurkers who are being impacted by your willingness to share your life experiences so openly. HE is using your blog in ways you aren’t able to see. As you shared in today’s entry…
“Who has God put around you that you can open up your life to? It may be one person or a handful.”
So, whether it be one comment, or one hundred comments…never doubt that you are being greatly used by Him.
LOVE you to pieces!:o)
Thank you so much for this wonderful article ! It is so timely with the way some churches are turning away from the Lord’s teachings , as to be expected in the last times.
You have hit life in Jesus Christ head on.
Holly
Robin,
I’m so with you on this. You are definitely on the right track. I think “church” should be done so much differently than the way we’ve known it. We are home churching again after a brief stint in a small church with a controlling pastor and some people who just started making it clear that we weren’t welcome among them. How would you take blatant ignoring after previous friendly encounters with people? If we don’t see God’s love among a group of people, we don’t choose to hang out with them.
But we love to hang out with our family and worship, pray and talk about the Word together. It has been awesome. If somebody acts up, it’s easy to discipline them. I don’t have to take it to the pastor who will most likely not do anything about it.
There you go. I would comment more. I always read your posts and think they’re wonderful, but I’m always hurrying to the next exciting thing on the internet – before I forget what I wanted to check out!
I hope you understand. I’m reading along with hundreds of others. Please continue to share what you’re learning.
Love,
Penney
.-= Penney Douglas´s last blog ..What Does Noah’s Ark Have to Do With Going to the Moon? =-.
Robin, I appreciate YOU so much that I often think of you during the day and say a prayer for you!
You are loved more then you realize
I feel like we are on a similar spiritual journey. Your blog posts, your homeschooling, your Hebrew roots, God Journey, Free Believers – all of it has touched my life over the last several months and it is very meaningful to me that someone else is making these discoveries along with me.
I’ll try to comment more often!
Every time I’m here I find something else hugely fascinating, and get sucked in for WAY too long! LOL. I just have to chase a newly walking 10month old and her three older siblings… Shalom in Yeshua!
.-= Jill Vick´s last blog ..Disrupted… =-.
Robin, I have been meaning to write to you for a while now. I wanted to say a HUGE “Thank you!.” I started reading all of Wayne’s books after I read one of your posts telling how God was changing your life in Love! I had already read The Shack but didn’t know about any of the other resources – or ideas – or Truth.
God is changing my life and I am learning to live Loved!
Thank you, dear Sister! You may never know how much God is using you!
Thank you!
*P and Penny,
You both are always such a blessing. Thank you dear.
Great post! You get more flies with honey than vinegar.
Your post always inspire!