Photo by: Gift Habeshaw
What is love? This is a question everyone in the world tries to explain, express, or experience! Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians is called the love chapter. This love chapter gives a great description of love, yet very few have been able to express love without some sort of attachment with their expression of love. You’ll hear many say “if you love me you will do…..” (you fill in the blank!) The Bible tells us, love does no harm! Love is caring! Love is patient! Love is hopeful! Love shows mercy!
In Genesis 2:19 & 3:8 we read that Adam and Eve had uninterrupted fellowship with God. God entrusted Adam with naming the animals and God walked and talked with them in the cool of the evening. Imagine that for a moment – talking audibly with God as a Father talks with his children! They had no sin! They had no guilt, no shame, no condemnation, no fear, etc. Can you imagine a life absent of these attributes?
I too had a difficult time understanding love! I grew up in a family with parents who loved us, but didn’t know how to express love verbally or through touch (hugs) because it was never shown to them. I married my first husband believing I was in love with him and he with me, but unfortunately neither of us knew genuine love. Instead of loving as 1st Corinthians 13 read, hurt was our expression for 5 years! The Lord saved me during the summer of 1974 and this is when my journey of healing and restoration began. Fifteen years after my salvation, Father God revealed to me through a radio minister the definition of genuine love and later in life I learned that “love has a face!”
Stop reading for a second and look in a mirror. What do you see? That is what love looks like! “Love has a face and that face is yours.” Father God tells us we were created out of love, His Love. We exist because of love! Adam and Eve experienced unconditional, uninterrupted love before the fall. After the fall sin separated them from God. Isaiah 59:2 reads “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” We long in our hearts for the love of God, that is what we are looking for. We were created to have fellowship with Father God abiding in His love, which teaches us genuine love toward one another.
Psalms 139 is another love chapter! We read in this chapter that we originated with God and were with Him. God looked on our substance, yet imperfect, touched us with His loving hands and fashioned us with His love! Look in the mirror again, you are Father God’s wonderful creation of love! You are fearfully and wonderfully made! Father God’s thoughts toward you are and were precious then and precious now! You were created in love, to be loved, and to give love to others. Your face is the face of love – the Father’s love.
Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world which teaches us the opposite of 1st Corinthians 13. This world embodies hate, evil, lying, stealing, cheating, murder, etc., which are all evil acts, and friends, evil does not come from God. Evil originates from satan! He wants to destroy, kill, and divide us from each other and the truth about genuine love. Satan doesn’t care about the believer or unbeliever. His plan is to destroy all mankind and see everyone in hell.
Micah 6:8 tells us genuine love is one who does justice, loves mercy, and walks humbly before God and our fellow man. This is the love that God bestows upon each of us. God’s attribute is that of “love” and “holiness.” Child of God you have the ability to live a life of genuine love. You have the Holy Spirit of the Living God dwelling within you! Whatever area you are weak in expressing love, He can teach you and equip you. Remember you were created by a loving Father who breathed His breath of life into you. Stop letting satan steal from you the precious gift of love. Love has a face and that face is yours! You have the face of love! Let the love of God, that is already in you, destroy all negative thoughts and actions toward yourself and others.
Today let the world see the real you! Let them see and experience the person God created you to be – a loving, caring person created in the loving image of God.
Journey In His Word 