-  Romans 12:10

“‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” - Jesus teaching His disciples (Matthew 5:43-48).

This love only comes through the Father by His Holy Spirit “…because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3).

Just meditate on this.

teach me how to love like You have loved me.

- Joshua Harris, I Kissed Dating Goodbye

1 John 4:7-21

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us.Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

“It’s a sad thing that we are more shocked at the justice of God than the grace of God.” - Jimmy Needham

We are alive because of God’s grace and mercy.

When we read Genesis 6-9, we find the story of the flood. I’d really encourage you to pray and read it over carefully, reflect on what it really says in the text, and then study what the Scriptures say. I’ll walk you through some of it.

“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” (Genesis 6:5, 11-13, 17)

This is why He chose to flood the earth. But He was so merciful.

“Noah found favor with the Lord…he was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:8-9)

God established a covenant with Noah and commanded him to make the an ark and take a male and female of every kind of moving and living being on the earth.

When the flood came, “Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.” (Genesis 7:21-23)

But God preserved creation through a righteous man on an ark, which Noah made by faith, in obedience to God.

When Noah got off of the ark, you know what he first did?

“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. (Genesis 8:20-21)

The truth is, God had mercy on us.

We can learn from Noah, who is remembered in Hebrews 11:7 for his faith and obedience to God. His whole family was saved, and God used Him to populate the earth again…out of Noah’s family line Jesus, our Savior, was born into the world to redeem it.

We also must remember that God is the author of all creation, it belongs to Him, and He is GOD. We forget our original purpose was that we were created by and for Him.“Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3) “For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16).

God is love. Who He says He is, He is. There is no “if.”

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8)

The problem was, we did not love God. We loved ourselves, our sin, and we indulged in the evil, sinful nature of our flesh.

So I can assure you- God is love. :) He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His character remains unchanging, faithful, true- always.

But God is not only love.

He is also just. And hates sin.

He is God. He is good, holy, perfect, righteous. That is who He is.

And because of Him, we live and breathe, although we are sinful and wicked from birth. He gives us life. He gives us eternal life. God sacrificed His only Son to die as a fragrant offering, poured out all His wrath on Him, paying the price with the innocent and precious blood of Jesus Christ so our sins could be forgiven and we can be reborn into a new creation; forgiven, redeemed, holy, righteous, His sons and daughters, heirs in His kingdom that will never fade nor end. We don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it, but His has freely given it to us by His grace if we receive it in faith and believe that He does love us.

That is love.

Thanks so much for your question and I hope this helped answer and bring some understanding! I apologize if it was kind of long. ;)

- Ephesians 4:15

Learning to love

I don’t know how to love people the way I should when I am not being loved. Receiving God’s love is one of the ways we learn how to love others. He has set the example. I have to take time every day to spend with my Heavenly Father. If I ever neglect that, I am a empty vessel with nothing to give. If I lose sight of God’s love for me, if I have no understanding of it, then I lack the knowledge of how I am to love others. It won’t make sense; I will struggle to find the reason why I should love them, if it was not for knowing the reasons how God loves me, knowing I am no better than anyone else and that it’s all by grace and His goodness I am even able to receive and know such perfect love.

Every day I must get on my knees and seek God to show me how to love each person I come in contact with. Every day I must come before Him, allowing Him to fill me as He pours into me out of the depths of His love so that it overflows my being.

I am imperfect. I am flawed. But I am loved. And I want to love others the way God loves me. But it starts with knowing and receiving His love for me. Out of myself I have nothing to give. So that’s what I do. I must come before the Lord and allow Him to fill me with His love until it overflows and pours out into every person I meet. Each day, I’m praying fervently that He would show me how to think, breathe, speak, promote, choose love always.

I think He brings difficult, mean, annoying, frustrating, unkind (etc) people into my life that act in ways that cause me to want to respond in a way I know I shouldn’t, so that I can learn to respond the way He would- in love, grace, forgiveness. Teach me, Lord. It is my desire that I would live a life of love.

“Live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)

- Galatians 5:13

Four weapons for battle →

theoldnewchurch:

We know that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

Four weapons we should remember we have in battle are God’s word, community, prayer, and praise.

God’s Word. Once I opened my friend’s Bible, and inside the cover she had written, “This is my sword.” My Bible now has the same reminder written in it, because it’s so true! Hebrews 4:12 says “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” In Ephesians 6:10-17, we read about the Armor of God and we are told in verse 17 to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” What has God said about what you are struggling against? Get out the Scripture and use it as a weapon.

Truth demolishes lies. John 8:44 calls satan the Father of Lies. “There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar…” So we need to be filling our minds with the truth; if we know the truth, the lies have no power.

Community. Being in fellowship with other believers has helped me through those times of attack and struggle in such a way, I can’t even use words to capture how much it’s helped. Galatians 6:2 says that we should “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” I struggle with being vulnerable with others with the deep heart struggles I go through, with needing people, with showing how human I am, with trusting that people truly care. But it’s a dangerous place to be when we isolate ourselves and try to fight our battles alone. So just please take it from someone who too often tries to tough it out and in times of struggle or attack; when you are struggling or being attacked, share with someone you know is spiritually strong and willing to be there to encourage you.

Prayer. Praying God’s Word, praying with others, crying out to God…He hears us, and He will come in power and answer us. Proverbs 18:21 says that “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” We can speak truth and life over ourselves when we pray. James 5:16 says the “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Praise. The enemy cannot hang around to hear God being praised. When we worship Jesus, the spiritual forces of evil cannot remain, because they are hearing the name of victory and love. Jesus’ ultimate victory and triumph over all evil on the cross means He has all power. Even His enemy must obey Jesus’ authority, because He reigns and has defeated them. When we praise the Truth and the Life… lies and death must go. When we proclaim His perfect love, exemplified in the cross, guess what? Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

As we praise Who He is, as we lift up His name, anything not of Him cannot stay. Not in our hearts, and not in our midst.

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Warriors, victory is yours in Christ!

- Breanna