Love, Steeped
A Tired Familiarity
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
You’ve likely encountered this verse somewhere or at some point in your life. Maybe you heard it at a wedding, or maybe you saw it on the cover of a journal at your local bookstore. Or, perhaps, you even ran into it at the gas station where you spotted the verse written on a key chain nestled amongst other bric-à-brac.
Wherever you bumped into the words, “Faith, Hope, and Love,” here’s my question to you: Did it move you? Did it inspire anything in you? Or….was it followed by a mindless “Mmhmm” and “That’s nice.” Possibly even a stifled yawn? *Raises hand*
You don’t need me to tell you that we’ve gotten quite used to this phrase, stated in this exact order. So much so, that when we say it out loud, it usually is said in haste and hurry, similar to how the Alphabet Song has turned ‘LMNOP’ virtually into one letter when sung by preschoolers.
Here’s the thing: words quickly spoken rarely hit deep. This is why I intentionally sequenced it here as “Love”, “Hope”, “Faith” - in order to disrupt our casual acquaintance with what really is our life preservation vest and extravagant birthright from God.
And so, let’s start with LOVE - the love of God for you and me - and steep in this for a good long while.
Linger With This
“So we’ve come to KNOW and BELIEVE the love God has for us.” (1 John 4:16)
As I think about my own life, the lives of my friends & family, and God’s church, what I see come up time and again is that we struggle to believe that we are genuinely loved by God. We “get it” in theory, but not in reality. There are many understandable reasons why we find it a hard sell.
While not expanding on those reasons in this particular post, I do acknowledge them. Our resistance to believing God loves us, and our doubt regarding just how much, is why I started here. We can’t afford to brush this off as “feel good” or diminish our need to trust this, however hard it might be to believe.
So, may I offer you a run-on-sentence all about the love of God for you? One that I hope you will read and re-read as much as you need? The fact is, God loves you…personally, consistently, of his own initiative, freely, joyfully, generously, deeply, resolutely, specifically, no matter what has happened, without you working to prove worthy of it, and always regardless of your performance!
As I said, I’m here to make this old news, good news again, for your sake and mine, and here’s why: it’s his love for us that resurrects, energizes, motivates, and inspires our HOPE and FAITH. It is the greatest of the three because it is the starting, middle, and end point.
On a personal level, what I can tell you is that, all joyful, daring expectancy (hope), bold action (faith), and non-white-knuckled love in me have been birthed and sustained by knowing and accepting, that is believing, his love for me. This is why I start here and keep coming back to the beginning.
Say It With Me
It’s easy to read “God loves you,” and just. keep. going. However, we’re still letting love steep, so we’re not done.
Let’s say it another way: The FATHER loves you. JESUS loves you. The HOLY SPIRIT loves you.
You know what? It reads better personalized, so try this: The FATHER loves ME. JESUS loves ME. The HOLY SPIRIT loves ME.
Are you game to now say these words ALOUD and S-L-O-W-L-Y to yourself?
I am. Here goes: The FATHER LOVES ME. JESUS LOVES ME. The HOLY SPIRIT LOVES ME.
Outstanding! Thank you for participating. I truly hope you found this helpful because it never gets old and something shifts when we say and believe these words. Something in our soul relaxes, something begins to unfurl. I know because, in saying this along with you, something has shifted and begun to settle in mine.
Sorry, Not Sorry
My hope is that today’s post inundates you with the love God has for you. I haven’t graduated from needing to know and believe this in deeper and increasing measures, and I don’t know anyone who has either. This is why I plan to write about the love of God a lot. Sorry (not sorry).
In future posts, I’m excited to unpack just how much and the ways in which he does. For now, I pray that, TODAY, and in a fresh way, you know his love for you through experience, and accept it as true. The refrain from the song below came on as I neared the end of writing this post. The timing was perfect and made me smile. Okay, God. I hear you. I received these as his words to me and believe they are for you too.
I am gonna love you til the stars go out
A shelter up above you til they all fall down
We ain't got a lot but we got love
We ain't got a lot but we got love
We’ve Got Love - By The Talbott Brothers
Kemi