What Does Love Look Like?

1 Corinthians 13: 1    If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

Today My Pastor taught on LOVE, Agape Love, Loving someone even if they have hurt you, even if they are difficult to love. This is amazing because I have spent the last two years really studying about Love, 1 Corinthians 13 is been the zip code of my heart and it never gets old. Love didn't translate well to me as a young girl, I never felt good enough or worthy of love, it wasn't until 2 years ago that I realized just how much I didn't understand how God loves me.

He loves me not because of anything I can do or say, his love is not a reaction to anything I do and it certainly is not a reaction to my love. This is what I had been learning and then I walk in to church and God just speaks so clearly! This isn't the first time, I know it wont be the last time either.

I set out of church this morning with an answer to prayer and an encouraged spirit, ready to put LOVE in to action However God called me.

My sister, her two girls and I went to Lunch together, One of my favorite things to do after church, and on the way out a man sitting on his wheelchair asked if we would like to buy some roses, They were beautiful, Neither my sister or I had any cash, We apologized and I said I would be praying for him, his eyes lit up and he was so grateful, We got in the car and it occurred to me that we maybe should have stopped and prayed with him........ We prayed in the car, and I felt God wanted me to go to the ATM and get some money for him. so I did, My sister collected all of her change and we quickly drove back, I walked up to him and excused myself and he was standing up, I told him that God had told me to bring this to him and I told him that God loved him so much, The look in his eyes was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and he said to me, NOTHING CAN SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD! The love in his eyes shocked me, because they were full of love. I asked his name, Charles, We parted and I felt so touched by love, there very thing I thought I was giving I received in abundance, It made me weep and my sister wept as well. Pastor said you will feel how much God loves you when you move in love and that is exactly what happened to me, Charles ministered to me.

Thank you Jesus!

Here are the lyric to one of my favorite songs and I am attaching the song as well, it's so worth the listen

"What does love look like?" is the question I've been

Pondering

"What does love look like?"

"What does love look like?" is the question I've been

Asking of You

I once believed that love was romance, just a chance

I even thought that love was for the lucky and the

Beautiful

I once believed that love was a momentary bliss

But love is more than this

All You ever wanted was my attention

All You ever wanted was love from me

All You ever wanted was my affections, to sit here at

Your feet

Then I sat down, a little frustrated and confused

If all of life comes down to love

Then love has to be more than sentiment

More than selfishness and selfish gain

And then I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at

Me

I saw Him there, hanging on a tree, looking at me

He was looking at me, looking at Him, staring through

Me

I could not escape those beautiful eyes

And I began to weep and weep

He had arms wide open, a heart exposed

Arms wide open; He was bleeding, bleeding

Love's definition, love's definition was looking at me

Looking at Him, hanging on a tree

I began to weep and weep and weep and weep

This is how I know what love is, this is how I know

What love is

And as I sat there weeping, crying

Those beautiful eyes, full of desire and love

He said to me, "You shall love Me, You shall love Me

You shall love Me, You shall love Me"

With arms wide open, a heart exposed

With arms wide open, bleeding, sometimes bleeding

If anybody's looking for love in all the wrong places

If you've been searching for love, come to Me, come to

Me

Take up your cross, deny yourself

Forget your father's house and run, run with Me

You were made for abandonment, wholeheartedness

You were made for someone greater, someone bigger, so

Follow Me

And You'll come alive when you learn to die

Measuring Up.......

Have you ever found yourself in a place that you feel like God just isn't interested in you and that maybe he might have realized finally that you are just never gonna get it, never gonna to measure up? It's kind of silly, I know because Hello, He made us, but there are times that I just feel my inadequacies are so overwhelming and so why wouldn't he say Adios Sister, I'm over you!

Here is what I am finding out, He truly is so very interested and HE is NEVER inadequate, which means that he can handle anything you throw his way, It's true! He can handle ANYTHING! What are you holding back from him? What feels so heavy that you feel like it could hold you away from him?

It's time for me to be candid, There are a lot of things that sit heavily in my heart, these things I long so completely to overcome, Fear is one of them, The type of fear that says you are not lovable, the kind of fear that paralyzes me. A great man in my life brought up that fear and doubt are assigned to me by the enemy, they are constant antagonizers in my life. The fact that I know this and that fear grips so tightly scares me, Do I allow it? Is it my punishment for unbelief? Is my testimony valid in the light of this confession? Can God use me? These are the questions that I wrestle with, these are the thoughts that nag me.

Do you struggle with this?

The Good news is this is all normal! These are all normal human thoughts and feelings and Guess What!!!!! We are inadequate! We are born lacking because we need him, Apart from him we can accomplish nothing, and he knows this! He created us, he knew what he was getting into, he didn't choose to take us in, or accept us, No It's much more than that, look at this, if he just "took us in" or "accepts us" or "deals with us" then that would indicate that he had no control over how we would turn out, but instead he created us, he knowingly molded me into me and then he committed to cultivating me, he created us and then chose to pursue us........Just like a good parent does.

Remember the word of God says:

2 Corinthians 12:9

English Standard Version (ESV)

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Here is the Message version, I love how it says it:

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.

My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

I couldn't of said it any better! Let Go and Let God's strength come into it's own in your weakness.

Praying for you!

Blessings,

Lori