What Does It Mean?

Reading and studying Ephesians 3 has been huge for me because honestly, I have trouble believing God really loves me. Like is in-love-with-me-adores-me loves me. That type. At best I think He tolerates me. Just to really show how crazy I am, I get suspicious when He’s good to me. Like there’s this balance He uses that has to be at equilibrium, so if there’s something that just went into the blessings side, trouble is coming. Why would He love us? As a human, I don’t think there’s an answer. That’s why we just have to have faith that what is said in His word is true. So instead of trying to figure out why He would and if it’s really true, let’s pursue this love that is higher, wider, deeper, truer than we’ve ever known.

After spending time in Ephesians, I felt directed to 1 John 3:16-24.

            This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone had material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

  

          Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

I love talking and thinking about God’s love for us, but it’s worth so much more when it turns into us loving each other. And when we’re close to Him, it should be the result and fruit of His presence and work in us.  In the next chapter, John says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

So I’ve said before, I want to see how knowing God’s love for me changes my life, and this has been one of the immediate ways. I see loving my brothers and sisters in a different light and have been learning about it through passages in 1 John that I’ll share in the days to come.

Thank you for reading. The desire to blog on this came from being so thankful and amazed at the things God was showing me, I just wanted to share and I do a lot of talking :-). If you ever feel like discussing what's posted or other topics, please feel free to email or comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts.