The Power Of Love

Yes, I’m going mamma bear on this. There is no better comparison for the love God has for us than a mamma bear and her cubs. Just try to separate a mamma bear from her cubs.

That is what it is like for us and God. There is nothing that can separate us from His love for us.  Many times the mind games that we allow to go on will cause us to doubt God’s  love and faithfulness.  It may seem at times that He isn’t there but He hasn’t changed.

When we think that He has forgotten us, it is time for us to take a look at ourselves.  What sin might be keeping us from Him?  What are we focused on? What are we listening to in our heads?

Once we get our focus back on the Truth and what He says we will be able to see how He was fighting for us as we wandered away. It is His love for us that makes us unstoppable. He has conquered death and that power is in us making us conquers too.

God’s Love

As we start our study on the Fruit of the Spirit, I want to take a look at it in a different way. So let’s take a look at Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

The first thing we notice is that fruit is in singular form. Love is the first word right after the fruit of the Spirit. We see a list a lot like the Fruit of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 13, and that list describes what love is.

I decided to use the picture of grapes still on the vine to be the focus that helps our understanding. Jesus used the grapevine many times in talking about our relationship to Him. As a branch that is connected to Him, we will get our nourishment from Him. When a grape branch produces grapes it first produces this vine with little bumps on it. As these bumps grow they mature into grapes yet they are all connected as one bunch.  That is how I see the Fruit of the Spirit all are a different form of love that matures in us.

I saw the most awesome example of love in the children’s ministry this weekend. It was an object lesson for the kids to understand that when we share love with others how it spreads to their lives. The lesson was called “Walking Water”. You take two clear glasses one filled with water and food color. Then you place the one with the colored water behind and raised above the empty glass. Take a paper towel rolled up on the diagonal and put an end in each glass.  The water will transfer from one glass to the other.

The love that we are looking at this week is God’s Agape love for us. My oldest son and I were talking about it recently and he was blown away by someone that said it is the only love that is not tied to an emotion. The only way we can give this love to others is by it flowing into our lives like the water into the glass from being connected to the True Vine, Jesus.

In Ephesians 1:3-6, we see that it was in love God chose us before the world was ever created. He knew what a messed up person we would be and that we would need a Savoir, yet it is His love that no matter what we had done He chose us to be His children. It is the love that we can only give if it is poured into us.