Sincere Love
"You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart." 1 Peter 1:22
Tuesday night, I had bible study with my ladies. Study was good. We have been studying 1 Peter. One of the verses we looked at was 1 Peter 1:22. The question that was discussed was, "what does sincere love look like?" The only example I could come up with had to do with my parenting experience. When one of my sons would mistreat another son, as mom, I would make them apologize. Many times, they would begrudgingly say "sorry" in the most insincere tone of voice. I would then follow it up with, "say sorry like you mean it". I think sincere love is the same way. Make your love genuine! Love like you mean it!
The question that was discussed last week was..."is there anything hindering your relationship with God?" Yikes! Ouch! Tough question. I tabled the homework last week. I wasn't sure I was completely ready to approach that question in my personal life.
This morning I woke up and tackled my homework on both topics. First, I prayed. I prayed the scary prayer that I usually avoid. I asked God to reveal to me anything that may be hindering my relationship with him. The weirdest thing happened. For some reason in the middle of my bible time, I felt the urge to scroll through Facebook. So, rather than fighting the urge, I picked up my phone and started to scroll. WOW! God just showed me the roadblock. Now, I am not saying that Facebook is bad, and everyone should deactivate their Facebook. Many people use Facebook to witness to many people. Many people use Facebook to communicate with family and loved ones. But for me personally, this has been an area that I have felt very convicted for quite some time. Just like this morning I started to choose Facebook over continuing my alone time with God. Immediately, I deactivated my Facebook. I prayed for God to reveal anything that may hinder my relationship with him, and praise God, he did just that!
So then, I continued my personal time with my Father. I then spent some time on 1 Peter 1:22. He is asking me to show sincere love to others. I asked myself if there was anyone that I had troubles showing sincere love to. And low and behold, God showed me someone. He showed me someone that I continue to judge and pick apart. Someone that I choose to look at her flaws rather than her beauty. And, for the first time, I realized that rather than allowing God to use me, I was allowing satan to use me. Whoa! How ugly is that? Not only that...this too is hindering my relationship with my King. So, Facebook was not the only thing that God had chosen to reveal to me this morning. He also chose to reveal my insincere love. I prayed. I prayed that God would bind satan. I prayed that he would give me his eyes and his heart. I prayed that I would no longer see this person through my eyes, but through His eyes. God made her. He made her beautiful. God never makes mistakes, but instead creates masterpieces. And she too is a beautiful masterpiece. I thanked God for her. I prayed that he would help me show her his love.
WOW! What a beautiful morning. Thank you for letting me share. We are so blessed! I am so blessed! I am a yucky, ugly sinner. But, because Jesus died for me, God sees me as beautiful. I am so thankful for His grace. I am so undeserving. But that is the beauty of it. I am not saved or beautiful because of me but because of Him, my Father, my King. I am His princess, because He chose me, because He loves me. And He loves you too!
Tuesday night, I had bible study with my ladies. Study was good. We have been studying 1 Peter. One of the verses we looked at was 1 Peter 1:22. The question that was discussed was, "what does sincere love look like?" The only example I could come up with had to do with my parenting experience. When one of my sons would mistreat another son, as mom, I would make them apologize. Many times, they would begrudgingly say "sorry" in the most insincere tone of voice. I would then follow it up with, "say sorry like you mean it". I think sincere love is the same way. Make your love genuine! Love like you mean it!
The question that was discussed last week was..."is there anything hindering your relationship with God?" Yikes! Ouch! Tough question. I tabled the homework last week. I wasn't sure I was completely ready to approach that question in my personal life.
This morning I woke up and tackled my homework on both topics. First, I prayed. I prayed the scary prayer that I usually avoid. I asked God to reveal to me anything that may be hindering my relationship with him. The weirdest thing happened. For some reason in the middle of my bible time, I felt the urge to scroll through Facebook. So, rather than fighting the urge, I picked up my phone and started to scroll. WOW! God just showed me the roadblock. Now, I am not saying that Facebook is bad, and everyone should deactivate their Facebook. Many people use Facebook to witness to many people. Many people use Facebook to communicate with family and loved ones. But for me personally, this has been an area that I have felt very convicted for quite some time. Just like this morning I started to choose Facebook over continuing my alone time with God. Immediately, I deactivated my Facebook. I prayed for God to reveal anything that may hinder my relationship with him, and praise God, he did just that!
So then, I continued my personal time with my Father. I then spent some time on 1 Peter 1:22. He is asking me to show sincere love to others. I asked myself if there was anyone that I had troubles showing sincere love to. And low and behold, God showed me someone. He showed me someone that I continue to judge and pick apart. Someone that I choose to look at her flaws rather than her beauty. And, for the first time, I realized that rather than allowing God to use me, I was allowing satan to use me. Whoa! How ugly is that? Not only that...this too is hindering my relationship with my King. So, Facebook was not the only thing that God had chosen to reveal to me this morning. He also chose to reveal my insincere love. I prayed. I prayed that God would bind satan. I prayed that he would give me his eyes and his heart. I prayed that I would no longer see this person through my eyes, but through His eyes. God made her. He made her beautiful. God never makes mistakes, but instead creates masterpieces. And she too is a beautiful masterpiece. I thanked God for her. I prayed that he would help me show her his love.
WOW! What a beautiful morning. Thank you for letting me share. We are so blessed! I am so blessed! I am a yucky, ugly sinner. But, because Jesus died for me, God sees me as beautiful. I am so thankful for His grace. I am so undeserving. But that is the beauty of it. I am not saved or beautiful because of me but because of Him, my Father, my King. I am His princess, because He chose me, because He loves me. And He loves you too!
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