The Glory on the Other Side of Trials

If we choose to walk in the Spirit, we will not fall into Satan’s temptation, not fulfill the lusts of our flesh, and we will walk in God’s everlasting truth (Galatians 5:15-25).  

We will avoid making intimate friendships with unbelievers, realizing that light has no fellowship with darkness (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). Christ in us is our path to and hope for glory (Colossians 1:27).

Just as Jesus was tempted at Gethsemane to abandon God's plan for Him, we too experience times of anxiety, regret, and hopelessness (Matthew 26:39). We see what we have and think that it is better than what God has in store for us, so we do not want to give it up.

When Jesus remembered the glory which awaited Him on the other side of the cross, He willingly surrendered His will to our Father's will. We too have glory waiting for us on the other side of every trial.

When we experience trials, we witness triumphs in Jesus through every one of them. We see His miracles unfolding in our life and in His corporate Body. We are a part of a world-wide union of Believers in Christ.

In times of blessing, we often slip into ingratitude, expectations and assumptions in our relationship with Christ in us. We are overly confident and take His love for granted.

Yet, life has a way of reminding us that regardless of our years of service and our spiritual maturity, we remain weak and helpless apart from Christ in us. God's grace is always sufficient and His power is continually manifested in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Prayer:

Father God, You choose the foolish to confound the wise and the weak to put the strong to shame (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). You use the most unlikely people as Your ambassadors to the world around us (2 Corinthians 5:20). We feel privileged to serve You with our life.

Help us to lay down our idol of pride in order for You to fill us with Your Spirit. We are a willing sacrifice, just as Jesus was, in order to fulfill Your will for our life. We thank You for Your Lamb who paid the price for our redemption. We give Him all the glory, honor, praise and blessing, because He is worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom and strength (Revelation 5:8-14).

Thought for the Day:

Christ abides in us and we live, move and have our whole identity in Him; as His Body, we make up a mighty army that has victory against the world, the flesh and the devil.

 - Acts 17:28; Hebrews 4:16

The Truth about Love

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​There are three common types of love. Each one is distinctly different, but we can feel all of them at one time - for one person or many people. EROS is passionate physical love. It includes sensual desires and longing.

Relationships built only on Eros usually end when sexual passion wanes. That is why people have affairs or casual physical relationships. Therefore, marriage needs more than Eros to survive.

PHILIA means friendship and connotes affectionate love between friends and family. It displays dispassionate camaraderie. Philia includes loyalty to friends, family and community. It exhibits Godly virtue, impartiality and delight.

Philia denotes a friendly type of affection between family and friends. It is a desire for companionship and enjoying activities with each other. Having a friendship with the people in your life and enjoying time to play, pray and share in common pursuits is vital in any relationship.

AGAPE means unconditional love. It refers to a deep sense of God's pure, holy love. Instead of the sexual attraction of Eros or the deep affection of Philia, Agape is sacrificial.

Agape provides us with the feeling of contentment and satisfaction as we put each other first and highly esteem one another as better than our self (Philippians 2:3-4). True love takes effort and is not dependent on the other person.

Christ lives in us and is love personified. Regardless of how someone treats us, we love them with God's love within us. It is not how we feel, but what we do to express God's love to one another.

This does not mean that we do not honestly communicate to others how their behavior makes us feel; but we never give up on the relationship. We may have to establish boundaries, but we keep the relationship active.

Love is not what we expect from others, but what we provide for those in our life whom we care about. We are called to love one another, just as Christ loves us. Sometimes, that is a tall order to fill.

Prayer:

Father God, help us to display love to our parents, spouse, children, church family and even strangers regardless of how they treat us. This is only possible as we submit to Your will for our life and allow Your Spirit to reprogram our thinking to have the mind of Christ. Remind us that once we have this spiritual love, then the physical and the emotional feelings will follow after it.

Cause us to submit our self to You and to resist the devil. Then he must flee from us (James 4:7). His destructive suggestions that putting our self first, estrangement and divorce are not wrong, and that You want us to be happy, will vanish with his departure. Remind us that You want us to be holy. Help us to develop Agape love for others as we focus on submitting our self to You. 

Thought for the Day:

Most people realize that we are far from loving one another with true self-sacrificing, lasting and sincere love; Eros and Philia come and go throughout the years, and they are never intense for long periods of time, but Agape lasts forever.

Communicating Love

“What the world needs now, is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” – Hal David

Loving communication is rare in this day and age with such busy lifestyles. Many are too wounded to share positive affirmation and loving reinforcement in our relationships. We expect people to feel loved without communication from us that we love them.

We all need to know that we are loved, especially children, but that will not happen unless we communicate our feelings. Spending time, works of service, verbal affirmation, loving touch, focused attention and gifts are all ways to communicate love.

Some of us prefer one or two of these expressions over the rest of them. Other people would be happy with any expression of love as long as it is consistent. Learning the love language of our significant others is a great way to express love to them.

( http://www.5lovelanguages.com/profile ).

                  

If we listen to our spouse, child, neighbor, extended family member, the person in the grocery line or on the bus next to us, we give that person a very rare treat, a gift more precious than anything money can buy.

If we say we do not love another person, we are communicating more about our own character than the other person’s personality. We listen without condescension, belittling or rejection regardless of what they tell us. We simply express God’s love to them.

As mature Believers, we allow God to love that person through us. We communicate the love, patience and concern of Christ through our words, eye contact, facial expressions and body language. We make time to focus our attention on the people that we love.

Prayer:

Father God, make us vessels of honor for Your glory. Use us to spread Your love abroad in the hearts of every person You bring us into contact with during the day, but especially with those closest to us. Remind us that loving someone in our own way is not good enough, because You call us to love them unconditionally, consistently and in a way that is meaningful to them.

Thought for the Day:

We love people continually through the years, by choosing to do loving things for them, even if our feelings do not follow; and we never give up on anyone, because God never gives up on us. - Luke 6:32