Understanding God's Love

Hey, my good people!

Long time no see!

I hope that the past few months have been kind to you and that you have been well

Taking time off of social media gave me a lot of time to look up and see the world as it moves. I thought of many things during my time off. I thought of love a whole lot, too!

Anyway, I was watching a lovely Nollywood romantic movie (I am obsessed!) and I remembered a teaching I gave on love about one and a half years ago. I pray it blesses you!

The Brief Blurb

Love is a common four-letter word that describes an intense feeling of deep affection. It is also a verb that shows a great interest and pleasure in something

Love in Different Ways

There are four types of love according to its Greek definitions:

1. Storge (Pronounced: STOR-jay): This Greek word describes family love, the affectionate bond that develops naturally between parents and children, and brothers and sisters
   

2. Philia (Pronounced: FILL-ee-uh): is the type of intimate love that we practice toward each other. This Greek term describes the powerful emotional bond seen in deep friendships. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." (John 13:35 NIV)
   

3. Eros (Pronounced: EEUH-ros): is a term used to express sexual arousal or emotions between individuals who are attracted to one another physically
   

4. Agape (Pronounced: Uh-GAH-pay): is the highest of the four types of love. This term defines God's immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is the divine love that comes from God. Agape love is perfect, unconditional, sacrificial, and pure

Agape love is the most special type of all because nothing can separate us from God’s love!“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39, NLT)

How do I Respond to God's Love?

1. Obeying His commands: God is a loving Father, but He is also a Holy God and simply put, obedience is His love language! “If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15, NKJV)

2. Loving others and treating them well: It is impossible to profess God's love yet treat others poorly. Internalising God's love realigns your heart and makes you love people and desire their best.“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another." (John 13:35, NIV)

3. Having no fear of anything and not worrying: Knowing God and knowing His love empowers you to release fear be it fear of the unknown, failure, death or anything you can name. Knowing God loves you emboldens your heart and gives you hope that you can face any obstacle ahead of you. "There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection]."  (1 John 4:18, AMPC)

Signs that You Are Not Living in God's Love

The most common reason why individuals do not understand and live in God's love for them is because they do not believe they are accepted by God. This can be through mistreatment and deep hurt by people, especially in their formative years. These offences create feelings of rejection, loneliness and deep pain. The individual then develops defence mechanisms that become strongholds that may seem hard to penetrate. Because of how deeply others have hurt these people in their childhoods/ most vulnerable moments, their perception of love is warped and they may begin to feel they are underserving of love or that they need to earn love. They then have a problem associating God with love. Being abused by people in power may also negatively affect how one perceives God because they may now be averse to authority in all its forms. Pain often births rebellion

For some people, however, their lack of knowledge of God's love may be because they have not been born into Christian households. Either way, there are a few tell-tale signs that are obvious in people who have not been transformed by God's love

• Arrogance and self-righteousness: People who feel and act like they are better than everyone else are not walking in God's love. Those who walk in God's love see everyone as a brother or sister in Christ and as precious creations of God, made in His image and likeness. Walking in God's love inspires a fear of the Lord which makes one acutely aware of how they handle and see others, lest they hurt God's heart by mistreating people through arrogance

• Self-condemnation: Walking in God's love inspires one to see themselves the way God sees them. When you believe God loves you, there is no room for low self-esteem, self-pity and self-condemnation. No matter what happens to you, you find a way of going back to God's way of defining situations. You tune into what God says about you, even when you make a mistake. You do not beat yourself down because that would mean that you esteem your opinion higher than God's opinion over yourself. Instead, you submit all your emotions to God and you allow Him to handle every situation or to give you grace to correct mistakes you may have made in particular instances
  

• Mistreating people: People who live in God's love are keen to follow God's ways of handling people. They do not treat them poorly because they understand every individual is precious before God's eyes and deserves love and respect. They honour boundaries too. “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21, NLT)

• Doubt and self-sufficiency: There is a direct relationship between fear and doubt because doubt is born from fear. Uncertainty of God's love births feelings of rejection. This feeling may lead to living performatively. You may often feel like your life is dependent on your actions alone because you feel like you have no helper. This may lead to self-sufficiency or an 'I got me' attitude which locks out the move of the Holy Spirit because you do not see the need for Him. Because of performative living, you may develop stress, anxiety and doubt because you now feel as though the outcomes of your life depend on you and your effort (which should not be the case! Read Jeremiah 10:23)

• Double-mindedness: Double-mindedness is having 'two minds'. It manifests as being indecisive or moving from one extreme of mood to another. Walking in God's love empowers you to depend on Him for all your needs and trust that He has your life planned from beginning to end. You therefore do not need to sway from one state of mind to another. His love gives you a stable mind. Because you love Him, you will trust Him with your mind and will rest on Him. You will always find peace (Isaiah 26:3). You will not struggle to make decisions because you have a close relationship with God and so you can hear Him and His opinion concerning your life choices (John 10:27). You will not move from one opinion to another because you know what God's word says concerning a matter either through His written word or what has been revealed through wise godly counsel and prayer. Also, you are less likely to be a people-pleaser because your approval comes from God, and not man

• The desire to control and manipulate: People who struggle with control and manipulation often struggle with fear, pride and self-sufficiency. They tend to struggle with receiving God's love. In this complex, the individual lives life as their own captain, leaving God out of the equation many times. With this, the individual feels the need to control outcomes and people to progress things in particular ways that are beneficial to them. People who love God and understand God's love know that God is sovereign and is always in control (Proverbs 16:33). They do not push for certain outcomes especially if it means going against God's will. They trust that God will move in a way that will benefit everyone according to His perfect will (Jeremiah 29:11)

There are many more signs to look out for but I would sum everything up to this: Not giving yourself time to truly understand or receive God's unconditional love for you may show up in many ways. It takes the help of the Holy Spirit to know exactly where we need help and restoration

A New Way; Firm Help

It has taken me a couple of years to finally internalise the reality of God's love for me and receive it fully. I had to work through a lot of emotional and mental clutter with the help of the Holy Spirit. Now that I am free and I actually believe that God loves me, I face my life with so much more rest and trust in His capacity to guide me

I pray that no matter what stage of life you are in, God may reveal His love to you and that you may feel it and live life with confidence that He's got your back!

God truly loves you no matter where you are from, what you have done or where you have been!

Let us pray:

1. Lord, help me interpret your love correctly. Break down any false perception of you: 2 Corinthians 10:5

2. Lord, help me properly express your love to others: John 13:35

3. Lord open the eyes of my heart that I may see how I have not received or showed your love to others or myself: Mark 8:22-26

4. Set me up on a new foundation, a strong foundation in you that I may live out your love: Isaiah 28:16
   

Amen.

See you next time!

(Psst! Have you joined my mailing list? Please do! I have a couple of good stuff coming!)