Every Day with Jesus (5 page)

Charity [God’s kind of love] never faileth.

1 Corinthians 13:8 [brackets mine]

There is a big difference between a fallen human being’s love and God’s love. Sinful mankind’s corrupt nature doesn’t have access to or understand God’s kind of love. The Bible says God is love (1 John 4:8), and any man or woman who does not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior does not know God’s love.

People have written millions of songs, plays, movies, and stories about love, but many of them are not God’s kind of love. Human love and God’s kind of love aren’t in the same class. Essentially, human love is selfish, and God’s love is unselfish. Human love says, “I’ll love you as long as you do what I want you to do or as long as I feel like it.” God’s love is unconditional.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 lists the remarkable characteristics of God’s love. Even few Christians fully appreciate how unique His love is. We often think God loves us in the way we have been loved in the past, but that’s not so. Our bad experiences often prevent us from accepting God’s love. We lower Him to our level and think His love is conditional and proportional to our performance. That’s how everyone else loved us, but not God. His love is like no other love we have ever experienced.

God’s love never fails, even when we do. His love is unconditional. Since we didn’t do anything to earn it in the first place, He doesn’t withdraw it when we don’t deserve it. He loves us because He is love, not because we are lovable.

Make the decision today to renew your mind in the area of God’s kind of love for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you what His love is all about. This is a revelation that will change your entire life!

February 7: Spiritual Dyslexia

No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Dyslexia is a condition that causes a person to see things backward. For instance, the word G-O-D looks like D-O-G to a dyslexic person. This can be a serious problem because there’s a big difference between God and a dog.

Spiritual dyslexia is found in religious people, causing them to see the truths of God backward. Religious people believe everything happens because of them, but the Bible says everything happens because of God. First John 4:12 is a perfect example of this. Religious people want God to dwell in them, so they try to love others, thinking that will cause His love to dwell in them. But that is just the opposite of what John said.

Loving others doesn’t cause God to dwell in us or love us; having God dwell in us and experiencing His love causes us to love others. Our acts of holiness don’t cause God to love us, but experiencing His love causes us to act holy. This is the difference between religion and true Christianity.

Religion tells us what we must do to be right with God. True Christianity tells us that we are right with God through our faith in Christ, and right actions just naturally follow. We can’t walk in the Spirit by denying the flesh any more than we can bring light into a room by shoveling out the darkness. We must turn on the light to drive the darkness away. Likewise, we must walk in the Spirit to keep from fulfilling the lust of the flesh. (Gal. 5:16.)

You can’t give away what you don’t have! To set someone else free, you must be free. Let the Lord fill you with His love today, and you’ll automatically love others. Walk in the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.

February 8: He Loved Us First

We love him, because he first loved us.

It’s amazing how we miss the truth of this simple and straightforward scripture. God doesn’t love us for what we do—we love God for what He’s done for us. All error in spiritual matters hinges on this point.

Everything we do must be in response to God’s love, not to obtain it. Any good deed, regardless of its merit, can be rendered unacceptable to God if our motives are to obtain His favor through what we do. He doesn’t relate to us based on our performance. Praise Jesus! God commended His love to us while we were still sinners. (Rom. 5:8.) He loves us because He is love, not because we are lovable.

Only when we appreciate this unearned, unmerited love of God can we truly love Him in return. God is love (1 John 4:8) and all love comes from Him. Love doesn’t originate with us. We can only give love to the Lord and to others after we receive it from Him.

Relax! You don’t have to force yourself to love God. All you need to do is focus your attention on how much He loves you. As you begin to explore the depths of His love for you today, you will automatically begin to love Him in return. It’s inescapable. Instead of focusing on what you should be doing for the Lord, focus on what He’s already done for you. Then love and appreciation will flow freely from your heart toward your loving Father.

February 9: Express Love by Your Actions

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

We live in an area with one of the richest deposits of gold in the world. It is estimated there is still twice as much gold in the ground as was ever mined. We have huge gold mines operating today. This has caused many people to try their hand at prospecting with the hope of striking it rich.

I remember when one of my Bible school students came running up to me and asked me to hurry out to his pick-up. He had the bed of his truck piled high with what he was sure was millions of dollars worth of gold. But it was just pyrite, or what we call “fool’s gold.” I couldn’t help but laugh since I had tons of it on my property. Yet he was convinced he had hit the mother lode. It was weeks before he washed all that dirt out of his truck.

The real and the counterfeit look alike, but there is always a way to discern the precious from the ordinary. Gold is distinguished by the way it reacts to certain chemicals such as acid. The acid test for true love is action. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15), and then He gave us a new commandment: “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34).

It’s easy to say you love someone, but how do you treat them? That’s the test that distinguishes God’s kind of love from all counterfeits. Make sure you love the Lord and others in Spirit and in truth, and treat them as Jesus would.

February 10: God’s Kind of Love Is Content

Charity envieth not.

God’s kind of love is not envious. The dictionary defines envy as “discontented desire or resentment aroused by another’s possessions, achievements, or advantages.” A person who is discontent or resents others who have more things, talent, or a better job, is a person who doesn’t appreciate God’s love for him or her. If they would receive God’s love for them, a supernatural contentment would settle into their lives.

Discontentment is envy and is at the root of all temptation. Take Adam and Eve as an example. Before the devil could get them to sin, he had to make them discontented. That was no small chore. How do you make people who are living in perfection dissatisfied? They had no needs. They had never been hurt or abused. They couldn’t blame their actions on their dysfunctional family. However, the devil made them believe they were missing out on something. He made two people, living in paradise, dissatisfied with perfection. That’s amazing!

This shows us that contentment isn’t a state of being but a state of mind. If perfect people living in a perfect world could become discontented, then certainly imperfect people living in an imperfect world can be discontented. That’s why the Bible admonishes us to learn to be content in all states. (Phil. 4:11.) Only God’s love will give us the contentment we desire.

Ask the Lord for a deeper revelation of His love for you today. Realize that any discontentment is envy, and God’s love is the antidote for this crippling attitude. Being content in His love is what will keep you from temptation.

February 11: Love Isn’t Boastful or Proud

Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.

The old English word vaunteth simply means “to boast.” The New International Version translates this phrase as “it does not boast, it is not proud.” In other words, those who are full of God’s love don’t think they are better than others.

I’ve been on the platform with a number of Christian celebrities, and some have thought they were better than others. They demanded better rooms, better cars, better offerings, and said things like, “Don’t you know who I am?” That’s not characteristic of God’s kind of love!

On the other hand, I was once with a television personality who is famous in both the secular and Christian realms. He showed the love of God that is in his heart. Because of poor weather, the crowds were a fraction of what was expected; yet this man gave it all he had, just as if there were thousands there. He ministered to the people individually, and not just the pretty ones but those who were hurting the most. He showed true humility, which spoke volumes to me of the work God had done in his heart.

Of course, the supreme example of God’s love expressed in humility is our Lord Jesus Christ. He was King of kings and Lord of lords, yet He regularly associated with the lowest of the lowest. It was God’s love that compelled Him to lay down His life for us, and if we have His kind of love, we can do the same for others.

Today, be mindful of your attitudes toward people. Do you think you are better than some and not as good as others, or do you love everyone with the love Jesus has for you?

February 12: God’s Love Behaves

Doth not behave itself unseemly.

One of the biggest lies the devil ever sold us is that love is an overpowering feeling that cannot be controlled. However, God’s kind of love never acts in an inappropriate way. Greek scholar Fritz Rienecker says, “Unseemly means to behave indecently or in a shameful manner.” God’s love is tactful and does nothing that would raise a blush.

People who are so overwhelmed with love that they just can’t control themselves, aren’t overwhelmed with God’s love at all. That unseemly love is devilish. It’s selfish and full of lust. The old line, “We just love each other so much that we can’t control ourselves,” is more accurately rendered, “We are so full of lust that we can’t control ourselves.”

Understanding this will shine the light of truth on many of the lies Satan brings our way. Any time we are smitten with feelings for someone other than our mate, it is not God’s kind of love. His love will never act contrary to His Word. God’s kind of love will never leave us either. Anytime we feel like love is gone, all that really happened is that lust has gone. God’s kind of love never fails. (1 Cor. 13:8.)

Ask the Lord to help you redefine what true love is-on His terms, not yours. Start with the assurance that His kind of love is not a rush of hormones that’ll get you in trouble! His love will bring peace and abundant life.

February 13: God’s Love Isn’t Selfish

Seeketh not her own.

Satan has tried to counterfeit every good thing God has given us. He has succeeded in selling the world a corrupted, inferior type of love. Hollywood has been a big asset to the devil in this battle. Movies portray an emotional, sensual lust as “love,” but it has no basis in reality. It causes people to long for some utopia where every sense is fully satisfied at all times, but human love can never fully satisfy anyone’s deep need to be unconditionally loved. This is God’s kind of love.

The most distinguishing characteristic of the true God-kind of love is that it’s not selfish or self-serving. True love isn’t getting what you desire; it is selfless and giving. Just look at Jesus, the greatest example of God’s kind of love that the world has ever seen. The world will tell you that living selflessly is joyless and miserable, but Jesus was full of joy and never miserable. He demonstrated the secret to life is selfless love.

Jesus didn’t come to this earth to satisfy Himself. Ultimately, He did receive great satisfaction by redeeming mankind back to God, but He became a human being for His Father and for us, not for Himself. He left all the splendor of glory and came to dwell in the most humble surroundings. He left the adoration of all creation to live for thirty years in relative anonymity.

Although some praised Jesus during His ministry, He endured the scorn and ridicule of the religious establishment. Then He suffered the ultimate rejection of crucifixion and took all the shame that went with being a condemned criminal. He did all of this because “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

Test your love toward others today by asking yourself this simple question, “Am I saying or doing this for me or for someone else?” Focus on expressing love to others, and see how differently your day goes.

February 14: God’s Love Doesn’t Have a Short Fuse

Is not easily provoked.

During a weeklong meeting in a church of about 600 people, I taught on God’s grace and longsuffering toward us, and many were set free. However, the pastor would lead praise and worship each night and then would conspicuously walk down the aisle and right out of the church. It was obvious he didn’t like what he was hearing at all.

I tried to balance everything so that no one would think I was encouraging sinful living, but the pastor didn’t stay for the messages. The last night of the meeting, I was desperate to penetrate his rejection of the teaching. He led a song that talked about how we should be loving and longsuffering toward others, forgiving them even before they ask for forgiveness. This was a song he wrote.

Before he left the platform, I asked him if he really believed what he sang. I asked if that principle applied even to those who treated us badly over and over. He was adamant that we should always forgive in all circumstances. Then I said, “Isn’t it strange that some people believe God expects them to behave with more love toward others than they believe He shows them?” He got the point.

Another test of whether or not we are walking in God’s kind of love is how patient we are. God’s love is always patient. As true as this is with our dealings with others, it’s even more true of God’s dealings with us. God will not instruct us to do something that He is unwilling to do. God is not easily provoked. He’s not the one with a short fuse. Many people think God is short-tempered, but that isn’t the truth.

Meditate on God’s longsuffering love for you, and let Him show you how patiently He loves you today.

February 15: God’s Love Doesn’t Keep Score