Over the past 2 weeks God has been working on my heart in major ways. I always thought I knew how to love well and to receive love but what I have realized these past 2 weeks is that I have been looking for love in all the wrong places.
As I have been digging deeper into God’s will, I have found that I struggle with letting go of a stronghold in my life. After realizing it was a true stronghold of mine, I started to dive into the Word and listen to sermons that focus on releasing strongholds and figuring out what God’s will is for me. The more I asked God, the more obvious He made it for me. The 1st thing that I needed to learn was what love was…and not the superficial love that I know from men but the true love of God.
Sunday morning I turned on my hard drive and “randomly” picked a sermon. At the time I thought I had picked a random sermon but after the first 5 minuets I knew that God wanted me to hear that specific message. The message talked about God’s love for us.. and love was not even mentioned in the title (I guess that is how they get people to listen to it).
The passage that was discussed was 1 John 4: 7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
LOVE…and not just any love but God’s love for us…and not only that but in verse 10 it dismisses the thought of having to earn love.
No matter what, God loves me unconditionally and to know that He fearfully and wonderfully made me opened my eyes and made me realize that every time I compare myself or have doubts I am insulting God.
My journey is not even close to being over. I am still in the process of learning how extensive God’s love is for me; still figuring out new paths to get rid of this stronghold in my life.
The kids at Camp Hope have showed me Christ’s love. All it took was one smile, a giggle across the room, or a kiss on the hand to see God’s love in the place and His love for me.
After this I started to wonder if I show Christ’s love or superficial love to the people I encounter.
Working at Camp Hope has opened my eyes to what it means to love others as Christ loves. I have seen it through the staff at Camp Hope, my teammates, and even through my actions. I have learned that loving someone as Christ loves them requires patience, joy and a huge amount of humility. To love others you must first love yourself. I have also learned that if your actions do not have love behind them they are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Psalms 139:1-3
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
Several things I encourage you to think about are..
- How do you show loved to others?
- Do you struggle with loving yourself for who you are?
Take the time to sit quietly and feel God’s love around you every day. Take time to speak truth to yourself and listen for God’s will. Let God love you.
I am $4,711 away from being fully funded for the World Race. To keep me in ministry and on the World Race you can donate by clicking the Support Me tab on the bottom right of your screen or on the Support Me tab on the left of the page.
I am also fundraising to replace the funds that I have spent on medical expenses so far. To donate to my medical fund you can donate to my personal fundraising sitehttps://www.youcaring.com/kayseacampbell or through paypal at [email protected]
