What does it mean to fall in love with Jesus and have that play out in your life?

Thinking about the blog challenge for July I am reminded that not all challenges are easy nor are they fun.

This one poses a challenge for me because in my walk I don’t feel that I have in any way come close to “actually falling in love with Jesus”

There are times that I feel in love and there are times that I feel so far away. My husband is always quick to remind me that nothing can separate me from that love. This does bring a measure of comfort but not always total relief.

When I reflect on all that He has done for me salvation being primary, I really have to ask myself if I am honoring Him fully with the life I am leading? If I were honest I would have to say no I’m actually not as much as I should be.

That being said; I went to the word of God to help me get a better understanding of what love really is.

Going to the famous “Love Chapter” we find a rather interesting list!

If you remember or even read it; in an earlier post I wrote titled: “Drop The List, Pick Up The Love Instead” I talked about list and why I am not very fond of them. So going to God’s Word and finding a list really made me chuckle. It’s as if God said, “So you don’t like list huh? loll Read this one and then let’s talk

I Corinthians 13

Drumming my fingers I begin reading words already very familiar to my soul~

Just to summarize vs.1-3 We find what it means to be busy doing good but without love and how that plays out in our lives.

1) We can speak with the tongue of men and angels, but without love backing it up we are actually clanging like a brass gong and a cymbal that won’t stop whining.

2) We can prophesy, understand deep mysteries, be full up with knowledge and have tremendous mountain moving faith, but without love backing it up we are in reality nothing.

3) Even if we give everything we have to feed the poor, give our bodies to be martyred, without love it doesn’t profit us one thing.

Ok so maybe my fingers have stopped drumming and I’m paying attention a little closer now. Is it warm in here to you? Or is it just me?

Wow, we could stop there and talk about how not having love keeps us from so much, the point of the challenge however is to tell how falling with Jesus plays out in our ordinary lives.

So let’s start with “God’s list” and see how well we measure up, shall we? So far I’m flunking the list test.

1) Love suffers long~ If we were in love with Jesus our lives would testify to great patience with others. Jesus gave us the perfect example with His teaching the disciples. He was very long-suffering with them. I would have probably pulled out my hair and walked away. Isn’t that how we normally respond when people don’t get what we want them to get after we have tried to tell, teach or win them. We give up.

2) Love is kind~ Most of us try really hard to be kind and for the most part are successful until it affects us on a personal level. Then our need to be justified kicks in and we retaliate in some form or the other. Like we do this; stop talking, withdraw, or we just cut them off completely. Jesus gave us the perfect example of this when the disciples wanted the children to just go away. They were probably getting on their nerves, but Jesus used it as a teachable moment. Rather than being kind we would rather people go away that get on our nerves. See number one is further expanded in this attribute.

3) Love doesn’t envy~ This is a hard one because most of the time we live sort of content with what we have, but then the enemy comes and whispers in your ear; Oh so & so got a new car, don’t you wish you could have one? There are a million other things I can list such as; vacations, homes, clothes, shoes, a new ministry, a new blog that is taking off in leaps and bounds etc… If we are not careful we will find ourselves in full-blown envy which leads to covetousness. Jesus told us to be content with such things as we have because our Father in Heaven already knows everything we need and provides us beautifully with them.

4) Love does not-self promote~ Oh boy this is a hard one, because our human nature wants to push our good qualities. While that is not all bad we have to remember that falling in love with Jesus shows characteristics of always promoting Him and not our own selves.

5) Love is not puffed up~ I love the way the King James worded that because I run across puffed up people all the time. Most of the time I find it very funny until I realize I am doing the same thing. Part of the nature of love, real love is not thinking more highly of yourselves than you ought to. You hear it said all the time that “It’s not about me but all about Jesus” That’s a great statement but if it bares no visible fruit in us, you and I are nothing more than a puffer fish.

6) Love does not behave in an inappropriate way~ I am sure you can identify others who do this very thing. However, we are not talking about others right? We are talking about ourselves. This one is hard to discuss because our ideal of what is inappropriate and God’s idea are diametrically opposed. While we don’t live by the motto “if it feels good do it” We actually do just that very thing. We take His word and knead and mix it, squash or ignore it to fit our ideal of what a “Christian” is.

7) Love does  not seek it’s own~ This is the one that I think derails most of us. We all have an agenda, we all have a need to love and be loved. Most of don’t understand that: “to get what we need we have to lay down what we want”. When we fall in love with Jesus really and truly fall in love with Him, we will seek only what He wants and push what we need to the background. Can we honestly say that we do that?

8) Love is not easily provoked~ Ouch! If I’m honest and I try to be, I’m not always passive toward others. I find it hard at times to smile and extend the olive branch. Certain things still set me off and I find that I do allot more repenting afterward than happy dancing over winning the victory. Recently I went through this and I lost it and then I felt really bad. When I say lost it I don’t mean I threw a hissy fit, but I did say a choice word that I shouldn’t have, effectively pushing my witness for Christ down a notch or two. I did repent, but the damage is done and instead of me happy dancing, satans getting the privilege instead.

9) Love doesn’t think about evil period~ To truly be in love with Christ I think this is a benchmark quality for all who claim to be His. We will run from evil like Sheerkan ran from fire in the Jungle Book Animated film. Dark and light cannot dwell together in unity, so if you find that you are comfortable around evil, please pray and ask The Lord if indeed you are born again.

10) Love does not rejoice in iniquity~ How many so called “Christian” people today are rejoicing in iniquity all in the idea of God is Love? It really breaks my heart to see people embrace lies because we have been taught that God is so loving that He loves everybody regardless of lifestyle choices. Yes, God is love and He does love, but He does not embrace iniquity. It cost Him a son. So don’t be so arrogant to think you are getting away with embracing iniquity, nor be so ignorant thinking that God doesn’t care about those who walk the paths of unrighteousness on purpose.

11) Love rejoices in truth~ Wow, love rejoices in truth. What truth would that be? His truth. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No man can even get close to God any other way but Jesus. This is why people for thousands of years have willingly laid down their lives for His name. That is why people today around the world are taking a stand for Jesus regardless of the pain, torture and death they are going through.

12) Love bears, believes, hopes and endures all things~ This verse I believe is a nice summary to the above list. It gives you the final picture of what true love is. It tells you that when you have love, not just appearing loving. When you have love, God’s love you will walk it out in your everyday life. There is not one thing mentioned above that we don’t experience daily. Part of being totally in love with God is trusting Him, communicating with Him. No love can survive without those things.

How does my life reflect the love of God I claim to have?

Falling in love with Jesus is such a beautiful experience. He works things out in us and each day we should be getting closer and closer to Him. As we get closer to Him we begin to walk it out with others. What used to be moments of self indulgence and self seeking now become moments of laying our lives down and serving others. We begin to love others through the lens of God’s word seeking peace instead of retaliation. We want to see others succeed even at the expense of our failure. We rejoice when others are blessed even when we suffer need. We seek to be the answer without having to ask God if it’s the way we should go. Without question loving Jesus changes and shifts the entire focus of our small world.

Basically in a nut shell falling in love with Jesus reveals in us an absence of our own reflection.

Do you want to be a reflection of Jesus and fall totally in love with Him? I do, it’s what I desire more than anything in the world. In order to do that we are going to have to fall out of love with ourselves. There isn’t another way. We have to lay down our lives as He laid down His.

He was totally in love with His Father and He laid down His life obediently, not conveniently, nor like we do when it serves a purpose for us.

That’s something to think about~

Before I leave you I remembered this song and wanted to share the word to the chorus~

I keep falling in love with Him over and over. Over and over again!

I keep falling in love with Him over and over. Over and over again!

He gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by!

Oh what a love between my Lord and I!

I keep falling in love in with Him over and over. Over and over again!

 

May God bless you in your faith, keep pressing earnestly for the mark~

 

I’m hid with Christ~

Shawn