As we enter the Christmas season with all of the festivities, family, lights and cheer; all too often it is a time of great loneliness for some. The bombardment of magical love stories play across the airs with so many Hallmark movies and Hallmark cards are chosen and sent. Love being such an elusive emotion and so hard to understand at times. The very mention of the word brings floods of emotions from ecstatic joy to broken hearted despair. On this my birthday as well, I pause for a moment to look back over my life; though, I must not dwell there for too long. But when I do I see the blurring of love that is a part of my life—the moments of great sacrificial love that rose above and those moments when my own needs to feel loved or desired were the driving force which usually lead to disaster and heartbreak. I have read C. S. Lewis’s “The Four Loves” over and over again hoping to understand the mysteries of love so as to overcome its controlling force.
So, please do not think as I begin to unravel a small part of this mystery of love that I proclaim any expertise beyond that of being one who has had her heart broken on many levels and more often than I could dare to say; yet, choose love. Awaken your heart to the Glorious Love of God and allow His love to Shine Through You today. That may not sound like an easy task in a world that is so broken; yet, it is what we need more than anything else to even heal our own hearts.
Much like the heart felt poem that I wrote on Saturday, The Song of a Butterfly.
I have learned these major points when it comes to love which I hope you find helpful.
1. We were created to be loved by God. His perfect love filling our hearts from the overflowing fountain of the love that is felt and known by God’s love of the Son, the son’s love of the Father and the love of the Holy Spirit encircling them as one perfect essence of love. Without free will to choose, there is no ability to feel or experience that love; therefore, man was given free will. Man’s desire for self-exaltation broke that relationship which created a void in our hearts that only God can fill; though we sometimes try to search for it on our own.
2. Christ came in human form to become the perfect sacrifice to justly pay the penalty of man’s rebellious heart so that the relationship could be established again and that God could pour forth and fill man’s heart with joy, love and Glory such as man had never known before. Read these words that Christ prayed to the Father a few hours before He willingly was tortured and died for us. John 17: “13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves….22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
3. Everyone who accepts the gift of Salvation from God purchased by Christ on the Cross is also given the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide them. He reminds us and fills us with the love of the Triune God so that our broken hearts may be healed. Look at what Paul wrote in Galatians 5: “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
4. Still we have a choice even as believers to allow the Spirit to display that love, joy, and peace through us or to squelch it with our own selfish desires. Galatians 5: “24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”
5. So how do I learn to live out that life when my heart still has those moments of needs, fears, and selfishness? Remember this: John 15 “4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”
So, what do we do? We need to recognize when we are operating out of our own insecurities and lay those insecurities at the feet of Jesus. We need to spend time alone with God, read His word, and allow our broken hearts to be healed by Him so that we can truly, freely love our friends, family and even strangers around us. Psalm 34: 18 “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalm 147: 3 “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.”
Listen to this song, LOVE DIVINE and let His love fill you with His Love Divine
©2014 Effie Darlene Barba
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.