Set Free in Love

Love is always God’s posture

by Kathy Gust

Kathy is a spiritual director and is well-known to Baptist Women through her Conference workshop and teaching sessions during Soul Sisters and Complete programs.

WHAT WOULD YOU REPLY if I asked you, “What is your hope for the Christian life? What are you specifically hoping for from your relationship with God? What does Jesus offer, and what does that look like in your everyday life?” Pause to consider your response.

My current response to these questions revolves around love. Since the greatest commandment of Jesus centralizes love (love God with everything you’ve got and love others as yourself), it seems to me that the highest hope He offers must be found in its fulfillment. Specifically, I’m hoping that my relationship with God will lead to me being set completely free in love so that I am completely free to love.

Sometimes the word love seems like a fuzzy concept . . . what does love mean? Is it a feeling? Is it an act of my will? What does it mean to authentically love someone I don’t trust or like? What does love look like in practical terms? 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 gives clarity: Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love doesn’t traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honour. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offence. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up. Love never stops loving. (The Passion Translation)

What do you think the world would look like if every Christian knew, to the depths of their soul, that love is always God’s posture towards them? What would it look like if every Christian treated themselves and others this way . . . being gentle, patient, kind, never bragging nor being jealous, not being easily irritated or quick to take offence? Pause for a few moments to imagine it. This is the life Jesus offers. If realized, the church would be a haven of deep healing, freedom, peace, joy, community and vibrant life upon the earth.

How do we get there? Wisdom is found in the order of Jesus’ commandment. Our first focus must be to grow in our love for God. As that love grows, our desire and ability to love others and ourselves with a full and generous love will also grow.

My journey of attempting to fulfill the first commandment started with the realization that I’d been trying to live the Christian life without having the most important commandment as a focus. I was embarrassed as I prayed: “God, I don’t love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and I don’t know how to love You more . . . will You help me?”

God’s answer to that prayer was unexpected and continues to transform my life. I’ve discovStoryBlocks.com ered the truth of 1 John 4:19 that “we love because God first loved us.” Simply put, God has helped me to love Him more by consistently revealing His love and care for me. He’s been doing it for years, yet I am still surprised at the sheer generosity of His love. It’s as if it has no end! As I’ve learned to receive God’s love, I’ve been amazed and delighted to discover that His love is in itself profoundly healing and freeing. I’ve noticed that as I’m set free in love, I’m also set free to love more deeply.

God invites you to spend time with Him, to deeply see and understand the greatness of His love, to allow it to saturate you so that you can experience increasing inner freedom and vibrancy of life. Where do you need to know God’s kindness, compassion, patience and love for you?

Join me in praying Ephesians 3:17-19, that God will root and establish us in love so that we may have power to grasp how wide, long, high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

While I don’t know what the answer to this prayer will look like for each of us, I am convinced that the result, collectively, will be more freedom, love, light, peace, joy and genuine community upon the earth. 