Chasing Butterflies Journals

It’s Just Love

BY CONNIE VANHORN

We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19 NIV).

God’s entire mission can be summed up in four letters: L – O – V – E!

Have you ever heard the term “agape love”? Agape love is love in action. It is the purest form of love—the kind God has for us. The entire Bible is God’s love story to us.

Love wins!

Life is full of people who will try to hurt us or reject our love. Sometimes, they will come at us with painful arrows in the form of harsh words, insults, or just being plain hurtful. How do we love these difficult people in our lives? Pain and wounds are real. They hurt. And it is natural for us to want justice—to want things to be fair. So how do we love hard even when it hurts? When we naturally want to run away or surround ourselves with people who love us in return? We are ruled by emotions and often seek what feels good. So how do we dig up the kind of compassion God calls us to? There is only one way.

God.

God is love.

That’s it.

It’s just love.

The message is love. The only emotion that we should allow to rule our life is love. We take this from within the spirit that God put in us. We dig up the love and forgiveness that God showed us and use that to love others in the same way. Easy, right?

Not always!

God wants to make us like Him. God is love, so we are to love others hard, even when it hurts. When we do, we might be loving someone who truly needs it. Love heals. Pray for that hard person in your life. You never know what path God has called others to endure.

Quiet your noisy soul.

A quiet spirit is God‘s spirit.

Only speak what is love.

God perfectly placed a particular woman In my life many years ago. She was very unkind to me. She constantly pointed out my physical flaws and often spoke negatively behind my back, clearly illustrating that I wasn’t good enough to be in her family. I felt so rejected by this person.

At first, being ruled by emotions, I wanted to exclude her from my life. I thought she didn’t deserve my love. As time went on, I found out about this woman’s childhood, learning that she had been raised by an abusive mother. As a result, she didn’t trust women, nor did she desire to be close to them. She never knew a mother’s love.

Even though this woman is much older than me, I felt God calling me to love her in action. At first, I didn’t want to because she had hurt me in so many ways. But God said, “Just love her.” Let’s just say I obeyed while kicking and screaming on the inside. I learned that my pain wasn’t about how she treated me but rather more about how I felt on the inside. I didn’t want to let it go and trust God to heal us both.

Through my experience with this woman, I learned that to grow and see true change, we must each look at ourselves first. Change me, first, God. We can’t change others; we can only change ourselves.

I had to change me first.

All events are settled in eternity. This person who hurt me is God’s child, too. Love hard, because God loves you. See all people as Jesus Himself. See them through God‘s eyes. Remind yourself: It’s not about me. It’s about the mission. If we truly know the Bible, we know the mission, and we need to live with purpose and always walk in love. We can love in action. When others give up and leave, love will still be here.

BY HIS LOVE.
LOVE WINS.
IT’S JUST LOVE.

This kind of love never gives up. It will endure all things. God will give us the grace we need to show difficult people this kind of love.

Agape love is not selfish.

It puts others before and above ourselves.

Agape love is kind even when we speak truth—it allows us to speak truth with kindness.

Agape love is not jealous.

Agape love is patient and loving.

It’s not a feeling. It allows us to pursue patiently all God has set before us, even when we don’t want to show love in action.

The Holy Spirit pours out the love of God in our hearts. We can embrace it by showing love in action. The greatest demonstration of God’s love was when He sent His only Son into the world to give us life through Him. This is agape love. Jesus had excellent reasons not to like some people, but He always loved them. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action, and our responsibility is to love others actively, whether we like them or not.

The woman I previously spoke of is still in my life. Today, I am able to love her because God loves me. I intentionally love her in action. With my actions, God is tearing down walls, strengthening relationships, breaking generational curses, and showering His love on those who need it most.

God commanded us to love.

God‘s love is not based on how we feel or how good or not good we are.

Loving others takes courage. Love is the very thing that unites people.

If we want to be like Jesus, we must love the unlovable, forgive the unworthy, and do good to those who can’t repay us. When we love like Jesus, it changes lives. May God turn darkness into light, miracles into butterflies, and allow us to see how His touch dramatically changes lives.

By His love.

Love wins.

It’s just love.