Only A Love For Christ

By: Erlinda Mejia Olson
Penned: Monday, July 17th, 2017
Time: 4:10AM CDT

MATTHEW 22:37-38 ~ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.

1 JOHN 5:3 ~ "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome."

JOHN 3:16 ~ "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

A meditation on the LOVE of God... 

Unlocking the heart’s door. For a heart that is searching. Hungry for love. For love to overflow.

Where can I find such love? 

Overflowing in the wilderness of God’s sufficient grace (2 Corinthians 12:9). In the love of God (Romans 8:28)

Inside of me—the very core of my being, God's Holy Spirit indwells. Moving me. To love. And to love in return.

Like a gentle touch of God’s Heavenly bliss, warms my soul. So is the love of my dearly Beloved, my family, and true friends.

In the faces of those who genuinely love the LORD and died for their faith in Him. In the utterance of God's Word. In the expression of a heart that is not afraid of being broken for Christ.

1 CORINTHIANS 16:13-14

~*~

"Watch, stand fast in the faith,

be brave, be strong. Let all that you do 

be done with LOVE."

Reflecting on the beauty of God’s amazing grace fleshed out through my beautiful Saviour (John 3:16). My admiration for such benevolence. For such love. For such devotion.

At the Cross, He laid His life for a wretched sinner like me ( Isaiah 53 ).  Can I ever forget?

It’s Perfect.

Undying.

Unselfish.

Unconditional.

So PURE. So TRUE.

I drown on those heart-piercing words. God’s gift of life (Romans 6:23). His enduring goodness. His forgiveness (Psalm 118).

I ponder in the absence of hypocrisy, could I utter these words to Him?

"Your love is sufficient."

LORD Jesus, if You never added to me another thing. If all Your blessings ceased. If not one of my hearts desires were granted by You. If You chose to never answer a prayer. If only hardships were to follow me the rest of my journeys. Could I still say, "Your love, Oh Lord, is sufficient for me!"? Do I have the audacity to lay it bare and declare that my true desire be that You, Lord Jesus, do not have to do another thing for me? ... That Your love is all sufficient.

Oh LORD, my soul is disquieted, such pure and genuine love is not an innate heart attitude of mine. Can You make that so, Oh LORD of my soul? 

I desire my life to reflect a love for YOU alone LORD Jesus. Not a love for YOU because of what YOU give me, add to me, or keep me from. Only a love for YOU, LORD Jesus.

It's divinely amazing that as we empty out, God fills us back in. That even those simple things in life that we get to give and receive are sovereign. Orchestrated by Him, the God of grace and full of mercies. God’s blessings pour out all over the earth, disguising through an unfamiliar places, faces, and through life's circumstances that don't even make sense, and yet have turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Even in our humble abode contentment is gained. Because Your love, Oh LORD is all sufficient.

With much anticipation, I am longing to see YOU my LORD, my Blessed Savior, face to face, together with my saved brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone before me.

I cannot brag about my love for You, Dear LORD, because I fail You daily. But I can brag about Your love for me because You never fail (1 Corinthians 13:8). Oh, the stubborn love of God! (Romans 8:38-39).

💓💓💓

CALVARY LOVE

Poem by: Amy Wilson Carmichael

a Christian Missionary to India

1867~1951

If I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak points in contrast perhaps with what I think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior attitude, forgetting "Who made thee to differ? And what hast thou that thou hast not received?" then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I find myself taking lapses for granted, "Oh, that's what they always do," "Oh, of course she talks like that, he acts like that," then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I do not feel far more for the grieved Savior than for my worried self when troublesome things occur, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I can rebuke without a pang, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If my attitude be one of fear, not faith, about one who has disappointed me; if I say, "Just what I expected" if a fall occurs, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, "You do not understand," or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before the other's highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying "Peace, peace," where there is no peace; if I forget the poignant word "Let love be without dissimulation" and blunt the edge of truth, speaking not right things but smooth things, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I hold on to choices of any kind, just because they are my choice, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am soft to myself and slide comfortably into self-pity and self-sympathy; If I do not by the grace of God practice fortitude, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve round myself, if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have "a heart at leisure from itself," then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the moment I am conscious of the shadow of self crossing my threshold, I do not shut the door, and keep that door shut, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I take offense easily, if I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness, though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I feel injured when another lays to my charge things that I know not, forgetting that my sinless Savior trod this path to the end, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I feel bitter toward those who condemn me, as it seems to me, unjustly, forgetting that if they knew me as I know myself they would condemn me much more, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the praise of others elates me and their blame depresses me; if I cannot rest under misunderstanding without defending myself; if I love to be loved more than to love, to be served more than to serve, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I crave hungrily to be used to show the way of liberty to a soul in bondage, instead of caring only that it be delivered; if I nurse my disappointment when I fail, instead of asking that to another the word of release may be given, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I do not forget about such a trifle as personal success, so that it never crosses my mind, or if it does, is never given room there; if the cup of flattery tastes sweet to me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If in the fellowship of service I seek to attach a friend to myself, so that others are caused to feel unwanted; if my friendships do not draw others deeper in, but are ungenerous (to myself, for myself), then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I refuse to allow one who is dear to me to suffer for the sake of Christ, if I do not see such suffering as the greatest honor that can be offered to any follower of the Crucified, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone, making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If my interest in the work of others is cool; if I think in terms of my own special work; if the burdens of others are not my burdens too, and their joys mine, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I wonder why something trying is allowed, and press for prayer that it may be removed; if I cannot be trusted with any disappointment, and cannot go on in peace under any mystery, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If the ultimate, the hardest, cannot be asked of me; if my fellows hesitate to ask it and turn to someone else, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I covet any place on earth but the dust at the foot of the Cross, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

That which I know not, teach Thou me, O Lord, my God.