Power of Love

One of the biggest blessings of growing up in the church is having an amazing church family. When I call it a family, I mean it with all my heart. First Baptist Church has helped me become the person I am today. They are a constant source of prayer, fellowship, and giving hearts. I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded by so many people I love as we strive to grow closer to the Lord together. One of the ways we do this with the youth is through Disciple Now. God can always use these kinds of events to speak to us and grow us if our hearts are willing and open. The weekend of DNOW, I had prayerfully prepared my heart for worship in hopes to hear from God. Romans 5:5 reigns true in this instance. It says, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Oh, how thankful I am for the powerful truth of this verse. Because of Christ, we have constant hope because of His love. Hope does not disappoint and God demonstrated this by revealing a piece of His mighty character to me. Before this worshipful weekend, God had continually stamped 1 John 4:16 on my heart which says "And so we know and rely on the love of God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." God is love. Love is God. God is why we live. Love is why we live. The two words are interchangeable. This thought amazed me. And then God wanted me to take this truth and take it deeper. Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." is a very popular verse for good reason. God can do the impossible through us. Love can do the impossible through us. This love that created us with purpose, this love that that pours grace on us, and this love that died on the cross for us this is God. This is love. This love can empower us to do anything God calls us to. This love is our solid ground that we stand on and what our hearts can rely on because God is love and God never leaves us or changes and God is love. At DNOW, we focused on the verses Colossians 3:12. This verse tells us to clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience because we are loved children of God. Some look at this verse and love the specific instructions it gives for us to carry. I, on the other hand, am very realistic and realize that I can't do that. I cannot constantly be compassionate. I cannot always show kindness and humility. It is not in our human flesh to live with these characteristics. I wish that this wasn't true because I want so bad to live like this everyday but I cannot, but hope comes two verses later. Colossians 3:14 says "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." This love, this God is what unites all these attributes together. Love can do it. God's perfect love allows us to strive to share characteristics with our Creator and Savior. This is just one attribute of God's amazing love. This is only one miracle that God performs everyday. We get to be compassionate, kind, gentle, and humble because of love, because of the cross. Only God's power expressed through love has the power to transform us. We don't have to feel like we are constantly disappointing Him because if we depend on His love He will transform us so that we can be used for a heavenly purpose. As I worshipped this God of love, I was overwhelmed by His power. We cannot go a single moment without His unfailing power and we don't ever have to go without it because He loves us so. We must passionately, wholeheartedly depend on God so that His love can transform us so that He can use us to expand His kingdom. We, as Christians, are blessed with two responsibilities: to worship God in everything we do and make disciples. We carry these things out through the power of His love that enables us to do these things. So we have three miracles-1. We are recipients of God's love. 2. God's love allows us to strive to be like Him. 3. God wants to use us. Our God is absolutely AMAZING. And we are lavished in it. (1 John 3:1) So, today I am thankful. I am thankful for the opportunities I have to worship my Father. I am thankful for my church that opens doors for me to see God in new, exciting ways. I am thankful for the power of His love. I am thankful I get to strive to be like Christ with hope. I am thankful that God uses His transforming love so He can use me in really cool ways. I am thankful I am a dearly-loved child of God.