Black and White

I've been sharing a lot this week on the love that God has toward us, and as I continued to study along this path this morning I came to a scripture that clearly states how we, as His children, should follow His example by loving others.  I John 3:16 says “We understand what (God’s) love is when we realize that Christ gave His life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers.”  (Gods Word © - parenthesis mine)

Over the past couple of years I have had to closely examine my beliefs due to the journey that my wife and I have been on with the attack on her health. Like I have mentioned before, there are many truths that I have always understood one way only to come to see them through a whole new light having been through the traumatic times that we have personally experienced.  I think that it can be summed up by saying that while I still believe God’s word to be black and white, His love is not!  God’s word is the ultimate truth.  It has the last say in any argument.  It holds a more solid foundation of what is true reality than what you and I can perceive with our five physical senses. 

His love though…. It is something that one cannot nail down.  Now, don’t misquote me here.  His love is exactly what I have been sharing with you.  It is consistent, it is never ending and goes way beyond the scope of our knowledge and understanding.  What is not as black and white, I have come to believe, is in the unique ways in which He demonstrates His love to the multifold numbers of His children in the world.

I firmly believe that He will personalize His approach and the pouring out of His infinite love according to our individual situations, skewed by our unique backgrounds, personalities, levels of understanding (and/or our faith), our callings in life, our personal strengths and weaknesses and our expectations for the present and our future.  With that said, I would see this understanding as the meaning behind John’s command that we “give our lives for other believers.”  It is a physical giving of ourselves that puts aside our own preconceived ideas of another person’s situation and needs and initiates the total yielding of ourselves to get to really know and understand what is happening with those in need.  Then to seek the Lord with your whole heart, soul and mind so as to know what His best approach is in ministering to the situation.  I think that this letting go of self may be harder for some of us than physically dying for another!

This though, is what the love of God is all about!  So the next time you come to minister to another individual take five and think first: Do I want what I think is best for this person, or do I want what God knows is best – that if I speak, let me “speak as the oracles of God;” and if I minister let me “do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen”  (I Peter 4:11 KJV)

Kind of makes you take a new perspective on a lot of things doesn’t it?  Have a great Thursday.  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What and HOW am I expecting to MINISTER to SOMEONE today?”