…by Gordon Barker
Love…. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person
One of the greatest gifts God gives us is the desire and ability to give and receive love. This desire inside of us gives us one of the best ways to see who God is. After all, He created us in His image. The difference that we need to realize is that God is perfect love and that the gift He gives us is only the ability or potential to give and receive love. We are responsible to act on this potential. We make our choices every day. Like a lot of things though, sometimes we need a reminder (or kick in the pants) to remember to make the best choices in our lives. Have you ever noticed that it is the people we are closest to that we take for granted the most? Over time we just start to expect them to do the things for us that show they love us. While at the same time we just assume that they know how we feel about them. We need to choose to remember to do the things that show people that we love them, and then do them.
Greg gave us some biblical and very practical advice on how to do this. We have to first become a “student” of the person we want to show love to. I have to learn how they receive love to be able to show them love effectively. Maybe this answer comes through trial and error, or maybe we can just ask, or maybe we already know and we just need to act.
Let’s stop taking the people we love for granted and start showing them a profoundly deep and passionate affection. It is what we were created to do.
The Five Love Languages Verses from Sunday to review:
- Words of Affirmation Romans 12:9-10
- Receiving Gifts 1 John 3:16-17
- Quality Time Romans 6:23
- Acts of Kindness Luke 6:12
- Physical Affection John 13:14-15; Mark 10:13
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