A new way to love

There are times in my walk with Christ that God begins to pour out a new direction in my thinking and former attitude. Maybe it is conviction I have suppressed and have become hardened to or perhaps it is that I was not ready to receive the changes He desired to show me. Whether it be one or the other or both, I always share my revelations with others in hopes that they too will benefit and hopefully avoid having to walk down the same path of my mistakes.

So here is what God has been doing:

It all started with the parable of the lost son in Luke 15 (you can read here www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2015&version=NIV if you do not own a Bible). I’ve always hated this parable! I never identified with the parable from the lost son’s perspective or the father. I always felt pity for the other son. I identified with the other son and agreed with his argument. So the other day I was reading this parable and just told God how I felt about it and asked Him to show me why I hated it and show me this parable from a different perspective. So that afternoon I received the thought of me as a mother and my two boys. I tell my boys constantly to stay away from strangers. So hypothetically one day Ben and Micah go out and a stranger approaches; Ben listens and obeys the commands I have given him but Micah does not and gets kidnapped. Though I am grateful that Ben has obeyed, I would be heartbroken over Micah! I would be like the father who waited and watched for his son’s return and upon seeing him would “run to him throw my arms around his neck and kiss him” and I too would throw the biggest party for a son who was lost and in danger but is now found and safely home! The other son would be like if Ben, upon realizing his brother came home, went straight to his room and pouted because Micah was getting a party and not him. It was at this moment that I realized the parable from the other perspective and saw my pride and foolishness for being like that pouting son. God revealed to me that I chase His love with my works and abstinence from things I think would be evil in His sight but my pride is just as wretched! I realized that I have always hated that parable because it reminded me of another relationship in my life that I have always chased with good works in hopes that I would achieve that person’s love, yet have never achieved it. I have transferred that relationship’s attributes to my relationship with God. I try by good works to earn more love from God, more affection and approval, to be better than that Christian and thus be the apple of God’s eye. The truth is that there is already an apple of God’s eye and that is His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is by grace that anyone of us is loved by such a Righteous Holy God and that He would even think to run to us is more than humbling. I’ve always known that parable to be that the father is God and the lost son is us and that God ran, but I could never see past the other son and his lack of praise for obeying. So then God showed me a new parable and it humbled me well. Luke 17:7-10: It explains a slave in the field obeying his master and doing his daily work and goes onto ask that when the slave comes in from the field would the master say to him “Oh come at once and sit down to eat?” out of appreciation that the slave did what he was told or would he rather tell the slave “Prepare something for me to eat, get ready and serve me while I eat and drink”? In the days of slavery a slave did what he was told because he was a servant to a master that he was not equal to. So the verse says in the end “In the same way when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are good-for-nothing slaves; we’ve only done our duty.” Now God wasn’t saying I am worth nothing because He sent His Son to die on a cross for this “good-for-nothing slave”. What I am saying is that at that moment God said “Jennifer quit chasing My love with your obedience. Obedience to Me is doing what is right because I am your Master, NOT so you can receive my praise, my pat on the back or gratitude for doing what you’re told." I cannot work for God’s love because then I could boast that I have earned something that Jesus paid a very very high price for when he paid the ultimate price for our redemption. “It is by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works; so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 So then rereading the parable of the lost son is even more humbling! To know that a Righteous and Holy God ran to me! The Creator of the universe ran to a created “good-for-nothing” slave to welcome me home! My tears well up at this moment as I relive this very humbling experience with a very patient and awesome God!

So today I am studying in 1 Corinthians 13 and outlining everything God says love is and then cross referencing each attribute in my Bible and making a lot of confessions! God is teaching me a new way to love Him, His way and reminding me that I never chased Him, He chased me! So let me describe His love from
1 John 4:9-10:
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atonement for our sins.

Thank you for letting me share. Please pray for me that pride will decrease and a new way to love my Creator will increase!