What is Love? The Mirriam-Webster online dictionary defines love as: (1) strong affection for another person arising out of kinship or personal ties, ex: maternal love for a child (2) attraction based on sexual desire, affection and tenderness ex: felt by lovers (3) affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests, ex: love for friends.
What is Love? I'm pondering ...
- is love a feeling? OR
- is love an action? OR
- is love a feeling that leads to action? OR
- is love an action that leads to feeling?
I think I'm pretty much at ... all of the above ... but in the context of Agape Love I think it does have an overwhelming bent to action. We love because God first love us ... and so, I think, that when we are loved, no matter who it is that is doing the loving, we are being loved by God.
Now I'm pondering what it means when the writer of this letter writes, "God IS Love." And I think that if I don't know God, perhaps I have no idea what love really is. And if I don't know what love is, how can I love others in the way God asks me to love them ... ahhh, are we chasing rabbits?
Let us simply take a few moments to breathe deeply ... all the way to our toes! And begin breathing a breath prayer. Use this one or allow a breath prayer to arise from within ...
Breathe in ... Loving God (pause)
Breathe out ...
You are Love (pause)
and when ready to move deeper into the text ... Pray this prayer I've written or speak your own prayer
O God, You ARE Love, I want to know deep in my heart how much I am loved. I want to know you so I can love others as you have asked me to love. Draw me closer to you as I read and meditate on your holy Word. Speak to me and give me a word of love for all time. Amen.
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.
Read the passage again slowly and allow a word or a phrase to capture your attention ... it may warm your heart or pique your curiosity. Turn that word over in your mind as you "listen with the ears of your heart." Reflect on your word or phrase ... where does it touch your life this day? Where is God whispering to you?
Read the passage again slowly and allow that word or phrase to simmer ... or allow a different word or phrase to emerge for you. In this movement, we Respond. What would you like to say to God about your word or phrase? Perhaps a prayer of gratitude will emerge in your heart ... you may want to journal your response.
Read the passage one last time and simply Rest in the beauty of it ... receive it as a love letter from God!
When you are ready to move into prayer, use this prayer poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery. You can pray it as it is or rework the words to make it "feel" like your own. OR you can create a prayer of your own ... just say what you feel, the words don't have to be fancy and they don't have to rhyme like Maud's do, they just need to be sincere and from your heart.
Beloved, this the heart I offer thee
Is purified from old idolatry,
From outworn hopes, and from the lingering stain
Of passion's dregs, by penitential pain.
Take thou it, then, and fill it up for me
With thine unstinted love, and it shall be
An earthy chalice that is made divine
By its red draught of sacramental wine. Amen.
May we love one another in the world as we have been loved and cared for by God ... Amen.
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