For God .. not given a spirit of fear, but of power … love and of a sound mind Part (III) Love (I)

I remember the first time I heard the Lord speak to me clearly. I was 16, and what He said was “Why are you running away from me Phil, I only want you to love for me.” No, it was not an audible voice, it was "spoken" into my thoughts (John 10:27). There are three possibilities, it was my own thoughts, thoughts the Devil had planted, or it was the Lord. Well it clearly was not the Devil! And it wasn’t my thoughts either, as shown by my response “Well I don’t need you for that do I?” But I can look back and cringe, as I came to realize that 99% of the love I felt was all about me! And I now see with perfect clarity, that if there is one thing I need more than anything else, it is His spirit of love!

There was a song I heard as a boy, hundreds of years ago “Chip, Chip,” It goes like this “Chip, chip you tell a little lie, Chip, chip, you make your baby cry. Chip, chip, you cheat a little bit. Chip, chip, you quarrel over it …chipping away at the mansion of love.” The admonition “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards” (Song 2:15), is about not letting the little things “chip” away at love. For the Christian, when love has died, the command “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12) remains even, in fact especially, in covenant relationships! But how? Speaking about “love deficit,” behavioural therapists suggest deliberately performing acts of kindness to replenish the "reservoir of love!”

In a seriously damaged relationship, good luck with that! The good news for Christians though, is that God has given us a spirit of love. Yes there is a spirit of love, and it is already given, and readily available. It does have to be appropriated of course. And the first thing to do is to get rid of the various opposite spirits, spirits of blame, of resentment, entitlement, bitterness, anger rancour etc., etc. We need to cast them out, and then choose to receive His spirit of love. We can then do the behavioural stuff, and then it makes much more sense!

Father I suspect that people reading this are at various stages of their “love deficit.” For those in serious trouble we need to go deeper (next day), but wherever we are “at,” we all need continual downloads of Your love in order to "love as I have loved you." In the same context of the commandment to love, You tell us that without You we can do nothing (John 15:5). So I turn to You again this morning Father, and I ask for, and welcome more of Your spirit of love in Jesus Name Amen