For God is Love

Interrupted and inconvenienced.

These words accurately describe our previous week.

At least for me, these are the very words that defined how I initially felt when Jason, my husband, had to leave for Bangkok to help someone who was in a particularly unique predicament. It wasn’t in the plan, and I don’t like straying from plans especially when it involves having to be by myself at home.

I know. I should have learned a long time ago that most of the time, whether you are in ministry or not (maybe even more when you are in ministry), not everything goes as you have designed your time to be.

But I still fall victim to this trap. Every. Single. Time.

I get so wrapped up with the thought of why are we not following the plan; I end up frustrated and destroyed from the inside out.

And yes, that’s exactly what happened with me last week. Yet even with my usual selfish reaction, I felt something distinctly different with what happened. I felt God move in my heart and teaching me what He must have been trying to show me for a very long time.

As God so loudly spoke to me, He demonstrated that the interruption, the inconvenient timing of what transpired, was an opportunity to be Jesus to someone. And God chose us, chose my husband to be His hands and feet to this someone. What a privilege!

This struck my heart and really shook me out of my self-centered regard of the whole situation. I realized that He positioned us for that specific moment to walk in love with this person who needed Jesus to take him out of a dark pit.

As my lesson on loving people and being Jesus to them was not finished, this morning He spoke even more loudly through my husband’s message for our fellowship. Expanding on God’s love as manifested in our love for one another, in our relationships, Jason used a familiar verse that did not bear as much weight to me before as it did today when he preached it.

1 John 4:8, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Ouch! That stings! If I have not loved, I do not know God for God is love. And just last week, instead of love being my first response to the person in need, I was wrung out about our schedule being disturbed.

So much I have to learn in loving others!

Jason further explained that God is so closely connected with love that you cannot really separate them. To this he used our most famous love definition in the Bible found in 1 Corinthians 13:4–8.

Love is…

Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

God is…

God is patient. God is kind. He does not envy. He does not boast. He is not proud. He is not rude. He is not self-seeking. He is not easily angered. He keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. God never fails.

In all of the times I have read and heard this verse, I have never seen it like this. When Paul was describing love to the Corinthians, he was also describing who God is!

I am ending on this note and leaving you with this profound revelation. I pray for us to love one another as God loved us; to live our lives filled with love for people, as we know more of God.

For God is love.

Kezia Lewis
Krabi, Thailand
February 23, 2014
8:53 p.m.

© 2014 Kezia Lewis. All Rights Reserved.