How Can We Love Like God Loves Us?

Posted on February 11, 2024 by Barbara Harper

This time of year, our hearts are drawn toward love. Whether one celebrates Valentine’s Day or not, we can’t help but hear about it and see displays in stores.

Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. I love to make cards for my family, prepare a special meal, and bake heart-shaped cupcakes served on festive, heart-covered paper plates. I love receiving cards, flowers, and my favorite candy. I don’t often listen to mushy love songs, but I’m more inclined to in February.

As fun as those things are, we know real love goes deeper. It shows up “for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.” Love can feel giddy or warm and fuzzy. But love can also feel like hard work..

Jesus told us to “love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34; 15:12). What’s more, He told us to go beyond loving those who please us or love us back, but also to love those who persecute us and hate us.

How can we do that? After all, He is God, and we are not. Oswald Chambers said in the April 30 reading from My Utmost for His Highest, “The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

I’m far from perfect in this, but I’ve found these things to help:

Pray for more love

I was encouraged when I realized there were passages in the Bible about praying to be more loving. That indicates God knows we’re not perfectly loving yet and we need to grow in love. I sometimes pray these for myself and need to do so more often.

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all (1 Thessalonians 3:11-12).

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment (Philippians 1:9).

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:17-19).

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Abide in Him

Trying to love as Jesus did will show us soon enough that we can’t do it in our own power. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).

“We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16).

Be Filled with the Spirit

Ephesians 5:5 tells us, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Part of the fruit of the Spirit is love, so when we’re filled with Him, we’ll be filled with His love.

Behold Him

It makes sense that to love as Jesus loved, we need to consider how He loved.

He took initiative. God loved us even before we knew Him, before we turned to Him, even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-6). “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

He showed grace. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He loved us when we were most unlovable and undeserving. He didn’t wait for us to “clean up” or get “good enough.”

His love was sacrificial. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God gave not just a pittance, not just a fraction, but rather what was most dear to Him.

His love is active. The Father and Son love not just in word, but in deed. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16). “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

He gave of Himself. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). That giving involved inconvenience, weariness, misunderstandings, false rumors, humiliation, pain, and death. He ministered to others when He was the only One who deserved to be ministered to.

His love is kind. “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:3-6).

He is longsuffering. “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Numbers 14:18a).

His love corrects us. “My son, do not despise the Lord‘s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11-12). God’s love is not indulgent. Sometimes love involves doing the hard thing of bringing sin to the surface so it can be dealt with.

More than just observing how He loved, we need to observe His glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” We’re changed to be more like Him as we behold Him.

Once a missionary was troubled because she didn’t love others the way she knew she should. For years she berated herself with the need to be more loving, but she continually failed, leaving her continually discouraged. Finally she started to meditate on God’s love for her. Without realizing it, her life was transformed so much that people asked her husband what had happened to her.

If we just tell ourselves over and over, “I need to be more loving,” we’re going to get discouraged because we’re focusing on ourselves and setting ourselves up for failure. But when we concentrate on His love for us, our hearts will overflow with that same love to others. No wonder Paul prays that we might know the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:19).

He took the first step in loving me, so I should not wait on others to make the first move. His love came at a great sacrifice, so I should not be surprised when love costs me. He loved me at my most unworthy and forgave a multitude of my offenses, so how can I withhold love from others? When I meditate on His love for me, His love flows through me to others.

Love one another as I have loved you. John 15:12

(Revised from the archives)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

When Small Frustrations Boil Over

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Often it’s not the big issues of life that trip me up: it’s the little everyday irritations. Anger and frustration can go from 0 to 60 in seconds over some dumb little problem.

Recently I was working on a blog post when my mouse started sticking. Either it wouldn’t move on the screen, or it wouldn’t highlight what I needed. I tried to highlight a phrase, and the mouse jumped to another part other than what I was trying to work on.

I checked my battery: it was fine. I checked that the USB sensor was within range and moved it closer anyway. Nothing helped.

I’m sorry to say I was so frustrated that I banged the mouse on the desk several times and shouted at it.

I know that doesn’t help. But it felt good. For a few moments.

Then, of course, I was ashamed of myself. I thought, “I’m glad no one was around to see that.”

But someone was.

Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” That’s a comfort, that He sees all that goes on, knows what is happening to us, will meet our needs, and provide grace for whatever He allows.

But it’s also a reminder that we don’t “get away with” anything.

I was reminded, too, of Ephesians 3:10: “Through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” It’s odd to think of angels and creatures from Ezekiel looking down at God’s people on earth and learning about His wisdom. I have to wonder what they learned by seeing the temper tantrum of one of God’s children over such a minor issue.

I’m thankful that “with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared” (Psalm 130:4), that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), that “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14).

I’m rebuked by the fact that since I don’t act like that when other people are around, it shows I do have some measure of self-control even though it didn’t feel like it in the moment.

And I’m convicted by remembering that giving way to temper and frustration in a little thing makes it that much easier to give way in other situations.

I reasoned that if the testing of our faith by trials is supposed to produce steadfastness, as James says, and we’re to “let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:3-4), that’s true of small trials as well as large ones.

I thought of verses about anger, like Ecclesiastes 7:9: “Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.” I thought how God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psalm 103:8; 145:8; 86:15). I remembered once again that as we “behold His glory,” we’re “transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). I need to behold Him more in His Word.

Practically, I was motivated to remember to tell my husband the problem with my mouse. If I had done that one of the last several times I had problems, it would’ve prevented my little blow-up.

As I thought through all these things, I considered writing a blog post. Then I thought, “Nah, lesson learned, pick up and go on.” But the next day or so, the Daily Light on the Daily Path reading for the day was filled with verses linked to and including the Proverb mentioned above about God seeing us. That seemed a confirming nudge to go ahead with this blog post.

How about you? Do you ever lose it over little things? What have you found to help? Do any of these thoughts resonate with you?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

You Can Throw Your Weight on God’s Testimony

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Often I’ll turn the radio on while I make my breakfast, and usually Dr. Stephen Davey’s program, Wisdom for the Heart, is on at that time.

One day last week, Dr. Davey was speaking from Psalm 19. It’s a familiar passage to many of us. It starts with “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above [firmament in the KJV] proclaims his handiwork,” and then goes on to develop that theme for the next several verses.

The last half of the psalm talks about how God’s character is seen through His Word. Verse 7 starts off another familiar passage: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. . . ” Perhaps you remember, as I do, a song made of these words.

The passage is so familiar, in fact, that it’s easy to zip right through it without stopping to take it in.

But Dr. Davey pointed out something that stopped me in my tracks.

The latter half of verse 7 says, “The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”

Dr. Davey said:

This is legal language; whenever someone is called into court by the prosecution or defense, they give their testimony. They testify to what they know – what they’ve seen – what they’ve heard.

David writes in legal terminology – God is testifying . . . and whatever and whenever He does, David writes here, The testimony of the Lord is sure.

In other words, you can count on it. One author* wrote, “You can throw your weight on God’s testimony and it will hold up.”

You can throw your whole weight on God’s testimony.

Does that impact you like it does me?

It’s not that this truth was new to me. But hearing it put that way brought my understanding to a whole new level.

God’s Word is sure. It’s trustworthy. We can stake the whole weight of our souls on it.

BibleStudyTools.org says the Hebrew word translated “sure” here means “to support, confirm, be faithful; made firm, sure, lasting; verified; reliable, faithful, trusty .”

What God tells us about Himself, the world, and ourselves is dependable.

His promises won’t break when we lean on them. That doesn’t mean all our prayers will be answered just the way we hoped, or that life will have a fairy-tale ending. But when He tells us who He is and that He will be with us and take care of us, we can rely on His Word without worry.

I did not grow up in areas where ponds freeze over. But I am familiar with the concept of testing the ice to make sure it’s solid before walking or skating on it. And I have stepped on a bridge, fallen log, or even a piece of flooring and felt it give, wondering if it would hold my weight.

But we’ll never have that experience with God’s Word. It is sure.

Is there a passage you’re staking your soul on today?

Psalm 19:7: The testimony of the LORD is sure.

* Donald Williams, Mastering the Old Testament: Psalms 1-72 (Word Publishing, 1986), p. 153), quoted in Psalm 19:7-9) God’s Inspired Little Book by Stephen Davey on the Wisdom for the Heart Radio Broadcast, 1/22/2024.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

When I Deny the Calling I Am Trying to Fulfill

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Barbara Harper

You’re probably familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10: a man is traveling, robbed, beaten, and left for dead. First a priest, then a Levite (someone who had temple duties) saw the man, but passed by on the other side of the road. Finally a Samaritan, who was of a race in conflict with Israelites and the unlikely one to stop, took care of the man at his own expense.

Jesus told this story in response to another conversation: a lawyer, knowing that he was supposed to love God supremely and love his neighbor as himself, wanted to know just who his neighbor was. Verse 29 says he asked this “desiring to justify himself.” He probably thought he was doing a pretty good job.

But Jesus’ story upended the lawyer’s assumptions. Our neighbor is anyone in need, even strangers, even enemies. Ultimately, the Good Samaritan pictures Jesus’ rescue of us spiritually.

Even though those are the primary lessons of the parable, I was recently instructed by a secondary consideration.

We like to rag on the priest and the Levite as being typically self-absorbed, “don’t want to get involved” people. We shake our heads at their lack of compassion toward their fellow countryman.

But there is another layer here. Under Levitical law, if a priest or Levite came in touch with a dead body, they would be ceremonially unclean for a certain amount of time. They couldn’t attend to their duties in the temple if they were unclean without performing certain rituals.

So they didn’t even want to take the chance to see if this beaten man was alive. To protect their calling of serving in the temple, they denied their greater calling of caring for a fellow Israelite in great need.

We’ve probably seen this happen in other situations as well. A father feels so responsible to provide for his family’s needs that he becomes a workaholic, neglecting their greater need of his guidance and presence. An overburdened doctor has so many patients that he shortchanges each one of time and attention in order to get through them all. A pastor bypasses a troubled church member seeking his counsel because he’s scheduled to eat lunch with the visiting guest speaker.

I was convicted years ago when I got short-tempered with one of my children when they interrupted me while I was reading a book. Ironically, the book was How to Be a Good Mom.

We can get so fixated on fulfilling what we think is our calling that we miss it entirely.

I struggle with this most now in desiring to write. I feel writing is something God wants me to do. But I’m discovering most writers struggle with making the time to write. I was encouraged in Elisabeth Elliot’s biography that even she struggled with this.

So the natural response is to stake a claim on my time, push people away, and resent interruptions.

But my first calling is to the people under my own roof. It would be wrong to push them away or resent them when they need me.

And if I want to write to encourage other people, particularly women, in their walk with the Lord, I can’t do that by selfishly manipulating my schedule, grasping for time.

So what’s the answer?

I’m still working on that.

But one thing I need to keep in mind is that my first calling is to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as I love myself.

And then I need to remember that God’s callings are not in conflict. They seem like they are sometimes. But if He wants us to do something, He’s going to make a way to do it.

We don’t need to be manipulative and grasping. We can prayerfully seek God’s will and leading. We may have to lay aside lesser pursuits.

Instead of being territorial with my time, I need to be generous, trusting God to make it enough.

There is a principle throughout the Bible that if we’re generous, we’ll be blessed. But if we grasp and hoard for ourselves, we tend to lose whatever we’re holding onto so tightly.

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in poverty. A generous person will be prosperous, And one who gives others plenty of water will himself be given plenty (Proverbs 11:24-25, NASB).

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:25).

Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38).

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

On the other hand, being generous with our time doesn’t mean we are always available for everyone else’s whims and can never make plans.

Once, after a busy evening of healing many people, Jesus got up early the next morning to pray alone. The disciples searched for him and told Him, “Everyone is looking for you.” “And he said to them, ‘Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out'” (Mark 1:35-39). He didn’t go back to do more healing in the place where they were looking for Him. Healing was part of His calling, but His greater mission was to preach.

How we need to pray for wisdom and guidance as we seek to serve Him and others each day. As we seek His grace to love Him and others well, He will guide us moment by moment.

Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established (Proverbs 16:3).

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

When You Don’t Like Change

Posted on January 7, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Several years ago, our church’s youth pastor felt led to leave his position at our church to begin another ministry. Then an older couple in the church led the teen ministry for several months—maybe a year or more.

When the church finally found a new youth pastor, but before he came, some of the teens were giving grateful testimony of the couple who had filled in. One girl spoke about how much she hated change.

I thought, “Oh, honey. You’re just starting out, and there is so much change ahead of you!” She would have been in for a rough time.

Some people thrive on change and variety, always looking for something new and exciting.

Others of us don’t mind changes every now and then. But we’re eager to get back to our comfortable routines.

Change is a part of life. Without change, we wouldn’t have:

autumn leaves
spring flowers
butterflies
babies
growth
sunrises and sunsets
the change from law to grace
salvation
resurrection
the progression from friendship to love
. . .and so much more

We like those kinds of changes. We’re not thrilled about hard, unexpected disruptive changes.

So many people in the Bible had to face unexpected changes in their lives.

David went from a shepherd to a king.
Moses went from Pharaoh’s stepson to a shepherd to the leader of Israel from Egypt through the promised land.
Gideon was quietly trying to make do in a country under rule of an enemy when God called him to be a leader and fight.
Daniel was a young man when he was taken into captivity, away from family and country, and taken to Babylon.
Mary thought she’d have a quiet life with Joseph, until an angel announced she would carry and bear the Messiah.
Zachariah and Elizabeth probably thought their opportunity to have children was gone. But in their old age, an angel told Zachariah that he and Elizabeth would have John the Baptist.
Paul’s Damascus Road experience had profound effects not only for himself, but also the first-century church and Bible readers today.

Change can be hard. Most of the changes these people faced were great upheavals to their lives.

But if God brings change, He also brings grace to handle it.

And some things will never change:

God’s character
God’s love
God’s Word
God’s truth

About thirteen years ago, we faced several big changes all at once. My husband’s company was moving us to a new state, which would involve new coworkers, a new city, new house, new neighborhood, and new church. My oldest moved to a different state, the first of my kids to move far away. We left behind my middle son and daughter-in-law. My youngest son came with us and had to navigate a new school, friends, and youth group.

During that time, a line from the hymn “Be Still My Soul” stood out to me: “Through every change, He faithful will remain.” That was a steadying truth through all the changes of that year.

Not too long ago, a line from “Abide With Me” came to mind: “Change and decay in all around I see. O thou who changest not, abide with me.”

The first verse of “Still, My Soul, Be Still” by the Gettys and Stuart Townend brings comfort in the face of change:

Still, my soul be still,And do not fearThough winds of change may rage tomorrow.God is at your side;No longer dreadThe fires of unexpected sorrow.

God, You are my God,And I will trust in You and not be shaken.Lord of peace, renewA steadfast spirit within meTo rest in You alone.

Recently I was reminded of a quote attributed to Helen Keller: “A bend in the road is not the end of the road . . .unless you fail to make the turn.”

God, by His grace, will be with us and help us make whatever turns are in the year ahead.

How about you? Have you gone through a time when God helped you make a major change?

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

The Dark Side of Christmas

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Barbara Harper

We usually put the wise men with the Nativity scene, representing their part of the Christmas story. But the wise men didn’t arrive to visit Jesus and His family until some time later.

After the wise men gave Jesus their gifts, they were warned in a dream not to go back the way they had come, the way to king Herod. He had said he wanted to know where the new king was, so he could pay Him homage, too. But he actually wanted to destroy what he saw as his rival.

Joseph, meanwhile, had been warned in a dream to take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt until the danger was past. So, thankfully, Jesus was safe.

When the wise men did not return and Herod realized he’d been tricked, he was so furious that he had all the male babies under the age of two in the region of Bethlehem killed.

How jarring, after all the talk about peace on earth and good will toward men, to have this horrible, senseless thing happen.

Satan is a defeated foe: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

Satan is something like a general who gets word that the war is over; the army has been defeated. But until the authorities come for him, he’s going to wreak as much havoc and destruction as he can.

Or he’s like a snake that a neighbor in my childhood killed after getting it out of our house. Though she chopped off its head, its body still writhed and its mouth still opened and closed. It was not a poisonous snake, thankfully. But if it had been, it would have still been dangerous for a while even after death.

Satan’s targets are anything belonging to God. Revelation 12 gives us an allegorical picture:

When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child. . . . So the dragon was furious with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep the commands of God and hold firmly to the testimony about Jesus (Revelation 12: 13,17, CSB) (p. 146).

So what about peace on earth? Does that not come until Jesus returns? Does mankind just hold on until then, trying not to drown in violence, injustice, and oppression?

No. Colossians 1:19-20 says, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” He carried the weight of all sin on Himself, paying its penalty in our stead.

He gives us peace with Him when we believe on Him as our Lord and Savior.

Then He gives us peace in the midst of life’s storms and trials because He is with us.

He gives us peace because He is our peace: “Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:13-14a).

Ultimately, the day will come when Satan will be done away with completely. Violence and oppression will cease. Someday, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

Until then, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

We may have faced sorrows and troubles even at Christmas time. We don’t know what the year ahead might hold. But we can face whatever comes with God’s peace.

(This post was partially inspired by the chapters “Dream State” and “Christmas Morn” in Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Advent Reflections to Bring Joy to the World by Hannah Anderson.)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I wish all of you a wonderful, special, merry Christmas.

May the love our Savior showed in leaving heaven’s splendor to come to earth, live a righteous life in our place, die for our sins, and rise again
fill your hearts and draw you to Him.

Infant holy, Infant lowly, for His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, little knowing, Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Swift are winging angels singing, noels ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.

Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping vigil till the morning new
Saw the glory, heard the story, tidings of a Gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow, praises voicing, greet the morrow:
Christ the Babe was born for you.
Christ the Babe was born for you.

Traditional carol, translated from Polish to English by Edith M. Reed, 1921.

When You Feel Unwanted

Posted on December 17, 2023 by Barbara Harper

What do you do when you feel unwanted?

We moved when I was in junior high, and my new school was the most clique-ish place I have ever seen. Very distinct groups rarely interacted with each other except when required to for class. I spent weeks, maybe months, eating alone and walking around the grounds in tears during lunch break until finally I found a friend.

So that’s one option when we feel unwanted: cry. 🙂

Another option might be to become a pathetic sycophant, doing anything to be accepted into the group. Kids get drawn into gangs this way.

A third option could be embracing the opportunity to be a maverick, with a “Who needs them, anyway” attitude.

Unfortunately, some people seek revenge on the group for making them feel like an outsider.

One of the saddest Bible verses to me is John 1:11: “(Jesus) came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

The world was inhospitable to Him since He was in the womb.

There was no room for Him to be born (Luke 2:1-7).
Herod tried to kill Jesus by having all the male babies under two years of age in Bethlehem killed (Matthew 2:13-23).
Satan tried to tempt Jesus to do away with Himself (Matthew 4:1-11).
During His public ministry, Jesus had “nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:19-21).
His own half-brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:3-5).
People listened while He healed and gave them food. But when He started to say “hard things,” they left (John 6:60-71).
Some tried to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30).
His disciples often didn’t understand or argued over which of them would be the greatest.
The scribes and Pharisees publicly debated and baited Him and eventually called for Him to be crucified.

He was the Messiah they had been promised and were expecting for centuries. But He wasn’t quite the kind of Messiah they were looking for. They didn’t just ignore Him or overlook Him: they rejected Him. Some went even further than rejection: they sought to do away with Him.

Jesus, thankfully, did not choose any of our listed options when people ignored, rejected, despised, or threatened Him.

He loved.

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

He didn’t wait to die for us until we had cleaned up our act. He knew when He came that people would reject Him. But He loved them anyway. He took the initiative and sought to turn their hearts to Himself.

John 1 goes on to say that, though His own people did not receive Him, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10).

He goes beyond acknowledging and saving us. He makes His home with us. “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him'” (John 14:23). He rejoices over us with joy, prepares a place for us.

Even once we come to know Him, we can sometimes let the cares of this life crowd Him out. We celebrate His coming with such frenzied activity that we neglect the very One whose birth we’re celebrating.

Room for pleasure, room for business,
But for Christ the Crucified,
Not a place that He can enter,
In the heart for which He died?
– D. W. Whittle, “Have You Any Room for Jesus?”

His love is perfect and perseveres despite all obstacles.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room,
and heav’n and nature sing.
– Isaac Watts

May our hearts be hospitable to our Savior. May we not only make room for Him in our minds, affections, and time: may we give Him first place. And may we let His initiating, persevering love flow through us to others.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

We Are Not Enough

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Barbara Harper

I’m not sure where or when or how the phrase originated, but the last few years I’ve seen many women fretting over not being “enough.”

My first thought on hearing this was “Enough for what?” Enough for their responsibilities? For the demands on their time? Enough spiritually? Enough in their relationships?

My second thought was “Of course we’re not ‘enough.'”

In speaking of his ministry to the Corinthians, Paul states, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us” (2 Corinthians 3:5). In place of “sufficient,” some other translations use “competent,” “qualified,” “adequate”—all synonyms for “enough.” The dictionary definition for “sufficient” uses the word “enough.”

One commentary said this verse hearkened back to a question Paul asked in chapter 2, verse 16. After speaking about spreading the “fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere,” Paul asks, “Who is sufficient for these things?”

The answer is given in the second part of verse 5 in chapter 3: “But our sufficiency is from God.”

Other passages bring out these same truths.

In John 15:5, Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Paul agrees in Romans 7:18: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.”

But, he says in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”

And he said God told him, in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

And you know what’s even more amazing? God doesn’t do just what’s enough.

In 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul says, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

In Jeremiah 31:25, God says, “For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul” (KJV and NKJV). Other versions say God satisfied the weary soul. The idea is being saturated, drinking one’s fill.

When Jesus fed 5,000 people in Matthew 14, there were twelve baskets of leftovers above and beyond what the crowd ate.

In Luke 6:38, Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”

In Ephesians 3:20, Paul says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (KJV and NKJV).

So, dear friend, don’t worry about your not-enoughness. Let it turn you to His all-sufficiency. Abide in Him like the branch abides in the vine, letting His Spirit work in and through you. Rest in His grace, His strength, His provision for every need, physical, spiritual, mental, emotional. He is enough. He is more than enough.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Do You Know God Loves You?

Posted on December 3, 2023 by Barbara Harper

In my early Christian life, whenever something went wrong, I would doubt God’s love for me. When preachers said God did things for His glory and our good, I would think, “His glory maybe, but my good? How is this good for me?”

There may be many reasons for that reaction, too many to explore here. But surely one was being spiritually immature and not knowing my Bible well enough. Another was the mistaken (and also immature) notion that if God loved me, I wouldn’t have problems. A popular book at the time was If God Loves Me, Why Can’t I Get My Locker Open? I never read the book, but I identified with the feeling.

Satan has capitalized on those feelings since the beginning. When he came to tempt Adam and Eve, he questioned what God said, contradicted it, and insinuated that God didn’t really have their best in mind.

Perhaps that’s one reason Paul prays in Ephesians 3 that God would “grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” It’s interesting that the next well-known verse in that passage comes in this context: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

God wants us to know and rest in His love.

Why?

Well, anyone who loves wants the other person to know it.

But also, when we’re secure in God’s love, we’ll be less inclined to believe Satan’s lies. We can go forward through whatever trial is ahead knowing God is with us and has allowed it for some good purpose. We can obey Him because we know He is good, righteous, kind, and loving. We can love others out of the overflow of God’s love to us.

So how can we remind ourselves of God’s love when we might not feel it?

Remember what He did to save you. God would not have put up with all He did throughout humanity’s history, and Jesus would not have come to earth to live and die for us, if they did not love us. John 3:16, probably the most famous Bible passage in the world, tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s law convicted me of my sin and showed me my need for a Savior. But it was His love that drew me, that convinced me He would receive me. He loved me when I was still in sin, His enemy, and uninterested. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Chas. H. Gabriel expressed this beautifully in his hymn “He Lifted Me”:

He called me long before I heard,
Before my sinful heart was stirred,
But when I took Him at His word,
Forgiven, He lifted me.

From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me,
From shades of night to plains of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me!

In Hosea, God says He drew Ephraim with “gentle cords, bands of love.” James Grindlay Small captures this in “I’ve Found a Friend”:

I’ve found a Friend, oh, such a Friend!
He loved me ere I knew Him;
He drew me with the cords of love,
And thus He bound me to Him.
And round my heart still closely twine
Those ties which naught can sever,
For I am His, and He is mine,
Forever and forever.

Get to know God better. Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Eternal life begins with knowing God. But we come to know Him increasingly more through our lives. We learn about Him from nature and other people, but the primary way of knowing Him better is through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we rest in His character and love.

Remember how He has blessed you. I’ve mentioned before “Ebenezers,” those times in your life when you especially saw God move and work in your behalf.

Meditate on His Word. I’ve referred to a few verses about God’s love. Here are a few more:

The LORD delights in you (Isaiah 62:4).

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.(Isaiah 49:15-16).

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love (Psalm 147:11).

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalm 86:15).

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love (John 15:9).

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are (1 John 3:1).

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Listen to Scripture-based songs about God’s love, or read the lyrics. I’ve mentioned a few already. Here are some more:

“The Love of God” by Frederick Martin Lehman

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

“The King of Love” by H. W. Baker is based on Psalm 23:

Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me
And on his shoulder gently laid
And home rejoicing brought me.

“Here Is Love” by William Rees:

Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout heav’n’s eternal days.

“How Deep the Father’s Love For Us” by Stuart Townend (This is still under copyright, so I won’t post its lyrics, but you can find them here).

“O Wondrous Love” by Steve and Vikki Cook is also still under copyright: the lyrics are here.

“I am His and He Is Mine” by George Wade Robinson:

Loved with everlasting love,
Led by grace that love to know;
Spirit, breathing from above,
Thou hast taught me it is so.
Oh, this full and perfect peace!
Oh, this transport all divine!
In a love which cannot cease,
I am His, and He is mine.

“In Heavenly Love Abiding” by Anna Letitia Waring:

In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here:
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?

Remember God’s love and truth work hand in hand. Some people emphasize God’s love to the exclusion of His righteousness and holiness. They see God as a doddering old grandfather who overlooks any wrongdoing and slips them sweets when their mother isn’t looking. They don’t understand that God is a God of truth as well as love, that it wouldn’t be loving of Him to let us go on in our sin without chastening.

A loving parent has to say no sometimes, or require hard things. A child might feel the parent would show more love by giving everything the child wants or making life easy. But that kind of behavior is selfish rather than loving, wanting the child’s approval (or wanting to avoid a tantrum) instead of doing what would build the child’s character.

Remember God’s love is based on His character, not ours. When we’re doing what we’re supposed to, we “feel” loved by God. But when we fall and fail, we feel maybe His love has dimmed a little, if not evaporated.

But the Bible tells us that “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14). Verse 17 goes on to say, “But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.”

He chastens us like a father because He loves us (Hebrew 12:5-11).

Though John 3:16 says God loves the world, that doesn’t mean the whole world has automatically become His. Some reject or ignore God’s love and gifts.

“God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).

If you’re not one of God’s children by faith in Jesus Christ, I invite you to accept His love, His sacrifice on your behalf on the cross. Click here for more information on how to know God.

If you do know God, rest in His love, remind yourself of it often.

May you “come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16).