Week Recap; Beauty & Love Through God's Eyes

Happy Weekend Loves!

It has been over a week since I posted anything on my blog! It has felt like a lifetime to be honest. A lot has been going on. I'll give an update on my past week and I also want to write about what God had showed me this last weekend and what I am currently learning about His kind of Love. 

Recap:

This last week has been hard for me because only after 2 months of saying goodbye to one of my dogs, Isabel, we had to say goodbye to my other doggy, Josie. It was unexpected- she was a totally healthy dog but beginning a couple weeks ago she got sick. She hadn't been herself (we assumed it was because she missed Isabel) but then she got sick and it became too much for her. It was a hard decision but I am hopeful that they are in Heaven happy to see each other again. Dogs- well animals in general- almost stop being viewed as a just an animal.. but a family member and friend. Whenever I thought of what true love looked like, I would look at my dogs. Always forgiving, always looking for you, always happy to see you, always kind and joyful, never boastful- they have pure, genuine love for you. I always joke that 'DOG' is spelled 'GOD' backwards for a reason. Because they truly show a love that many humans are incapable of showing. If you had or have a dog... you know what I am talking about. Missing them is the hardest part for me- because they were very special.

Through this hard time, Jesus still remained by my side- as he always does. At church we have been learning a lot about God's love and what He expects from us. And it has opened my heart.

All my life I have felt like I wasn't worthy of being loved. Not by others, and not from God. Why you ask? Because in my life certain people have showed such conditional love that I could never satisfy and I couldn't imagine being loved by a Holy God when I make so many mistakes. And sometimes, I would show conditional love to others... so how could I expect that love in return? I had built up all these walls of protection, but then the love I had couldn't get out over the walls I had built. My heart was bitter and revengeful. I would say things to hurt people because I wanted them to feel my pain. This is human love.

But Jesus has shown me that love isn't an emotion or temporary feeling. 
Divine love is a way of life, it's a gift from God, it's who God is and commands us to be: love. As God is Love we need to be love because as the bible says, without love, we are nothing. Love is a principle. 

"If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing."- 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 

This scripture is talking about how love is more important that all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and miracle working power produce very little without love. Love makes our actions and gifts useful. And although people have different gifts, love is available to everyone. Love is the most important thing anyone could ever show another person.

The world had become full of lust and was without love.. so God sent His Son Jesus to be the perfect example of what love is. Because we have this example now, we have no excuse of not knowing what true love means or what someone with true love acts like. 

Continuing 1 Corinthians 13, Paul gives a definition of what love is (Charity means love):

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."

This passage gives us the true definition of what love is. And Jesus was the perfect example of that. It shows that God's love, or divine love, is directed out towards others, not inward toward ourselves. It us utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. It is possibly only if God helps us set aside our own desires and instincts so that we can give love while expecting nothing in return. Thus- the closer we come to Christ, the more love we will show others! That is beautiful, isn't it?? 

Having a relationship and most importantly, a fellowship with Christ is so important! I know God continually reminds me to love- and when I mess up, He shows me continual patience because HE IS LOVE. He first loved us.. so no matter how much we mess up or show God we love Him- His love with never change because that's who He is and He first loved us before anything we ever did. 

But it is important to love others because Jesus commanded it. As Matthew 22:36 says:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

John 13:34-35 states

 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love is the most important thing to Jesus! As shown in  Peter 4:8: 

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

When you love, you don't dwell on peoples mistakes because you are too busy trying to show them love!: Kindness, Patience, Trust, Hope, Truth, Humbleness, Joy, Perseverance.. the list goes on. 

This brings me to what God has showed me this past weekend. It was too amazing not to share: 

As I walked into church last weekend, it was like people were shining, or glistening. Each and every person I looked at. I didnt know what it meant but I didn't feel crazy or anything because it was so beautiful. I was enjoying each person's beauty. As I was in praise service, I all of a sudden felt every negative thing fall off my shoulders as if I could feel the rubble falling down my skin. I felt complete peace and love. There was no stress or negativity whatsoever, just love and peace. The negative perceptions I may have had of some people were completely gone and all I could feel when I looked at them was love and happiness. Jesus all of a sudden said "Do you see all of those beautiful faces? Do you see it? How beautiful these people are?" In my head I was replying yes Jesus I see it. He continued to say "This is how I view my children. I love them so much and they are so beautiful to me. I always see the good in my children because I love them so. They are so beautiful because I love them. They are always so beautiful to me. This is how I command my children to be with one another. Love." 

At this point I was tearing up because I was so rejoiceful that God chose me to see people through His eyes. It was unexplainable how much love I felt and saw in each person. I could only see the good in them. 

God is His word. He cant help it! He is love! Everything He says to us in His Word, He does Himself! He cannot deny Himself because He is so FAITHFUL! Even when we arent faithful, He cannot help but be Faithful! Because Love is Faithful and He is Love! 

I could scream and shout it for days how Mighty our God is. But He has requirements of us. The first to love him and the second most important is to love each other. Both of those statements have love. We must love. 

So my challenge to you today is to work on showing divine love all day to each and every person you encounter and see. I can guarantee you that if you do your heart will feel different at the end of it. 

I hope this was helpful for you on how love is so important and how loving people pleases our Father. You are worthy of love because God first loved us- before anything we did or said. He first loved us. Tell yourself that the next time you find yourself saying you dont deserve love. Its not about deserving it... its that God cant help himself and there is nothing we could ever do to deserve His love because He loved us before we could get a chance to deserve it or not to deserve it. 

He is so good! So faithful! So Mighty! We ought to rejoice today because WE ARE LOVED! 

Enjoy your weekend and please comment below if this reading helped you today. It helps me stay encouraged that you are reading and gaining something form what I write. If you don't want to share who you are, you can choose to write anonymously. 

Love you all!