LOVING WELL

so i said i'd review and now i am. it only took me one week to get to it...not bad i'd say? so i wait for my son to cry himself to sleep, i will work on this for you.
Beth Moore adequately provided a fool proof system to help us "love well." she did this through showing us the four different kinds of people we are challenged to love.
1. Joy: of course, we know this one is no challenge, but more people we just love to love. they are easy to give our love to.
2. Testy: these are the ones that drive us crazy, are difficult for us in many ways, but people that God uses to "test" our love and maturity! they are not tyically people we are around by choice, but rather whom God has chosen for us.
3. Foe: these are the ones we unfortunately can say we hate. people we cannot forgive, those who may have wronged us. in order for this person to be in this position though, they are usually people that at one time were close to us.
4. Far: the strangers in our daily lives, not in our sphere.
Beth says that God measures maturity by how we love! can anyone say ouch? i know that hit me between the eyes! but truth can hurt right? she also says loving people will involve risk and always mean that they have access to hurt us. it is part of what it means to love as God loves us. we will never be able to love others well until we first let God love us well!
she gave us four confessions of love to help us love well:
1. God is perfect love
2. Nothing can separate me from God's perfect love.
3. God pours His perfect love into my imperfect heart.
4. Accessed, I can love anyone through anything.
she went on to say that we will not love well till we feel well loved! so when we are trying to love testy people, we must recognize our own insecurities and fears. because to the degree we battle insecurity and anxiety, we are not letting the love of God reach its goal in our hearts, therefore we are unable to love others. Insecurity has its roots in unbelief and pride so we must understand and believe that God is perfect love and nothing can separate us from that love!!
we have to start learning to love. human love even at its best is self seeking. it is motivated by what we can get out of it. that is why we must love in God's strength. anything we manipulate to get (or to love us), we will rarely keep. we think, "if we can't get them to love us, we will settle for getting them attached to us." love with God's love! romans 5:5. love with insight! phil 1:9-10 God will call us to see hard love as an offering on His altar! 1 John 4:10-11
lastly, she talked about the stranger. we love them because it cures us of our self-consumed lives. loving afar relieves us of the burden of self-absorbtion.
last thought!!! God rejoices over you! we sit in the seat of JOY!
Rev. 19:7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
Glad = ecstatic joy (agalliall) meaning when joy gets physical! to exalt with exuberance, show one's joy by leaping skipping or dancing. now how can you not love that? this is how we should respond to our God because he DOES love you!!! more than you will every imagine. more than you love that baby! crazy huh? accept it! believe it ! and then go give it!