True Identity Ministries Blog

Ephesians 5.1-2,
"Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."

I started bolding parts of these two verses that I particularly liked, but then I realized I had most of it bolded. Sort of takes away from the emphasis, huh? Haha! But the point is, it's good stuff!

Paul is encouraging us to look at God, to watch him, and to copy what He is doing. As children study and copy their parents, we must study and copy our Father. We can see the works and moves of God throughout the Bible, but we can also see Him working today. I know that I want to be where God is working. And God is working to build His Church. To expand His Kingdom.

More personally, God is working in the lives of every individual person, and He does it in love. Isn't that what the verse says above, that mostly what God does is LOVE.

What do you mostly do?
Work.
Play.
Bitter.
Unforgive.
What drives you? Is it to love others? I know I can use a lot of work in that. But the great thing is, we don't have to love on our own. Paul says keep company with God and you'll learn a life of love. How wonderful is that?!

Spend time with God, allowing God to love you and you loving back, and God will pour His love into you so much that it overflows into other lives. His love is a love that overflows.

Verse 2 says that Christ didn't love cautiously, but extravagantly! Wow.

I'm going to be a bit vulnerable with you right now. Loving is hard for me. At least outwardly. I didn't grow up in the most loving environment, although my parents did their best considering what they knew in the world. And more than that, I'm an independent kind of girl. So couple the hurt and determination to never be hurt again, I put up some big walls around me.

It hasn't been until perhaps the last six months that God is working in me and through me in big ways. There was a time it was literally the most difficult thing for me to tell someone I love them, even my parents. Or to show affection, that was very difficult. But I'm learning that God loves extravagantly, and I want to be like that.

I wanted to love someone once I felt safe to do so; I wanted to hold back love until I knew that person wouldn't hurt me. But that's not possible, so I have had to learn (and am still learning) to love without expecting in return. I loved very cautiously so that I wouldn't get hurt, but love is taking that risk. If you're not risking it, how much love can really be there?

A pastor not long ago told me that ministry is a people business. That as people called into vocational ministry, it is our business to love. He then proceeded to tell me that if I wasn't willing to be vulnerable, I wouldn't succeed. If I wasn't willing to risk loving and being hurt, I wasn't going to make it. I think that principle applies for everybody though. Because really, we are all called into ministry; it just looks different for every person.

Paul says Christ loved not to get something from us, but to give of himself. I just want to chew on those words for a moment, don't you? To love someone in a way that if they never gave us anything back in return, we would still love them extravagantly.

Who is in your world that you can love? Someone you have perhaps been withholding your active love from. We must (and I say this to myself probably more than anyone else) learn to love like crazy those in our life, even if they never return it. That is love. The love God is calling us to show.