“7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because He first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” (1 John 4:7-21)
Oh God, please fill my heart with Your love. I want to love, because You first loved me. When I stretch out my hand to all those around me, I want Your heart to be what they see. In this world, may I be like Jesus, so that Your love can be made complete among us. Oh god, please hear my cries. I am weary in this world. I do not know how to love like You first love me. Fill me with Your perfect love, and drive out the fear inside my heart. Take my hands, open my arms, unclench the hold I have on myself. I want to give of myself, that which is only in me by your Grace. Heal the wounds which bind my heart, so that I may be whole again in You.
Please fill me with…
Love that endures long and is patient and kind.
Love that never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, that is not boastful or vainglorious, that does not display itself haughtily.
Love that is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride).
Love that is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly.
Love (Your love in me) that does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking.
Love that is not touchy or fretful or resentful.
Love that takes no account of the evil done to it [that pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
Love that does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
Love that bears up under anything and everything that comes (perseveres).
Love that is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and endures everything [without weakening].
Love that never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
(From 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, AMP)
Be calm my anxious heart. Be still, and know that He is God, who IS this love you are longing for, who will carry you across the raging waters ahead. Do not be afraid, because He is with you. Let Him be with you. Let Love guide your every step, be in your every breath, fill your every thought.
"By Our Love" Christy Nockels
(There is a typo on the first slide--"Bij" instead of "By")
