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Meditation

Hi there,

I was "in love" once. For about 18 miserable months.

It was awful.

I spent the entire time torn between being besotted with the most lovely and courageous girl I had ever met and living in fear that, at any moment, the relationship could be called off for almost any cause.

A bad choice of sweater, a restaurant pick that revealed I was ignorant of what constituted 'good food.' Poor music choices (I didn't dare play anything by Chicago for years.)

It was, frankly, exhausting to be on my 'best behavior' for months on end. Not because my girlfriend was fickle but because I was overwhelmed, paranoid, and scared.

Happily, the feeling subsided, at first gradually, and then it disappeared irrevocably at 3 pm on July 8th, 2006. Two "I do's" and one "I pronounce you man and wife," and I was liberated from the fear that stalks the man who is "in love" into the joy of loving my wife as a husband, "for better, for worse, in sickness and in health."

As we read and copy down today. True love is not flaky; it is reliable and constant. It is not fearful; it is confident.

It is a gift of the spirit for all who "acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God."

God is love. Love is not a God.

Today's text is 1 John 4: 12-18 (and is called out in black)

For context, I've provided the full passage up to verse 21, which we'll complete tomorrow.

God's Love and Ours

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.

Encouragement

"If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."

1 John 4:15

​
​Andy

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