Silas
Beloved of All
It is right to thank God with a full heart. The bond you see slowly restoring between your beloved's family and her son is a mercy, a common grace that reflects the heart of a God who reconciles. To pray for their peace and protection under the covering of Christ's precious blood is to lean on the only basis for every true blessing. The life is in the blood, and God has given it to us for atonement. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin, and the blood of Jesus alone cleanses, shields, and makes a way into the presence of God. So your prayer for them rests on solid ground when it rests there.
But as you pray for your own relationship and ask for the miracle of restoring and strengthening your love, I want you to see what kind of love the Spirit of God produces and what kind of love the world often calls by the same name. Scripture and experience teach us to distinguish. There is a physical, self-centered love that seeks its own gratification. There is an emotional, reciprocal love that says, I love you because you love me. But the love that God sheds abroad in our hearts is altogether different. It is agape, a giving love, a divine love that seeks the highest good of another without demanding return. God so loved that He gave. That is the demonstration of love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So often a person sets their heart on an earthly relationship, convinced that their deep feelings and their hope for the other person's future are enough. They say, "Oh, but we love each other," and they press forward despite the counsel of God's Word. The fruit has been heartache time and again, because a relationship built outside the foundation of a shared life in Jesus Christ cannot experience the full agape love that alone endures. The Spirit calls us to be reconciled to God first, and from that reconciliation flows a love for others that is pure and unfeigned. If you love those who have been begotten of God, the evidence is that you love the Father. But the order must be right. Love for God fulfills every dimension of our relationship with Him. When that love takes its proper throne, every other affection finds its lawful place.
What you truly need, and what you should most fervently pray for in your relationship, is that you both would be drawn not first to one another, but into that deep, intimate, loving relationship with the Lord Himself. He calls us back to that first love, to know the joy and glory and excitement of His presence. The Song of Songs portrays this glorious loving relationship between Christ and His church. It is there, in His chambers, that we learn what love is. It is there we receive His love so that we can truly love others, not with a gushy Hollywood sentiment, but with a selfless, giving love that flows from the Spirit.
So keep praying, but let your prayer be refined. Ask the Lord to so fill your heart with His agape love that you desire His will above any other outcome. Ask Him to work in you a love for this woman that is patient, kind, and does not seek its own way. Trust that the greatest miracle is not the restoration of a human bond on our terms, but the reconciliation of a soul to God through the water and the blood. May the evidence of the Spirit upon your life be that fruit of love, love for God and love for one another with a pure heart fervently. As you walk in that love, you dwell in God, and His love is perfected in you. That is the secure place to stand, regardless of how any earthly relationship unfolds. Faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love, for it encompasses the rest. Let His love be your highest aim.
But as you pray for your own relationship and ask for the miracle of restoring and strengthening your love, I want you to see what kind of love the Spirit of God produces and what kind of love the world often calls by the same name. Scripture and experience teach us to distinguish. There is a physical, self-centered love that seeks its own gratification. There is an emotional, reciprocal love that says, I love you because you love me. But the love that God sheds abroad in our hearts is altogether different. It is agape, a giving love, a divine love that seeks the highest good of another without demanding return. God so loved that He gave. That is the demonstration of love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So often a person sets their heart on an earthly relationship, convinced that their deep feelings and their hope for the other person's future are enough. They say, "Oh, but we love each other," and they press forward despite the counsel of God's Word. The fruit has been heartache time and again, because a relationship built outside the foundation of a shared life in Jesus Christ cannot experience the full agape love that alone endures. The Spirit calls us to be reconciled to God first, and from that reconciliation flows a love for others that is pure and unfeigned. If you love those who have been begotten of God, the evidence is that you love the Father. But the order must be right. Love for God fulfills every dimension of our relationship with Him. When that love takes its proper throne, every other affection finds its lawful place.
What you truly need, and what you should most fervently pray for in your relationship, is that you both would be drawn not first to one another, but into that deep, intimate, loving relationship with the Lord Himself. He calls us back to that first love, to know the joy and glory and excitement of His presence. The Song of Songs portrays this glorious loving relationship between Christ and His church. It is there, in His chambers, that we learn what love is. It is there we receive His love so that we can truly love others, not with a gushy Hollywood sentiment, but with a selfless, giving love that flows from the Spirit.
So keep praying, but let your prayer be refined. Ask the Lord to so fill your heart with His agape love that you desire His will above any other outcome. Ask Him to work in you a love for this woman that is patient, kind, and does not seek its own way. Trust that the greatest miracle is not the restoration of a human bond on our terms, but the reconciliation of a soul to God through the water and the blood. May the evidence of the Spirit upon your life be that fruit of love, love for God and love for one another with a pure heart fervently. As you walk in that love, you dwell in God, and His love is perfected in you. That is the secure place to stand, regardless of how any earthly relationship unfolds. Faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love, for it encompasses the rest. Let His love be your highest aim.
