So we have talked about love. What it is and what it is not. What kind of love God has towards us, and loving Him back. We have talked about the importance of loving ourselves. NOW we can talk about loving others. You cannot truly love others until you have done the above. I have tried switching it around in any and all different ways and it just doesn’t work! This is the only way the formula works. Love god, Love yourself, Love others. In that order!
I could not even imagine 3 years ago stating that I loved people and not be lying!! Like seriously…those words were not even in my vocabulary. I didn’t like people, and how they acted, WHY WOULD I LOVE THEM?!?! This is because I had not experienced LOVE from the Father. Not that He wasn’t giving it, but I didn’t realize it was available and I didn’t really know that it was a true viable feeling and experience for me!
Once I experienced His love, tangibly and personally, my perspective then changed. HOW can I NOT want people to feel this amazing, unconditional love? His love is so pure, balanced, peaceful, comforting, overwhelmingly amazing at times that I thought EVERYONE should feel this! God how can I please you in return and let others know how AWESOME you truly are?!?! Then I read this scripture:
Dang it, Bobby! I was going to have to get REAL comfy with the “L” word if I wanted to follow His word and commands! I then realized as long as I remember the first time that I truly FELT HIS love, that I could tap into that and hopefully portray it to others by my actions. There was a moment that I was praying alone in my room. I was praying for a friend who was dealing with anger, and I remember asking God, “How do I pray for Him?” I don’t know what to pray? What can I release or what will help? I then got quiet.
During that quiet time (I’m not sure if I was asleep or not but I was definitely conscious about what was happening) I had a very special moment with the Father. I LITERALLY felt as though His arms were wrapped around me and He was rocking me. Hear me, I wasn’t grieving. I wasn’t hurting, I was asking for a solution on how to pray for someone else! However it was one of the most intimate, life altering experience I have had. I felt so at peace, so loved, and so secure and comforted. it was like nothing I had ever felt before. I then heard, “Pray my Love over him. Everything you have felt and experienced is what he needs to cover anger. My Love covers all”.
Everyone uses 1Cor. 13 to describe loving others. I believe that is a great guideline to remind yourself HOW to WALK OUT love in your actions, but to truly give it, you must experience it. So I urge you, If you have not experienced God’s love DIRECTLY from Him to YOU, then ask Him for that experience! Seek Him for it. Spend time alone with Him till you get it! Because that experience will change you and allow you to then love yourself, and others….His Way!