My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. I John 3:18-20
Continuing the thought from yesterday, there is further logic in love:
When we know Christ’s love, it is only logical to love.
When we love, several things happen:
1. We know we’re living, really living — in God’s reality — living His story, not a small one of our own making.
2. It shuts down “debilitating self-criticism,” as Peterson puts it in The Message. This is big. Ever struggled w/ self-criticism? Voices that tell you you can’t do something because it’s impossible? Or shouldn’t do something because you’re no good? I’m not talking about the kind but firm reminders of the Holy Spirit that it’s wrong to cheat on your income taxes. I mean that chorus of the old man (woman) voice and the accuser’s voice that kills hope, the dreaming of gospel possibilities, like, “You will NEVER stop nagging your husband.” Those voices can be lethal to love.
3. We stop worrying. (Well, maybe not completely till the story reaches its culmination, but worry can be destroyed.) Why is it logical that knowing Christ’s love and living it out frees us from worry? “Because God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.” AMAZING. WONDROUS. Stop and worship in that thought for a moment. Isn’t it good, if you can humble yourself to believe God knows more about you than you do yourself, to rest in that? Just when you’re thinking, “I’ve blown it again, and there ain’t nothin’ that’s ever going to make me love well,” John pipes up with, “Not so fast. The logic of love says that God is working in you by Christ’s love through the power of the Holy Spirit far beyond what you know. And one day you will not even recognize yourself, because dear children, we will be like him when he comes!”
For Reflection:
Read these verses aloud several times.
Write down anything you are worried about today. As the worry arises, pray a simple prayer, something like, “God forgive me for worrying, for thinking I know more about myself than I know about you. Help me to keep loving you, which means trusting you have my good and your glory in mind, all the time. Show me the logic of love. In your powerful, oh so loving, name. Amen.”
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