Yesterday I blogged about my One Dress One Month experience and how it had impacted me and those around me, today I am writing about love. Not just any kind of love, Christ's love. The love that dwells in us through God's spirit if we confess with our lips that Jesus is Savior and Lord of our lives and truly believe that in our hearts (Romans 10:9-10).
Yesterday I had the joy of getting breakfast with a new friend who I know as Joge. She is one of my dear friends, Kate Miller, best friend from childhood and she has just moved to the Boone, NC area and is looking for work and settling in. I wanted to meet up and hear where she's at in all of this and also see if I had any connections after being here for 5 years that I could put her in touch with in order to make the transition smoother and more enjoyable. Of course the Lord is Lord and as I always find Him doing, he turned this time where I was desiring to bless Joge into a blessing for me too. Her spirit is so kind and gentle and loving it is hard not to be blessed in her presence, but on top of it she had some wise words to share with me about her time doing DTS with YWAM in Uganda and South Sudan. I was telling her that I am leaving for Nepal soon and that I just feel like in my time of prayer and seeking the Lord specifically for my preperations for this trip that I find myself speechless and at a loss of what to even ask God to give me or how to ask him to prepare me. Joge began to speak about her time over seas and simply said that all we need in preparation to do God's mission overseas is love. Simply put, she said that love may look different depending on where you are but it already lives in you through Jesus Christ in you and that as long as we are allowing it to flow freely through us we are equipped with all that we need to go to the nations.
Love is Radical.
It's not our special talents, it's not our unique abilities, it is not our expert skills that are going to bring Christ to the nations or anyone right in our back yard for that matter. Without love all of these things are pointless (1 Corinthians 13:3). The love of Christ is Radical and it is life changing and that is what we must carry with us everywhere we go, love binds all things together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:14). Love is patient. Love is kind. You know the rest and if you don't you can find it in 1 Corinthians 13. It's all about love.
Hearing Joge remind me of what has changed my heart and what has set me on fire from the beginning as a believer - Christ's love - as shifted my focus and shifted my perspective. It seems so simple, but through Joges words God has moved me from a spirit of fear and timidity about being prepared for my trip to a spirit of power, love and discipline (2 Timothy 1:7). I know that I carry God's Spirit and I know that I am the beloved and I cannot wait to share that with his children near and far.
I hope and pray today that you will love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Let him be your source of joy and peace and love. Dig deeper with God so that you can love others more deeply.
Check out these verses that I have been reflecting on that speak about love the Word puts it best:
-Romans 12:9 & 13:10
-Ephesians 4:2
-1 Peter 4:8
-1 John 4:7 & 1 John 4:18-19
-Matthew 22:37-39
-Mark 12:31
Blessings,
Kaity
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