A Heart That Reflects God's Love-Part 1

How has God loved us and what does this kind of love, which we are to have flowing through us, look like?

 

The best way to answer these questions are to look to God and His Word—after all, God is love and the source of all love—so it makes sense to look to God's Word to learn what He says.

 

Love is an act of the will

Every fruit of the Spirit requires decisions, and love is no different. It is hard to love under certain circumstances, yet God loves us no matter what. The kind of love that God has modeled for us calls for a conscious effort on our part. God's love in us enables us to show His love to others no matter how we feel.

 

Love is as much a feeling of the mind as it is of the heart and it concerns the will as much as the emotions. When love is an act of the will, it comes only from God, which is why we need to understand God's love for us before we can fully show God's love to others.

 

For a better understanding of love, consider the acts of God and His Son, Jesus Christ, as revealed in the following verses.

 

• "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28)
• "Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him." (Luke 9:51-52)

Giving, serving, heading for Jerusalem, and dying on the cross—these acts of love are acts of the will, not gestures prompted and powered by mere emotion. God gives us the will to love and the ability to act accordingly. Look to God to fill you with the kind of love that gives, serves, and dies to self, the kind of love that was modeled by Jesus Christ Himself.