Jan 20 - Love from a Pure Heart

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother."
-1 John 4:13-21


The resounding cry from prayer this morning was that we would be able to love God and our fellow man with purity of heart as Paul describes in his letter to Timothy.

One person had a word that we have become overwhelmed by the things of this world but we have not allowed ourselves to be overwhelmed by the love of God! This collides with the call that we become a people with one goal: embarking on a journey into the eternal mystery of the love of God. There is no room for extraneous activity or thought on this journey. It demands everything from us. In the same way that an athlete who wants to compete in the Olympics will spend a majority of their day practicing, we need to focus our minds and hearts on the Love of God for long hours. We need to develop practices that protect our minds from useless thoughts. Paul implores Timothy to keep the church from useless discussions and gossip. What are the things in our lives that are creating blockages for being open to His Spirit? Sports Radio, evening sitcoms, coarse language, chatty gossip...the list seems endless. We need a total reorganizing of our lives if we want to be overwhelmed by the Love of God instead of the stuff of life.

My personal prayer this morning is that my heart would be fertile soil for the Lord to grow a great garden of his love and mercy. But today my heart is less like wonderful top soil and more like a combination between clay and sand. I felt the Lord saying that he was going to till my heart. This would require that the garden I have planted would be torn up. I can speak from person experience when I say that some flowers can grow in the worst soil. But there aren't enough nutrients for continued growth. So the garden is not fertile and abundant. Instead, it is just getting by. The work that God wants to do will have to remove some of the good things we have growing. For a while we may feel that there is a dormancy in the soil of our spiritual lives. But this is what is called "charging" the soil. It is a preparation for greater things of God to begin springing forth!