GOD’S AGAPE LOVE

I have been immersed in experiencing God’s great love for me recently, which is overwhelming at times.  With February being a month noted for love and with Valentine’s Day just a few days ago, I figured this topic was apropos for this week.

If I asked you the following questions, what would you share?  As you read these thoughts, be thinking of how you would answer these questions.  I would appreciate hearing your answers, which you can share in the comment section below.  We can help each other learn and grow through our sharing.

 

 

 

The Bible is full of verses about God’s love for us.  Here are two that I think are particularly meaningful.

Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  –Ephesians 3:17-19  (NLT)

We have the assurance that Christ is in our hearts, as we trust Him more and more.  Our hearts rooted in God’s deep love for us makes us stronger and stronger.  We need His power to truly grasp the width, length, height, and deepness of His love for us personally.  In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and us, he is praying we may experience Christ’s love though we can’t fully understand it in our humanness.  We are made complete with the life and the power which God gives us.

 

All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.  We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.  And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.  –1 John 4:15-17  (NLT)

God is love!  Only one word is needed to describe God.  Love in this context refers to “agape” love.  Agape love is sacrificial, undeserved, not self-serving, and unconditional.  God modeled agape love when He sent His only Son, Jesus, to earth to save us from our sin so we can spend eternity in heaven.  God’s love, mercy, and grace take the place of our sin.

It is good to know when we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in us, and we live in God!  We then experience God’s love for us deep in our hearts, and we trust in God’s love in our lives.  Because God lives in us, we get to share and grow in that same agape love in our lives.  We can put others before ourselves, show unconditional love to others, and sacrifice without expecting anything in return.

 

A Christmas present and the perfect reminder that is on my computer

 

 

One day this past summer, a friend and I met at a local school track to take a socially distanced walk and catch up on happenings in our lives.  I was reminded how she will often see hearts when she needs a little boost in her life: a sign of God’s presence.

It was a day in mid-December when I was taking my daily walk to pray and regroup in His presence at my “garden” area at a sister church that I go to, I saw this beautiful pink heart cloud.

 

 

I remembered my conversation with my friend about seeing hearts.  Much to my surprise, the very next day I saw this heart when walking:

 

 

 

Right after this, our area was surprised with 36+ inches of snow, so I was not able to walk for a few days.  The next day I was able to take my walk, I saw this white feather on the ground.

 

 

 

I wondered how there could possibly be a feather there, but then I smiled as I remembered my mother-in-law always says, “If you see a feather, you are on the right track.”  I happened to see not one, but two, feathers that day.  It was a reminder for me I was right where I was supposed to be, spending time with the Lord.

Every day since then, when I go walking and praying, I see hearts all along my path.  One day I saw 18 of them!  God makes me smile every time I see them.

 

With sharing that story, I can’t help but answer those three questions I asked you to think about…

What are some ways you experience God’s rich love for you? 

When I take time to walk, pray, and spend time with the Lord daily, I experience God’s rich love for me.  In the summer, it started with Him showing me crosses on a nearby brick wall caused by the sun casting shadows.  His rich love for me can be seen in nature when a squirrel comes near me, seeing a group of three birds of the air fly by, or in the beautiful sunsets.  This winter, the hearts that God keeps putting in my path remind me of His heart full of agape love for me.

 

How has God revealed His great love for you in your life?

Daily seeing hearts for almost two months now reveals God’s great love for me.  I sense His presence and know only He can orchestrate having hearts appear everywhere I go now.  I have seen them not only in nature but also even around my house.  I have seen them in the sink, in my food, and on the carpet through a piece of paper that somehow is heart-shaped.

 

How have you changed through experiencing God’s love?

Seeing the hearts makes me not only feel God’s agape love for me personally, but I have experienced a growth in love in my heart~~ A heart to love others more, modeling more agape love, being more understanding, and being more Christ-like.  God is filling me with all this love, and I am asking Him to show me what to do with it.  I love myself more, knowing that God’s love for me is unconditional and abundant no matter what.

 

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One day, after I had walked around the neighborhood and was about ready to leave, I felt I should go to the garden area where I sit in the summer in front of a cross.  I did that and as I turned to walk back to my car, I looked down and saw this.

 

 

 

I am still in amazement at how this picture happened.  I have no explanation how the “heart” got there.  It is my boot print, and the next morning I checked the bottom of my boot.  There is no heart design on it!

My first thought was “walking in love,” and then “walking in love to the cross.”  That is exactly what Jesus did for you and me.

 

 We are to follow in His footsteps, aren’t we?  How do we walk in love?

 

This is another interesting picture.  A friend noticed if you look close, the heart is in a footprint as well! Another person saw an angel with the heart being its body. Only God~

 

 

 

These two pictures especially spoke to my heart.  They reminded me…

…we never walk alone; God is always with us.

…sometimes God’s love is carrying us.

 

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Daily seeing the signs of His love for me through the hearts, slowly I am grasping more of the width, depth, length, and deepness of God’s agape love for me. In our humanness, it is hard and overwhelming at times to truly understand it. God is love, and I am grateful to be growing in agape love more and more each day because of Him.

This week I encourage you to see how God is personally showing His love in your life.  Look for the ways He is revealing His presence to you.  Let His agape love change you to be more and more like Him~

 

**Please feel free to share in the comment section below your answers to any of the questions in the beginning.

 

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.  –2 Corinthians 3:18  (NLT)

And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.  –Romans 5:5  (NLT)