More on Love

May 29, 2000

You may never get victory in your life over the sins of criticisms, gossip, slander etc., if your motivation for not committing those sins is that you know you should ‘be nice’ to people.

Even if your motivation is that you are trying to show the love of God to people you may find that it seems to be more of an outward work that you struggle with and not an inward motivation.

Even though the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, (Romans 5:5) and Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, (Matthew 12:34), you may still find yourself struggling with speaking things you know you shouldn’t be.  How do we get the victory over this?

Our priority needs to be to love the Father first with the love He’s given us (Remember 1 John 4:19 says we love Him because He first loved us).   Jesus said the first commandment is to ‘Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength’.  The second commandment is to ‘Love our neighbor as ourself’ (Mark 12:30-31).  Loving ourself comes along with loving God.  We have to receive His love for us first.

So if you’re trying to stop sinning with your tongue against people and you’re having trouble, look in your heart.  Have you received His love for you in your heart?  When we have a revelation of His love for us then we will respond by wanting to love and please Him.  And if we’re wrapped up in loving and pleasing the Father then showing His love to people becomes possible.

His love for us is greater then the wrongs we suffer from other people.  When we receive & respond to His love, then our love for Him will be greater in us then the wrongs others do and we will be able to successfully overcome sin and walk in love towards them.

Many times we shut ourselves off from the love of God by feeling guilty for what we do wrong.  Once we ask His forgiveness we need to get rid of the guilt because that will shut us off from His love and His love is exactly what we need to do right.

God Bless you and have a great day!