“A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” – Luke 1:39-45
“You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.” – 1 Peter 1:22-23
Love is presented mainly as a emotion when the truth is that love is a verb.
Love is an action expressed by those that are giving love to those who are receiving love. Today love can masquerade as many broken and untrue things but the reality is this, God is love. The deepest and most profound sense of the word. This love has the power to completely one hundred precent ravish us in the most beautiful way.
God showed us His love in action by giving us His one and only Son (John 3:16). We may have heard these words before but let us take a minute to really let those words be expanded to us. God gave us Jesus to that we could be in relationship once more with Him. God is love in its purest, truest form.
When God sent His son to us, He choose a willing vessel to cary out His action of love.
Mary wasn’t this super extraordinary woman. She, like many before her, had her heart set on the God and had “found favor with God.” Luke 1:30. Let us be like Mary that we may also find favor with God.
It was in this moment that God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Mary that she was chosen and favored to be a vessel for God. Mary was to bring the Son of God into this world. She then had the opportunity to show her love in action. Even though she was chosen and favored by God, Mary could have said “no”. Mary, however, choose to express her love by receiving that God had for her—this was her love toward God in action. Mary was completely transformed when she received this love from God. From the inside to the outside, Mary experienced the fullness of God by receiving His love.
Just as it was true for Mary, this is true for us.
God still desires to give us His love. It’s still His gift to us and when we receive this gift we can love God and love one another (Matthew 22:36-40). Part of the Father’s heart for us is that we would love one another.
1 Peter 1:22 tells us that we are to “love one another earnestly from a pure heart.” Since we know who love is, we are to show who love is and show our love in actions toward those in our lives. Take some time to ask the Lord if there are areas in your life where you aren’t showing sincere love toward someone else.
As we prepare to enter the final week of Advent let us rejoice in what the Lord has done in this time. Let us continue to be changed by the wonderful and powerful love of Christ. This love that covers a multitude of sin (1 Peter 4:8), love that has paid for it all on the cross (John 19:10), love that offers eternal life (John 3:17), love that sets us free (Galatians 5:1).
God’s love will never run out. God’s love will never lose power.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” Hebrews 3:18
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