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Love your neighbor as yourself.
Matthew 22:39
Most of us are familiar with what the Bible says about love. Galatians 5:6 tells us that faith actually works by love. While Romans 13:10 teaches us that love fulfills the law. Additionally 1 John 2:10-11 tells us that where there is love there is no occasion for stumbling.
We have all heard teaching after teaching about walking in love toward others - and to love those who persecute us and so forth. But today I want to talk with you about loving your neighbor as yourself. Not with the emphasis on loving your neighbor but on as yourself.
Sometimes I believe we are truly loving our neighbor as ourselves - and I think the problems at times lies with how we love ourselves. If we love ourselves at all.
You can't possibly give what you do not have. You have to first of all, love yourself and then secondly you have to believe in and receive God's love for YOU before you can give it to someone else.
Let's look at the first one: How do you feel about yourself? Do you love yourself? Do you treat yourself good? Your opinion of yourself is very important. You can't love your neighbor correctly without first loving yourself.
Perhaps you feel like you are a failure - perhaps some things in your life have failed - that doesn't make you a failure - forgive yourself. Ask God today to teach you how to love yourself and love your life - that life that He has given you. Don't throw it back in His face by saying things like 'I hate this life' or 'This life isn't worth living' instead begin to ask God to show you how to change things first in your heart and then in your life - He sent Jesus so you could live an abundant life through Him - His life is wonderful and happy and full of joy and peace.
Forgive yourself today and begin to like yourself, then love yourself. That will put you on the right path to loving your neighbor as yourself.
Secondly, you have to believe and receive the love God has for you. You can't get Gods love - to get means to obtain by struggle or works. You must receive God's love, receive means to make yourself a receptacle for what's already yours. You must receive God's love the same as you received your salvation, or healing or prosperity.
You can't earn God's love. You will never have any more of His love than you have this day and you will never have any less of His love than you have this day. You have it all. You don't get more of His love - from this point on, He simply gets more of you.
Let's look at agape love - the love God has for you. Agape occurs when someone sees, recognizes, understands and appreciates the value of a person, causing the viewer to behold this person with great esteem, awe, admiration, wonder, sincere appreciation. He is compelled to love. Agape love is a force.
Force is the strength or energy brought to bear to cause motion or change. God looked upon you and I and He agape loved us so much that He was compelled to save us. That love compelled Him, was the force behind Him sending us a Savior.
You see, agape knows no limits or boundaries. It loves profoundly. Agape love will even sacrifice itself to save the one it loves - sound like God? Agape has no strings attached, it is a compelling force that is not looking for what it can get but what it can give. For God so loved that He gave. He loves you so much that He sacrificed His own Son to save you.
When you are fully convinced that God loves you - you won't wonder whether He will answer your prayer or not. My daughter knows I love her, she is fully convinced and she would never question if I would hurt her or not - she knows I love her and would never hurt her intentionally. She is confident in my love for her and if I promise her I will do something, she knows I will keep my word, because I love her.
It is the same with God - He loves you. He wants you happy more than you want to be happy. He wants you healed more than you can imagine - as a matter of fact, His loved compelled Him to purchase healing for you by sacrificing His Son so that by His stripes you would be healed - that's how much He wants you healed.
Can you imagine someone loving you that much? Can you really? Most people can not. But He does. He loves you so much. And once you believe the love and receive the love then and only then are you empowered to love your neighbor as yourself. You see - you can't give something you don't have. Yet, once you receive the love of God - and become filled with His agape love - you will have His love flowing out of you and you will be able to love as He loves - agape love. A compelling love that wants to give. That's what He has for you and that's what you will have for others.
Receive His love today and trust His love for you. His love never fails. He is compelled to love you, even when you miss the mark - He loves you still. You will never have more of His love than you do right now. How do I know that? Because He freely gave you all His love already. It's yours. Take it and then let it flow out to others. By this others will know that you belong to Him - by your love.
Kim Potter | 
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this refreshed my thoughts from the bible. goodpost.i have teens,girls.
- laurelndanismom
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