Love of God

"Love of God overflow…permeate all my soul." I heard that lyric repeating over and over in my head this morning. At first, I just kind of sang along but didn’t think much of it but then it caught hold in my spirit. I realized that I needed that to happen. I needed God’s love to overtake me to the point that nothing else was important. You see, this morning, I was in one of those places where my focus was on everything else but that. I was rushing and annoyed and the cares of the world were pressing in on me. I looked around and nothing looked right to me. I just wanted to get in my bed and go back to sleep. I wasn’t listening to Christmas carols or planning my holiday trip. Nope, I was focused on my feelings and other people’s issues. But as I heard that line, "love of God overflow…permeate all my soul," I started to yearn for that takeover. God then told me to let His love replace the other things I was holding on to because His fix is better than my feelings or plans. Some of you have had some rough days leading up to Christmas. You may have lost a family member recently and you can’t get in the holiday spirit or your finances are in such a mess that you don’t know how you will get gifts for people. You’re singing Bah Humbug instead of Jingle Bells. But today, God wanted me to encourage you to let His love overtake you.

1 John 4: 9 -12 gives us a clear picture of God’s love and it’s one that we need to grab hold to. “God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.  Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us.” (NLT) You see, God’s love is perfect and it covers a multitude of sins. It requires us to love others because He loved us. The NIV says it is made complete in us. And this is at the center of what God wants you to know today. You don’t have to have everything figured out. You don’t have to understand why people do what they do. You don’t even have to know what’s coming next in your life. All you really need to know is that He loves you with a perfect love. He loved you enough to send Jesus, the real reason for this Christmas season. And Romans 8 reminds us that NOTHING can separate us from that love.

As we go through these last few days of 2014, let’s decide to love. Let’s agree to both give it and receive it. Understand doing that may require you to do some things that make you uncomfortable such as forgive, move forward, hug someone you don’t like, let go. God reminded me that He loved me when I was not worthy of it, so I have to do the same to others. But He went on to say that His love is enough to help me do the hard things. He didn’t tell me not to be wise or walk in truth, but He did say that if I will let Him, His love can heal, restore and renew. So this morning I choose to respond to him and say “God, you’re all I have so let your love overflow in me and permeate my entire soul. “ I invite you to join me and release whatever has held you captive to God’s love and let it cover those things.  You will find yourself free in Him and less concerned with what came before. “God is love, and all who live in love, live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4: 15 NLT)

AMEN.