Love virus

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.””
‭‭John‬ ‭13:34-35‬ ‭NASB‬‬

Love virus

I spent most of my life disconnected from the world. Over time, I developed overly rigid boundaries, and it was common for me to go days with no interaction. I cared little for others and had little concern for how I was received. I was not one who loved, and I felt unloveable. I observed others around me and I was continuously puzzled at the overwhelming desire for this thing called love.

I was a walking fortress, with huge buttresses and a deep mote that was filled with the most hungry crocodile. Approaching me was a hazard one should avoid. My parents loved me, and I loved them. Familial love is different, in that there is an obligatory necessity for it due to a need for mutual reliance for survival.

I wandered through the world, resistant to intimacy and set apart from all around me, an island unto myself.

God sent a a variety of situations and people to begin chipping away at the stone encasing my heart. Some how I developed friendships that pushed at my boundaries, Slowly, but surely, He was making my heart raw and fleshly, so that I would be open to His conviction and the saving of my soul.

I remember when the cumulative impact of the various situations and relationships, some bad, reached critical mass. My fortress collapsed and the walls came tumbling down. Not long after that, God took a hold of my heart, and began transforming me and making me new.

Suddenly, that heart of stone became a heart of flesh, as God gently chiseled away at decades of ambivalence. I went about vulnerable and emotionally naked, having no idea how to live.

I entered this journey and faith feeling unlovable, and God’s people showed me love. I came in with great struggle, yet I was loved. God used that love to free me. Love covers so many things, it transforms, it unites. That love that gave me a feeling of acceptance, must leak beyond the walls of the church building and infect the outside world.

Believers need to be infectious!

We are living in a time of heavy stress. What the world needs now is love. Everyone is struggling and wondering when any semblance of normalcy will return. It is a golden opportunity for those of us in the body of Christ to show the love that mark us as believers of Jesus.

We believers are carriers of the love virus. Sadly, too many of us are asymptomatic. Far too many more have developed antibodies. Love needs to be infectious!

I have been so encouraged as I have seen people put others before themselves, in showing the love of Jesus in the face of trial. People are noticing. If there was a time to be gentle and kind, it is now. Let’s love one another, and let’s love others with a love that is supernaturally inspired by the Holy Spirit.

May it be said that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ by the love we show others. May our behavior stand out in such contrast, that the glory of God shine bright.

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:4-7‬ ‭NASB‬‬

Love never fails!