Hosanna Restoration Church

Love is a personal thing. It is patient, kind, and all that we know from Corinthians and it is required for life. How we give love and how we receive it and what we demand of love are all things that must grow in. We can love to the best of our ability and it may not be enough. We can demand more and more until people give up trying. In every instance, Jesus points us to a perfect way. Just love like he loves us and like His Father loves Him and now us because we love Him.
Oh how I desire to love Him perfectly. He told us how and who to love in order to love Him perfectly, but I have to be honest and say that I often fail miserably. I am so thankful that He always forgives and redirects and corrects and never stops loving me perfectly. It is always a good day when we do a love check.
A relationship gets personal when love is present. That is why it is so important that our relationship with Jesus is personal. I was trying to imagine the day that Jesus went into the city headed for crucifixion. I was trying to imagine being there as one of His followers and hearing Him say that He was going to be leaving. Dying and leaving. Even though He said He was coming back; He was leaving!
Then I considered if He told me this morning in prayer that He was leaving me. I would say, but you promised you never would! I would quote Him scripture. I would do anything to keep Him from leaving me. Just the thought is more than I want to spend much time with. But that is what the disciples were dealing with that week.
And then, everything just started going downhill. Every time He should have put a stop to it; He didn’t. He could have stopped it, but he just let it go. At the time, it sure did not look like love. There are times in our lives, when it sure does not look like love. It does not look like God is even in the neighborhood; but He is. We know He is. These are the times when we can grow in love. These are times when we can grow in trust. These are personal times. They are times when we give up on having to understand and learn how to just be held.
Do you remember when you did not know Jesus? Do you remember when what you did know really did not matter all that much? Do you remember when that changed and how glad you are that it did?
Now imagine people not knowing that love. Those are the people that Jesus told us to love as He has loved us. That is why He went to the cross; to show us love that we could show to others. Yes. It is time to get personal. It is time to love as we have been loved. God loves you.