Last week I woke up in the middle of the night and I heard a voice repeating the same thing over and over again. It was a quiet but insistent voice and as I lay there waiting for something else it never came; just the same thing over and over. When I realized that it was the Lord speaking to me I asked Him what it meant but for the longest time He just kept repeating the same thing.
I decided to go back to sleep and think about it in the morning but that didn’t work. So I began to try and figure out what He meant… Love To Live – Live To Love!
After what seemed like a long time He began to tell me that there are many of His bride that Love To Live in Him. They love the security of His salvation and the blessings that He pours out upon them; they love that He loves them. But they fail to Live To Love others as He does and as He has commanded them to.
As I thought about that He boiled it all down to the singular reason He set aside His divinity and came down here to live among us… Redemption; the Gospel; the Good News.
Yes, it’s easy for us to Love To Live because He has given us life, but we so often neglect to Live To Love by sharing the Gospel with others and making disciples. We so often make it a one sided relationship when that’s not what He desires. We have been given the message of hope to carry into a hopeless world and the only way to deliver that message is to Live To Love.
I stayed awake the rest of the night pondering that statement and it’s simplicity. I thought about Paul’s words to the Galatians:
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
And to the Corinthians:
2 Cor 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
That really is the “simple” message we have been given, and to let the enemy “bewitch” us into failing to “obey” that message is to fail in our “reasonable service” (Rom 12:1). We truly are to be a living sacrifice, and in making that sacrifice we are commanded to Live To Love (Matt 22:37-40).
Yes, it’s a simple message and yet it’s a challenge for us to obey. Well, our bridegroom had that figured out ahead of time and He made provision for our weakness…
Zech 4:6 6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
Three little words say it all. We are fully equipped to Live To Love… By My Spirit.