Oh, to Love as Christ

The past few weeks, during my mentoring sessions, I've realized just how incapable I am of loving people the way that Christ loved.

I'm judgmental, analytical, critical, superficial with my relationships...the list could go on. And as these things were running through my head, I thought: I wonder what it would look like, if for one day, I could love, and I mean really love the people around me; friends and family, the strangers that I walk by on the street, the clerk that checks out my items at the grocery store.

My love for people is anything but the love that Christ had for the world; a love that would drive Him to give His life for the very people that were taking it away. A love that would forgive the people who least deserved it.

At many times, human love is one-sided. We expect people to love us, but we aren't so great at loving them back. We're interested in what we can get out of the relationship, rather than being concerned with how well we are loving them.

Galatians 5:22,23 -- the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

All of these things are tangible. They're words that could describe my character. They are things that I could possess. Yet, my heart is so far from them. Note that the first in the list is love. When we learn to love, our lives become rooted in joy and peace. We experience patience in areas that impatience once ran rampant. We choose good over evil. We remain faithful until the end. We are gentle with our words. And our self-control speaks of a character that is disciplined.

Christ was the perfect example of what love is and what it should be.

As we go through our day today, let us pray that God would reveal what that love should look like in our lives. When we come across people who don't deserve to receive our love, let us remember that God chose to love us when we least deserved it. Let us forgive and be forgiven so that love can permeate our relationships to the core. Let our responses be rooted so deeply in the love of Christ that people see Him through us.

It's not an easy feat to love as Christ did, but oh, how beautiful a day it will be when we come to know a fraction of that love.

This is my prayer for you.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Be encouraged. Be blessed.

A.

NEW: Author Blog!

Hey everyone!

As I've taken up writing seriously over the past year, I've decided that it was time to make a blog, devoted to all things writing.

I am currently working on 4 different novels, but have been spending my time on a particular one, more so than the others. The novel is titled All I've Wanted, and I'm very excited about sharing the process with you and seeing where God leads me!

On the blog you will find excerpts to projects that I am working on, ideas that I have thought of, the products of brainstorming, and even the occasional giveaway!

I will still be continuing this blog, but if you were looking to read about a different avenue of my life, then definitely check this out:

http://ayshagerald.blogspot.com

Thank you guys for your support, and I look forward to sharing my work with you!

Blessings,

A.

Comfortable

I think we are becoming too comfortable. No, that's a wrong statement. We have become too comfortable.

We enjoy Christianity from the confines of our homes, while our brothers and sisters across the globe are being persecuted for just believing in the name of Jesus.

I want you to imagine that, right now.

What if, while you were sitting here reading this post, the anti-Christian movement began breaking down your doors, busting out your windows and yelling for you to show yourself. They heard that you were a follower of this Jesus. What do you do? Stand your ground, hold fast to your Bible and subject yourself to torture, prison or even death? Or would you shut down this page, hide your Bible and deny any claims made against you for being a Christian?

This idea may seem far-fetched to you, but this very thing is happening all over the world.

In America, we have chosen the kind of Christianity that we want (if it can even be called Christianity anymore). When Jesus walked this earth, He gave His disciple's very clear instructions on how to live, which down the line, means that we, as declared followers of Christ, have committed to the same thing. Our faith isn't something that can be turned off when we want it to be. It isn't something that we can adhere to from 9-5 and then become our comfortable selves again.

It doesn't work like that.

Those, my friends, are what God calls the lukewarm.

Revelation 3:15,16 -- I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Hear me: WE WILL NOT BE GRANTED THE FREEDOM TO BE  LUKEWARM MUCH LONGER.

In our fallen world, we don't need comfortable Christians. We need passionate, praying, persevering followers of Jesus Christ.

This isn't a game.

This is war.

Blessings,

A.

This Fragile Breath

Genesis 2:7 — The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

This idea of being but a fragile breath has been on my mind for the past couple days. Only when we are confronted with life-altering situations, do we realize that we are but a vapor on this earth.

This verse from Genesis, I feel, not only speaks to the creation of mankind, but also to remind us of our humanity. We came from the ground and to the ground one day we will return. It’s important to remember that God has blessed us with life, but that everything on this earth is changing, morphing and unstable. It is only when we realize our frail humanity and choose to put that life back in the hands which formed it, that we can find rest and peace in our souls.

Acts 17:24-28 — The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ (Italics added)

We were created by God and for God. He has given us the breath of life, in order that we may glorify His name with our very breath. He has appointed our times to be born and to die, and has mapped out where each of us will live. Every aspect of our lives have been intertwined with the very plan of God. It is my prayer that you would not forget that. We were formed and fashioned by the Master Potter’s hands. He molded and sculpted each of us, and in that, He ingrained a specific life for each of us.

It is very difficult to come to terms with our own mortality and humanity, but you can rest assured that not a single moment of your life is outside of the knowledge of the Lord.

John 10:28 — I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

Although we are dust and a fragile breath in the winds of this world, there is no wind strong enough to cast us out of our loving Father’s hands.

Blessings,

A.