Drawing from a deep well

The women’s ministry in our church has a ‘sister’ program. We are paired and develop a deeper relationship with one other woman. My ‘sister’ and I had lunch together yesterday. It was a delightful time of sharing, laughing, and enjoying one another’s company.

Christians have a great responsibility to love others. Yesterday was easy, but at times and with some people, this is a challenge. My devotional reading says we fulfill it by understanding our resource, the Holy Spirit. While that is true, I find that I must also deal with the part of me that doesn’t want to do it.

The New Testament is filled with commands to love one another. Jesus said that next to loving God with all our hearts, loving our neighbors is the second greatest commandment. When we do it, the results are wonderful. When we don’t, the consequences are often dire. Lack of love is avoidable.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Peter 1:22-23)

Notice that Peter says I am to purify myself by obedience. Love is not a feeling, or at least might not start out that way. When I am with other people and God tells me things like, “Look out for the interest of others” and “love is not self-seeking” then my primary concern is to obey Him. The reason being is that there are people I don’t find all that interesting, and times when my own sense of need is strong. If loving others means being interested in them and not talking all the time about myself, then I’m going to struggle.

However, God says do it. Doing it is obedience. According to Peter, obedience purifies me. And if I am reading these verses correctly, and others like them, then when my heart is purified by obedience, the love of God will be there. It will be sincere and pour out of my heart, not with my feelings as the source, but with the Holy Spirit as the source.

Peter also adds mention of the new birth, regeneration, in ths context. God, through the power of His Word, has made me a new creation. He has put new life in me, and that life is imperishable and enduring, just as His Word is imperishable and enduring. I can love others in a sustaining and everlasting manner. I just have to get self out of the way.

Before meeting my ‘sister’ for lunch, I was thinking about myself. I’m very busy with my part of preparation for a writer’s conference. I’m teaching a distance learning course. My prayer list is long and some needs are heartbreaking. Also, my husband’s three month blood tests came by fax that morning. His white cell and lymph count (the ones to watch with CLL) are slowly rising, reminding us that we are all terminal. Some days I don’t want to be reminded.

Before I got out of my car in the parking lot, I asked the Lord to help me love my ‘sister’ in whatever way He wanted. He encouraged me to share some of those burdens in a way that was not focused on me. He also used her to encourage me, and gave me things to say that encouraged her. Neither one was self-centered — because God was in the middle of it.

Today, I’m praising Him. My devotional reading says, “Love given is inevitably returned.” For this I am thankful. The burdens are still there, but Christian shared love and fellowship make them seem a lot lighter because the reservoir of God’s love is inexhaustible.