Weapons of Our Warfare - Love

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-7

Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself. MATTHEW 19:19

Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised.
SONGS OF SOLOMON 8:7

LOVE

Love is a choice not so much a feeling. Yes there are many emotions involved with love but love in itself is a conscious decision to care, have compassion, feel concern for the welfare of another as you would your own, to think of the need of another person before you own. (My definition)

This is the last part of the weapons of our warfare series and it is about LOVE, brotherly love to be specific. Jesus told His disciples to love one another and by this they would be known as His disciples.

Where there is love, there is forgiveness and there is no room for contention or division. Peter tells us to love one another fervently because love covers a multitude of sins. It’s kind of like having a little brother or sister who is always getting into something but you can’t hold it against them because of the love you have for them. You would do anything to help them out of every mess they get into.

As a weapon, love helps to keep out derision, contention, gossip, hatred, jealousy, lack of sympathy, insincerity, indifference and many others that don’t come to mind right now. Love is the key to a successful church! To walk in love you must know love, to know love, you must know God because God is love. Love soothes, is compassionate, patient, and passionate, rejoices in the victories of others, feels the pain another feels, cries when his brother cries and laughs when his brother laughs.

Love does not seek to hurt anyone by showing out or trying to make him/herself better than anyone else. Love does not look down his/her nose at anyone regardless of their station in society or in the church. Love does not care what you were in the past, but strives to help you become who you were meant to be. Love understands when you slip and fall and need help getting up. Love is always there to help you up and help you through.

Love heals wounds. There are people in the world that are hurting but there are also people in the church who are hurting because they have not allowed love to heal there wounds. To be filled with love for others we must allow love to heal our hearts from betrayal, tragedy, and lies. We must allow God access to every closet in our hearts because He is love! When we do that His love comes rushing into us like a flood!

When I was in the world, I was broken, unloved, unwanted, and in desperate need of love. Then Jesus came and showed me that I could be loved, that I was loved, and that all I had to do was let Him into those dark corners of my heart that needed healing and so I did. Now I just love on people and I love it! There was a sister in our church who used to say that I had the ministry of hugs because I hugged everyone. I don’t know that hugging is a ministry, I highly doubt it, but giving and showing love is a commandment from God and hugging is how I show love; maybe because there was such a lack of it in my life before God that I am moved to demonstrate the love of God in this way.

A church, a Christian, full of the love of God will not allow gossip, contention and strife to take root in their lives or their church. Love will correct, love will forgive, and love will endure. There is a saying that says it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. It was said in a romantic sense but we can apply it to the church as far as never loving at all. A church that does not love cannot reach new levels in the spiritual realm. A church that does not love, I dare to say, does not know God because the bible says if you do not love your brother, you do not love God, therefore you do not know God because God is love.

My beloved brethren, let us strive to walk in love. To love our neighbor as ourselves. To treat our parents with honor and respect for that pleases God. King Solomon said that many waters could not quench love or drown it! Love is profound and deep. When we make a conscious decision to love our brothers and sisters, regardless of their faults, regardless of their attitudes, regardless if they love us in return or not, we are saying that we know who our Father is and that we are filled with His love. We are telling the enemy, “you cannot come against us with hatred, envy, contention and strife and prevail because we are filled with the love of God and we WILL love our brothers and sisters, neighbors and strangers, as ourselves because our King is love itself and He alone has dominion over our lives!” We are telling the devil that we love ourselves as well as our neighbors because God loved us first! Praise God!!!!

WALK IN LOVE MY BRETHREN! USE THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE THAT ARE MIGHTY THROUGH GOD TO TEAR DOWN STRONGHOLDS TO DEFEAT THE ENEMY’S PLANS FOR YOUR LIFE, YOUR FAMILY, AND YOUR CHURCH!!

God bless you!