This morning I sat down in the family room to watch my grandchildren while my daughter went to the store. As I sat there looking at them I decided to call the one little boy, who always seem to get in trouble, over to me and asked him for a hug. I said “Grammy needs a hug from you”. He looked at me with an look of “why, what did I do?”. I pulled him to me and kissed his forehead and told him “Grammy loves you so much”. He looked up at me for a couple seconds and then replied, “I love you too”.
Now you may say “what’s so special about that?” well, two things come to mind:
- Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, have to learn to be intentional about giving these little people hugs and kisses for no other reason than “we just love them”. You can look all around us and see the effects of little people (now adults) who did not get hugs, kisses, affirmation or anything. The lack of this genuine affection, tend to develop low self-esteem and the propensity to gravitate to anything good or bad that would give attention – usually to the extreme.
- I was reminded of the love I have for God and recalled an experience I had during a night of prayer and intercession. I was leading the prayer in a gathering and when I got up off my knees, I was so overwhelmed with the love of God and I said to myself “God, I love you so much. I wish I could put my arms around you”; knowing that was impossible because God is Spirit. You have to understand that when we try to relate our love to God, we only know how to do so by the way we relate love to each other. As I spoke that in my spirit, the Spirit of the Lord spoke back to me. He said, you can’t put your arms around me but you can go to your sister or brother and put your arms around them and hug the God in them. WOW!! That statement astounded me because my mind quickly began to judge who had God in them (the flesh/carnal mind) and I had to rebuke that spirit of judgment that wanted to rise up. Thank God, however, I immediately got busy and started walking around the church to everybody, then I shared that revelation with the entire body that was gathered, everyone was blessed and God was exalted.
This brings me back to the title of this blog. Do you really love HIM – God, that is? If we really love Him, we must show it to those who we see everyday. The scriptures tell us that we are made in HIS image. All humankind is made in the image of God. We may not all act like the real thing (God), but we all are in HIS image. Those who do not have this revelation will only begin to draw closer to receiving this revelation as we, who understand who we are, begin showing others by how we love them.
You say, there are some folks who are unlovable. It could be that they have never been shown love, therefore do not know how to give it nor receive it. Consider the common story told about the mean dog who brought terror to everyone and because everyone feared him and thought him to be a mean old dog, no one did anything for him. They shunned him, went the other way when they say him, ran from him and anything to keep from coming in contact with him. Then one day someone decided that he could not be that mean. He began throwing him food, from a distance – everyday, until the dog started looking for him everyday around the same time. In a short time, the dog allowed the man to draw closer and closer to him until finally, he was able to pat the dog on his head with no adverse repercussion. The moral of the story, love conquers all.
As Christians, we must not shun away from the undesirable, the mean spirited, or find ways to avoid those who do not look like us, dress like us or even think like us. Be kind, show love and above all if we are consistent we will be able to draw close enough to really make an impact on their lives. Of course, none of this will happen if we don’t really love HIM. Let’s look at a scripture - 1 John 4:20 “If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
If you read this and feel that you are not there yet, it is alright. This just give us another measure to strive for in our spiritual walk with God. The thing that is so wonderful about our God is that we are not held accountable for what we do not know. However, once knowledge comes to you, it is our responsibility to begin allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into those truths. Then, if we know to do good and do not do it – to us, it is SIN.
May the Lord bless you as we all strive to reach another level in Christian maturity.
Be blessed!
Pastor Orean Cosby
Mashiyach Ministries
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