Growing in Love
Devotion 13 – Growing in Love
The most important aspect of spiritual growth in our personal life
is to grow in the love of God – loving God and loving people. But very often,
we tend to concentrate on the 'What and How’ to do ministry more effectively but
are not mindful that the 'Why' actually determines both the success and the
eternal impact of our ministry.
The Scriptures caution us that it is possible to do ministry
without the pure motivation of love for God even when in sharing the Good news
of the Gospel.
Phil.1:15-17 - “Some indeed preach Christ even from
envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former
preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely,
supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of
love…”
We are also warned that everything that is not done out of the
motivation of love will be consumed in the light of eternity (1Cor.3:1-3;
3:12-15). None of us wants to waste our time in doing something for years and
find out in eternity that all the work is considered nothing because our
motivation was for self-glory, self-sustenance, etc.
If we are feeling frustrated, irritated, burned out and depressed
in ministry, then something is not right. We probably have lost our equilibrium and the
only way to restore it is to get back into the love of God.
Growing in Love Through Giving Love
Jn.15:1-6 – “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every
branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and
every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may
bear more fruit… 4 Abide in Me, and I
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the
vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine; you are the
branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather
them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”
When we think of judgment,
we usually associate it with sin. However, in this passage, we are warned that
judgment can come even through an unfruitful life. However, the good news is,
bearing fruit is not our responsibility, only abiding is. In this passage, Jesus provides us the
methodology for all the commandments to be fulfilled in Him. In fact, all the
commandments of Christ and of the righteous principles of the Bible are
possible only in the following manner:
1. We must be in Him – Receiving
2. We must grow in Him – Abiding
3. We must bear fruit in Him – Giving
“Being” comes before “growing”, which will
then lead to “doing”; and everything must be done in Him. We must be in His
love, grow in His love before we can love as He loved. We must be in His life,
grow in His life before we can serve through Him. So, the progress will always
be in cycles of being, growing and doing.
Jesus gave us the commandment “love one
another as He loved us” because this is the ultimate purpose of receiving His
love and life. We who have discovered
His love through grace must not stop at the receiving level, we must grow and
progress until we are so full of His love that we start giving out His love
through our lives.
This giving out of His love through us can
begin in small ways through our caring and serving. As we are faithful, our
giving will increase until every thought, every inspiration, every purpose in
our life is just purely filled with desires and intentions to find more and
more ways to give of our lives to others.
Acts 20:35 – “Remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed
to give than to receive’”.
The world measures success by how much we have
received and acquired, but God measures success by how much we give. For that
reason, the poor widow can be more blessed than the rich Pharisees because she
(in terms of percentage) gave much more.
This principle does not just apply to
finances alone, but it applies to every area of life. As we forgive, we receive
forgiveness. As we love, we experience love. As we help, we receive help. As we
teach, we are taught by the Lord. As we bless others, we are blessed. We can
even go as far as to say, it is more blessed to love than to be loved – for to
be loved is to be like a child of God but to love is to be like God Himself. And
it is never possible to out-give God, and never possible to out-love God; for
when we love, the measure of love will always be measured back to us and we
never run out of love.
To the measure in which you are willing to surrender
your whole life, that is the measure He will take your life and pour His love
into you. Thus, if we want to grow more in Him, we will have to give more of
ourselves to Him and to others through His love. The more we give of ourselves,
the more we will increase and grow in Him.
However, do not overdo it beyond our
conscience or the measure of our faith, but gradually increase the giving of
our love and of our life, measure by measure.
1 Tim.1:19 – “having faith and a good conscience, which some
having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck…”
Do not overstretch ourselves but rather,
like the branch on the vine, just grow steadily with each fruiting and pruning
season. Growth is achieved in step by step incremental amounts. Remember, our
doing must always come from our receiving and abiding.
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