Where Is The Love? by Querci

In my last post All You Need Is Love? I was suggesting that Love is the only appropriate response to any circumstance. The problem is that so many different people use the word “love” in so many different ways that I get confused. 


The kind of love I’m talking about, that I’m saying is “the only appropriate response to any circumstance,” is the "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" that the Bible talks about. 


Now obviously, saying that “God-Is-My-Everything-Love” is the only appropriate response to any circumstance,” looks really good on paper. But, in practice, what does a genuine "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" response look like, and feel like, especially in difficult situations?

What does a genuine "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" response look like?
As Ember and Leaven pointed out, the Bible explains that genuine "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" responses look and feel a certain way. Responses that don’t have the look and feel of "God-Is-My-Everything-Love," may call themselves Love, but they aren’t the genuine "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" responses that the Bible talks about...they are something else.

"God-Is-My-Everything-Love" Responses:

Patient

Kind

Humble

Peaceful

Easygoing

Friendly

Gentle

Encouraging

Build up

Mature

Genuine

Forgiving

Faithful

God focused

Rejoice in truth

"Something Else" Responses:

Impatient

Rude

Arrogant

Quarrelsome

Pushy

Irritable

Rough

Discouraging

Bring down

Childish

Hypocritical

Resentful

Fearful

World focused

Rejoice in “being right”

How do I respond with genuine "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" when I don’t feel it? Sometimes, conforming to the "God-Is-My-Everything-Love" rule, (Whew! I’m going to shorten it to GIMEL for the rest of the post. OK? Thanks), can be a bitter pill to swallow for any number of reasons. Like, if someone is being quarrelsome, I feel as if I ought to defend myself, or my pride, even when the other person isn't listening. Then before I know it, I'm all quarrelsome too! ...especially when I’m grumpy, or afraid, or something.

What do I do then? I suck it up and do it anyway! It’s more important for me to respond with GIMEL than it is for me to feel comfortable. I don’t have to want to respond with GIMEL, but I do it, nevertheless, because that’s how I get to learn more about God. It's the way God has told us that he wants us to respond, and it’s my job to listen. 


What if I make a mistake and respond with “Something Else” instead of GIMEL?” I suck it up and do what I need to do to make things right on my part because that’s how I get to return to a GIMEL state of mind and learn more about God. It’s the way God has told us that he wants us to respond, and it’s my job to listen.


Sometimes at first, I find certain people so irritating that the only reason I’m even willing to try responding with GIMEL is out of faith that doing so will teach me something new about God. 


The cool thing is that eventually, as the new pieces of the puzzle become more clear to me, the GIMEL response is not so hard anymore, because I see that the new pieces are so awesome that they overshadow whatever it was that used to irritate me so much.

If you haven't tried it already, give it a shot! It's pretty wonderful!