Love

This weekend, many of the girls from our church's high school group went away for a spiritual retreat. I was blessed enough to be a leader on this weekend away, and even more blessed to be able to teach a bit on the theme: lavishing love. For those of you who weren't able to make it, and for those of you who were there but would like a refresher, here is a recap.

On the first night, I introduced the idea of God lavishing His love on us. We focused on the weekend's key verse, 1 John 3:1 - How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!...etc.

I discussed how difficult it can be for many of us to understand and accept God's love for us. Hoping in God's love often seems like the biggest risk anyone can take, especially if our personal experiences with an earthly father figure have been disappointing and hurtful. But His love for us is true and good. We can count on it. We are His children and He loves us. I finished by asking the girls to spend the weekend loving on one another as an expression of God's love for them.

In the morning, Alison did a devo on loving one another and the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit will be revealed in us through our actions - the way we treat one another. If we possess the fruits, we will treat one another with love. She made a point that love is the first and foremost fruit of the Spirit. Without it, we cannot obtain the other fruits. So we must seek the love of God.

That evening, Kelly took us through the book of 1 John. She did an incredible job first showing us how to study our bibles, then opening our eyes to what 1 John says about God and us. She discussed God's faithfulness and forgiveness. She discussed what God says about sin and led us through a process of recognising and confessing our own sins. The evening was powerful as God stirred the hearts of many.

On Sunday morning, I gave the final talk on how to apply what we've learned to our lives. I discussed the effect we have on one another. A few of the girls shared how being encouraged by one another over the weekend, as I asked them to do on Friday night, made them feel unified and loved. I shared how when we have healthy human relationships we experience the fullness of life.

We looked at 1 John 4:11-12, which discusses how God first loved us, and that is how we love another. But if we do not first recieve God's love, we cannot love one another. There is this mysterious parallel between the amount of love we recieve from God and the amount of love we are able to pour out on others.

We also discussed the definition of love - that it is not a feeling, but an action. Brad Henning, a speaker on sex and relationships, defines love as choosing the highest good (or the best) for the person recieving the love. That could be others, or that could be ourselves. Love is an action - a choice. If you say you love me, I want to see it in your actions. If you say you love God, I want to see it by the way you live your life.

I challenged the girls to decide what priority they want to have in their life. God or themselves. I asked them how their relationship with God is: what are they holding out from God? When we allow God to remove sins and stains in our lives, we are able to recieve and give more of His love. When we refuse His work in us, we are keeping ourselves from experiencing once again the fullness of life.

To recieve God's love, we need to spend time with Him, soak in His Spirit, pray often, listen to what He has to say to us, and read the Word often for it gives life. It often seems hard, but as we challenge ourselves to perservere, we find that we start to crave the scriptures.

Receive God's love. Then go out and pour it on others.