12. Expressed…
Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Psalm 85:10
Have you thought about how something great only achieves its greatness when it is expressed? How the power that is within something is brought out when it is coupled with something else?
Salt, for example. When it is in the box or the jar it has the potential to flavour a meal, preserve, heal. It is absolutely and completely all that salt can be, but it needs to be added to a meal to flavour; mixed with meat to preserve; applied to a wound to heal. Its power to enhance is unleashed by bringing it together with something else.
So it is with love – alone it is complete, perfect, but it must be expressed through other things such as faithfulness to bring the power to change lives. God’s love is like salt – it works through other things to unleash its power. Paul writes of this in 1 Corinthians 13 when he couples together love and patience, love and kindness, love and trust, love and hope, etc. We’ll explore this amazing love chapter later in this series.
Let’s look at how the coupling of love with other attributes of God works…
You are going through a tough time at work with several looming deadlines. God’s love comes through his faithfulness to you and will go the distance with you and see you through to the end of this busy time.
We all go through difficult times when we feel that we are being treated unfairly by a family member, a friend. We struggle to cope yet God’s love expressed through his righteousness will bring change to how we can move through the situation.
Going through a diagnosis of cancer threw my life into an absolute turmoil, everything was being thrown at me and I had no space to recover. In the middle of it all I felt God’s love given through his great compassion and the peace he brought into my heart.
Maybe the issue is one of sin in our lives. God’s love shown through his mercy and forgiveness is there for us every time when we come to him and confess.
Do you see? Love is the flavourer, the preserver, the healer in our lives when it works together with God’s other attributes. Restoration can take place, balance returns, we are healed.
Prayer: Lord, may I feel your love expressing itself to me as I walk through my day. Your faithfulness, your righteousness, your peace flowing from that love through me giving me healing and restoration.
Amen
Action: Today, go into your day in the sure knowledge that God loves you and that his love will be expressed through his faithfulness, his righteousness, his peace, and so much more. Then consider how you might let that love flow through you to others as you express it in what you say, what you do.
Journal your thoughts…
