JanBeek

Loving Takes Effort

I wrote this post back in February of 2012 as a new blogger. I decided today would be a good day to revive and update it, because it is as pertinent today (maybe even more pertinent) as it was eight years ago!

Work at Loving!

Like you, I want to be more kind, more loving, more at peace. In giving, we receive. Kindness is reciprocal. Peace of mind is a gift to those who live in the fullness of LOVE. But, in a world full of hate and devisiveness, illnesses like depression and the current Corona Virus, we have to work at loving and finding peace!

Very few of us have the privilege of finding a spot like this one where we can sit quietly at the top of a peaceful place and just breathe the clear air slowly.

Where can we find peace in the midst of our bustling real world?

Work to Find Time to Know Him

I schedule TIME each morning to be with the Holy Spirit. In my quiet meditation time that morning back in 2012, I stumbled upon 2Peter 1:2-7. The question that starts that scripture caught my heart. “Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace?”

I was reading the Living Bible, paraphrased – a large print copy that used to belong to my father-in-law. Gratefully, I inherited it when he passed on to his eternal home. This passage was underlined. Grandpa Beekman had double-underlined the next sentence, “Then learn to know Him better and better.”

Meditation and Study Time

My sanctuary time each morning is all aboutgetting to know Him better, and listening for His still small voice. As I study God’s Word, and get to know Him better, there are many benefits. The rest of this passage spells them out – and I easily connected the idea of “increased faith” with the reality of “increased love.” But there is a long pathway that leads to increased love (which equates to more of God’s kindness and peace). It takes plain old good, hard work!

2Peter 1:3
“For as you know Him better,
He will give you, through His great power,
everything you need for living a truly good life:
He even shares His own glory
and His own goodness with us!”

Study to Know His Goodness and His Promises

I have added the capitals to “His.” The Bible doesn’t capitalize it. For me, the word requires a capital case letter when the him/his is not just any old him or his, but the One HIM, our Lord and Savior, God. So, when I share in His glory and goodness, it is special indeed! The scripture doesn’t stop there, though.

2Peter 1, Verse 4-
“And by that same mighty power,
He has given us all the other
rich and wonderful blessings He promised;
for instance, the promise to save us
from the lust and rottenness all around us,
and to give us His own character.”

Wow! What a promise!! How can I attain such blessings? Some would say it is totally by His grace. I don’t have to DO anything. Just because I BELIEVE I am His “chosen,” I will receive all these blessings. Well, not according to 2Peter 1: 5-7. Read on!

Work at Increased Faith

“BUT, to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what He wants you to do.”

(That’s always a trick to discern what He wants me to do!)

With Patience, Put Aside Your Own Desires

“Next, learn to put aside your own desires
so that you will become patient and godly,
gladly letting God have His way with you.”

I am reminded of my oldest grandson, Mikey.
He’s now 28, but when he was barely able
to pull himself up by his mother’s apron strings
and stand knee-high next to her,
he would tug on that apron
as she warmed his bottle in hot water on the stove.
Sure he was starving to death,
he would cry,
“Paaaay-shuns! Paaaay-shuns!”

(Ah yes, we long for paaay-shuns
even as we are barely able to verbalize a sentence!)

Walk the Path to Grow in the Capacity to Love

“This will make possible the next step,
which is for you to enjoy other people
and to like them,
and finally you will grow
to love them deeply.”

Grow to love.
Grow in faith.
Work at it.

Take the path that has “exercise stops” along the way.

• Exercise your goodness first – the goodness Christ has given you.
• Then stop to exercise wisdom – the knowledge we gain as we study God’s Word and practice being more and more like Christ.
• Next, exercise selflessness and self-control, the fruits that the Holy Spirit has planted in you.
• Practice patience and gentleness.
• Your next stop on the exercise trail is labeled “Gratitude.” It is there that you learn to be grateful for the gifts you have been given while you focus on the gifts in others.

Put On Your Jesus Glasses

When you put on your Jesus glasses, you see the goodness, compassion, and faithfulness of others as God sees them. When you put on your Jesus glasses and appreciate all that is unique and wonderful about others, you see them as God’s creations. You have exercised enough now to love them.

Love Takes Effort!

Love is a gift worth working for. Thank God, He has freely loved us long before we knew how to love Him back. But now we do! We are getting to know God better and better. Praise the Lord!

The Bottom Line

Yes, the bottom line is the key:

Love One Another.

What will you do today to demonstrate your love for others?
Tell me about it!