Love always

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you...Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back...Love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return...Be merciful even as your Father is merciful...forgive and you will be forgiven...each tree is known by its own fruit. -Luke 6:27-28,30,35-36,37,44

Our hearts are so fragile. Our hearts are the center from where we are meant to live, move, and have our being. I think that sometimes we are going to be one individual that is exempt from pain. Somewhere in my heart, I sometimes fail to recognize that if I love much it is from God, but it also means that I have the capacity to hurt much. Because love suffers long, bears all things, and endures all things. (I Corinthians 13:4,7). Love never stops and it never gives up. On my own, I am incapable of loving at all. I just am because it is God who is love. He alone is able to teach us how to love. 

This past weekend, I learned that very difficult but beautiful lesson. Jesus showed me a deeper place of His heart of what it truly means to love. I have now been back in Savannah for almost a year. The Lord called me back here to minister to my family for the next 2 years and to rekindle our relationships, etc. Honestly, many days, I fail to love them the way they should be loved. But God is growing me and teaching me along the way. This past weekend, I went to visit my sister at her college. It was honestly one of the best times we've had together. But there was a night where deep issues of the heart were brought to the surface. And without getting into detail, it was HARD. There just wasn't any way around it. I learned once again how precious, fragile, and difficult intimacy is. We're supposed to learn it out of a place in the Father's heart, but many of us "learn" what intimacy "supposedly" is from the world around us. And so, we then, in turn, falter in the relationships that we have with other individuals.

I guess I feel that I need to encourage you to keep loving. Even when you're discouraged and you feel as if you have nothing left to give, there's always something. Because we have a God with an endless supply of LOVE. An endless supply and He's pouring out for us continually to drink. May you drink deeply from Jesus this week. May you discover more of his goodness and may you lean upon others when you hit trials and difficulties (as well as in your triumphs). I was able to be comforted by Jesus through other individuals who were there for me to pray and to love selflessly. 

The beauty in all of this, is that at the end of it, we are able to look back and see how we've learned to love more deeply than we did before. What a blessing from Jesus! Love y'all!