Devo July 11 Agape Love

Yesterday we talked about some steps necessary to put on God's love in order to replace our negative spirit with the loving one. Now let's talk about what kind of love this is exactly. The word "love" is cheap these days. It means almost nothing anymore. I can't even commit to a new hairstyle as often as other people commit to new "loves". Why? Because love in our society is a temporary feeling at best. Ask any foster child what they think love means and you'll gain a whole new definition of the word. In our house, you cannot just say "I love you" to a child, you have to follow that with another love language to show it. Wordly love is a cheap throw-away item.
The love used in Scripture is not. The term used in Scripture is Agape and it means a selfless kind of love, a putting you before me kind of love. Think of the last few times you told someone you loved them. Now, was that based on habit, a feeling, a response to what they did for you or because you were putting them before you? If you were to list qualities of the person you love the most, would you write down things that benefit you such as how they love you or how they make you feel? It's not wrong to love to be loved. We all love that! We all need that! God knows we need it and that's why He pours it out so abundantly! However, our relationships are suffering because we are trying to feel that void from each other rather than God. WE must love others with Agape love and allow God to fill us with the same.
I am terribly guilty of this. My husband was the person who taught me about real love, the kind of love you can trust. I had walked away from God and all things connected with Him. He used my husband to soften my heart and show me love was an actual thing. I came to understand God's love because of my husband's love for me. It is so easy to just fall back into those beginning years and expect his love to be all that fills me up and have inward expectations that he should be all the love I need. God used him like Moses to guide me to the place I needed to be freed from, not be a replacement for God Himself. We so often get that confused! Those expectations hurt our marriages, friendships, and every other relationship!
So why is it important that love be the ultimate replacement of that negative habit? Let's look 1 John 4:7-13

 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 

And just in case that isn't enough here's some extras
Romans 13:8
2 Corinthians 5:13-14
Colossians 2:2
1 Peter 4:8
Galatians 5:13
Romans 8:37
1 Corinthians 13:13
1 Corinthians 13:1
Everything Jesus said
Everything in the Bible
That should pretty much sum up the importance of why we should act in love instead of negative, selfish attitudes in case you weren't convinced.
The truth is, we have a mission here on earth and it has nothing to do with us. We cannot glorify God nor live out His will if we are constantly serving ourselves and thinking solely of ourselves. It's the serving 2 masters thing all over again. When we practice Agape love, we are putting ourselves aside and loving others the way God loves. We are saying "God you are in control and I trust you. I know that you are perfectly capable of taking care of me so I will focus on taking care of what you set before me to do. Your will be done, my wants be none". We seek Him first and continuously. That's what changes everything. That's what turns the world on its head. Be prayerful over this change of heart and spirit. Let us learn to love in such a way that all people will know us for HIS love.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35