Our Hope for Transformation is Found Where Love Abounds

I never knew the transforming power of love until God’s transformation taught me how to love myself.

For most of my life, I felt guarded.  No one gave me a reason. Sure, I’ve experienced rejection and betrayal and plenty of times when I’ve been left out.

But my protective boundaries were built by my own hands due to how I chose to respond to the world and how I chose to perceive the messages offered by everyone else.

Everyone hopes for a transformation.

Isn’t that why we become Christians? At some point, we decided our lives were broken beyond repair and realized there was nothing we could do in our own human strength to fix the problems.

We grabbed the grace of God by the handfuls, thankful for the opportunity for a brand new start.

But how often have we tried helping the transformation?

How often do we desire a spiritual transformation while still holding false securities from the past we’ve already deemed as broken?

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment,  that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9-10

Where Love Abounds

I couldn’t fix my issues or persuade myself to love me for me. Nor could I expect God’s help if I wasn’t first willing to let go of everything I had tried on my own.

My assumptions, ideas, and false identity create conflict within God’s truth. [tweetable]

The truth of a transformation comes from the love which we’ve accepted from God.

We can never transform ourselves. Rather, God’s powerful love provides the agent to change us from the inside out–a miraculous transformation within our hearts.

God’s perfect love is the tie that binds –binding us first to the Father through the work of Jesus Christ, and then binding us to others through the working of the Holy Spirit.

Love is the first gifting of spiritual knowledge. It gives us the power to see beyond the boundaries of the natural to empower us as His people.

The more our love abounds, the clearer we see the truth of the gospel and God as Himself. The greater we allow this love to grow and transform us, the more we:

-Discriminate

Love separates right from wrong.  It filters misconceptions about God, other people, and ourselves. Love grows to increase our understanding of who God is and clarify the responsibility within our calling.

Love separates selfish motives from Christian duty. As love abounds, we become centered within who we are in Christ. This transformation tears away deep-rooted strongholds and pulls away prejudices, enabling us to view the real needs of others.

-Appreciate

Love values what is good.  The more love abounds within us, the more we see the good within everyone else.

The more we appreciate the work He did for us through the cross, the more work He can do within us. When we continue daily in this process, His work is then transformed through us as service to the rest of the world.

We are transformed through the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). This renewal can only be rooted in the perfect love of Jesus Christ.

God’s transformation begins within His love– a perfect love freeing us to love ourselves until transforming into an even greater love for everyone else.

 Have you experienced the transforming power of God’s love?

What have you learned or experienced through His abounding love?

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