Abounding Love

 

 

Someone told a friend of mine, “Lavon is the same old girl on Monday morning as she is on Sunday.” What a compliment. I have been accused of being a put-on. You know, I run around acting silly, greeting and kissing everyone.

 But one time I was having a pity party. “Father, I am always the one who says hello first, who hugs first, who wants to have a conversation. Just once, I wish someone would come looking for me and want to know how I am and want a hug. I am tired of always being the greeter.”

God replied, “You think this loving personality is just you, and, yes, I made you that way, but do you remember? You prayed ‘God, love people through me. Help me love everyone, even the unlovable person.'” God said, “I have answered your prayer.”

That Sunday, Donna Young came up to me as I walked through the front door of the church and hugged me first. “You just look like you need a hug this morning.”

Sometimes when I look at a person, love wells up inside me, like when you hold a precious newborn baby. You smile into that sweet face, and hold her in your arms, and love overflows out of your heart.

Phil 1:9 says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more.”Father God, draw your people together with cords of love that cannot be broken. Let us love the unlovable, the sinner, the unsaved person. Let us love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Let nothing ever come between us to separate us from each other.

Father, I pray this prayer for everyone who would be reading this. I pray that their love may abound yet more and more. Even when we are not in the same physical church on earth, remind us that we are all members of the church of Jesus Christ our Lord, along with those church members who have gone on to the church in heaven or those who have gone to another physical church on earth.

Bind us together in love. Amen.